THE SUBSTITUTE WIFE, Book One HARRISON . . . Once his fortune in silver mining is secured, Harrison Carter finally sends back home for his fiancée. It's been four years since he's seen Jenny. But it's Retta Pierce, Jenny's sister, who arrives by stagecoach with young daughter Adeline in tow. When she brings devastating news and a written plea from Jenny to marry and care for Retta and little Addie, what's a good man to do? RETTA . . . Fulfilling her dying sister's request, Retta travels across dangerous territory to marry a man she barely remembers. But the hard miner who meets her at the stagecoach surely isn't the same one her sister claimed was kind and honorable, a gentleman who'll embrace her and her daughter as if they were his own. Has she made a mistake she'll pay for, the rest of her life? TWO PEOPLE . . . Thrown together in shared sorrow, Harrison and Retta struggle to forge a life in the brand-new state of late-nineteenth-century Colorado.

CAT . . . Cat Purdue has come a long way from the days when her father used her as partial payment for a gambling debt to a ruthless man. Reacquiring the saloon Father had lost, and turning it into a successful restaurant, is only the beginning of her drive for success. FRANK . . . Unable to reconcile the new, sophisticated Catherine Purdue from the saloon girl he once dallied with and foolishly spurned, Frank Carter finds himself blocking his growing attraction with sharp words and sarcasm. But when the Carters’ old nemesis escapes prison and comes back to Little Creede for vengeance, Frank’s only thought is to protect Cat, as well as his family. A PAIR OF HEARTS . . . Determined to lead separate lives yet bound together by danger and their growing desire, Frank and Cat will leave their mark in the new state of Colorado.

JOSHUA . . . As the Sheriff of Little Creede, Joshua Lang has had his hands full more than once. Protecting his town from a criminal bent on destructive revenge. Keeping the peace when Little Creede grows too fast for its own good during the height of the silver mining boom. Trying to remember a certain beautiful, shy, and sheltered young woman is off-limits because she’s the baby sister of his two best friends. VIVIAN . . . For Vivian Carter, it’s not easy being the younger sister of the Carter brothers, two of the strongest, most honorable men she has ever known. But she’s a grown woman now, ready for a life—and love—of her own. In trying to assert her independence and claim her womanhood, she finds herself stymied by not only her brothers’ overbearing opinions, but the maddening habit Joshua Lang has, of pushing her away just as things between them start to get “interesting.” THE SHERIFF AND THE VIRGIN . . . Everyone seems to be finding love in Little Creede, marrying and building their families. As Colorado grows larger and richer, will Vivian and Joshua find their way to each other?

SAM . . .Samuel “Sam” Singleton has set aside his unsavory past, as a riverboat gambler and sometimes hired gun, to take on employment as security for Knight Gleason’s Gambling Galleria in Little Creede. Sam and Knight go back a ways, and Sam figures he owes Knight for some valuable mentorship. Then he meets a stowaway thief in the Galleria kitchen, and it changes the direction of his life.IZZY . . .Isadora “Izzy” McDougall is on the run from a dangerous family situation. On the road for days, hungry and exhausted, she takes shelter in a desperate bid to find food. Instead, Sam finds her.SAFER, TOGETHER . . .Sam’s never been the nurturing type, but Izzy’s sweetness and innocent bravery touches his heart. He finds himself willing to protect her from her scheming family at any cost, even if it means tying himself down with a wife.BONUS CHRISTMAS IN SILVER COUNTRY (Robert and Maggie’s Story) Robert Blackwood comes to Magnolia Sanders’ rescue when she’s lost in a snowstorm. Taking shelter in an abandoned cabin, he fights his rising desire for the innocent beauty, while trying to keep them alive.