Oklahoma Land Rush

Series · 4 books · 2001-2003

By Carolyn Brown

Books in series

Emma's Folly

2001

Emma Maureen Cummins is fleeing from an overbearing father and the prospect of a loveless marriage in Atlanta, Georgia. She's intrigued by stories of the Oklahoma land rush the previous year, 1889, and buys a train ticket to Oklahoma. After all, that's where the excitement is. Trouble arises the moment she steps inside the general store in Guthrie, coming face to face with the sheriff, who has received a telegram to be on the lookout for a tall blond from Georgia. Jed Thomas just came to town to buy supplies for his homestead. The sheriff asked a strange lady a question just as she begins mouthing the words, "Help me, please," in Jed's direction. In half an hour Jed was married to the woman and wondering just how in the world it had all come about. They're married on paper only but slowly come to realize through daily living, arguments, and compromises that they've fallen in love. However, Jed doesn't think a blue-eyed Southern belle could ever really love a dirt farmer like him. And Emma thinks Jed will always love Anna Marie, the woman with whom he almost had an agreement before he married her.

Violet's Wish

2002

Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. Violet did. After her husband died, she swore off lackluster men and a dull life. She wished for someone to put a sparkle in her eyes and excitement in her life, like an old love did year ago in Blue Ridge, Texas. Little did she realize that when she made the wish it was already in the process of being granted. Orrin Wilde did. He wished he’d never chose the lure of the gold mines over the love of his life. But his sins are coming back, screaming for payment. Four bandits follow Orrin for days and finally catch up with him outside of Guthrie, in Oklahoma Indian Territory. He tries to outrun them, when they wing him. He rides down Main Street and, unable to find a doctor, he crawls up on the porch of the last house in town. Violet hears the thud when he falls and finds him bleeding and unconscious on her front porch. If Violet had been doing the shooting, Orrin would be graveyard-dead. Eight years before, he ruined her reputation; now, he was ruining it again. Orrin still loves Violet, but after the trouble down in Texas she refuses to trust him. Suddenly they wonder why they ever made such crazy wishes after all. Will they ever find forgiveness in their hearts for past mistakes and go on to a love-filled future?

Maggie's Mistake

2002

Maggie vowed to never marry a man who can’t laugh or dance, but when she and the dull new doctor in town, Everett Dulanis, wind up spending the night together in an abandoned dugout house, all that changes. Her father is the best man and his shotgun is the bridesmaid at the wedding where a union has been made, but there’s certainly no unity. Everett was engaged to Carolina Prescott, a southern lady in Atlanta, Georgia. But that, too, comes to an end when he awakes with nothing but a blanket around him and the cold barrel of a shotgun pressed against his forehead. Maggie, simple-minded and fun-loving, is as far removed from what he wants and needs in a wife as a hog straight from the wallow. Even though he keeps protesting that nothing happened in that dugout shack, he has no choice but to marry the woman. Somewhere in the middle of undoing the knot that had been tied by mistake, Maggie and Everett find they’ve fallen in love and don’t want to end their marriage. But will either of them ever admit it?

Just Grace

2003

Grace Benjamin Listen was just trying to rescue a poor helpless kitten. She certainly didn’t plan on falling out of the tree and landing on Dodsworth’s newest resident, Dr. Gatlin O’Malley—breaking her arm and wounding her pride in the fall. Gatlin only arrived from Atlanta, Georgia, the week before. In Atlanta, he’d barely escaped a bad marriage to a southern belle, but Gatlin had learned from his lesson. The only way he would ever look at another woman was if an angel fell from heaven. He wondered if God listened in on his thoughts that morning when Grace Listen fell out of the skies, knocking him off his horse and into a pile of fresh, warm horse manure. But on second thought he figured if Grace truly fell from Heaven, it was because she’d been kicked out for her sassiness. Every time they look at each other from that day, tempers flare and sparks ignite. She’s just going in to get her broken arm checked when the Bonney Boy’s Gang take her and the new doctor hostage. The two of them wind up on the top of a snow-covered mountain in New Mexico Territory for three weeks, together. What can go wrong-does. What shouldn’t go wrong—does. What is impossible—happens. It takes a lot to make them both wake up and realize they were meant for each other and even more to finally say the words written so deeply on their hearts.

Author

Carolyn Brown

Author · 135 books

Hi! I'm twenty five years old and movie star gorgeous. The camera added thirty plus years and a few wrinkles. Can't trust those cameras or mirrors either. Along with bathroom scales they are notorious liars! Honestly, I am the mother of three fantastic grown children who've made me laugh and given me more story ideas than I could ever write. My husband, Charles, is my strongest supporter and my best friend. He's even willing to eat fast food and help with the laundry while I finish one more chapter! Life is good and I am blessed! Reading has been a passion since I was five years old and figured out those were words on book pages. As soon as my chubby little fingers found they could put words on a Big Chief tablet with a fat pencil, I was on my way. Writing joined reading in my list of passions. I will read anything from the back of the Cheerio's box to Faulkner and love every bit of it. In addition to reading I enjoy cooking, my family and the ocean. I love the Florida beaches. Listening to the ocean waves puts my writing brain into high gear. I love writing romance because it's about emotions and relationships. Human nature hasn't changed a bit since Eve coveted the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Settings change. Plots change. Names change. Times change. But love is love and men and women have been falling in and out of it forever. Romance is about emotions: love, hate, anger, laughter... all of it. If I can make you laugh until your sides ache or grab a tissue then I've touched your emotions and accomplished what every writer sets out to do. I got serious about writing when my third child was born and had her days and nights mixed up. I had to stay up all night anyway and it was very quiet so I invested in a spiral back notebook and sharpened a few pencils. The story that emerged has never sold but it's brought in enough rejection slips to put the Redwood Forest on the endangered list. In 1997 Kensington bought two books for their Precious Gems line. Two years and six books later the line died with only four of those books seeing publication. But by then Avalon had bought a book and another, and another. Ten years later the list has grown to thirty nine. Last year Sourcebooks bought the Lucky Series which is in the bookstores now. They've also bought The Honky Tonk Series which will debut with I LOVE THIS BAR in June and will be followed by HELL, YEAH, MY GIVE A DAMN'S BUSTED, and HONKY TONK CHRISTMAS. Folks ask me where I get my ideas. Three kids, fifteen grandchildren, two great grandchildren. Note: I was a very young grandmother! Life is a zoo around here when they all come home. In one Sunday afternoon there's enough ideas to keep me writing for years and years. Seriously, ideas pop up at the craziest times. When one sinks its roots into my mind, I have no choice but to write the story. And while I'm writing the characters peek over my shoulder and make sure I'm telling it right and not exaggerating too much. Pesky little devils, they are! I have a wonderful agent, Erin Niumata, who continues to work magic and sell my work. I'm very lucky to have her and my editors who continue to believe in me. Happy reading!