The sensational second novel in Joan Johnston’s Western historical romance series set in the world of Bitter Creek. CAN SECRETS AND SECOND CHOICES EVER LEAD TO LOVE? After three months in a mail-order marriage, Hannah Wentworth McMurtry is a widow—pregnant, alone, and near death in the Wyoming wilderness. Though she is saved by a man with a face cut from stone, she still grieves the husband who died on their journey west. Hannah needs a husband, but does she dare marry another stranger? Flint Creed has also lost someone he loved—when the woman he hoped to marry chose his younger brother instead. Now he must find a ranch wife of his own. But every female in the remote Wyoming Territory is too old, too young, or already married . . . until he discovers Hannah on the prairie. Flint doesn’t pretend to love her, but he doesn’t tell her he loves another woman, either. Hannah doesn’t pretend to love him, but she doesn’t tell him about the child she carries. Though danger surrounds them on the Wyoming frontier, the greatest threats of all are the secrets within—revelations that could destroy the new life Hannah and Flint have begun to cherish. The passionate Westerns in Joan Johnston’s Bitter Creek series can be enjoyed together or separately, in any order: TEXAS BRIDE • WYOMING BRIDE • MONTANA BRIDE • SINFUL • SHAMELESS • BLACKTHORNE’S BRIDE • SULLIVAN’S PROMISE

Sometimes the right person comes at the worst possible time… Having suffered through the horrors of the Civil War, ex-doctor Thayne Jackson believes he’s the worst possible candidate for marriage. He has chosen, instead, to live a quiet and peaceful life raising his orphaned niece. But when a beautiful young woman with a two-year-old boy shows up injured in his barn, everything changes. Abby Gray has one mission: to get Lloyd back to his father. She must not get distracted by the fact that Thayne is kind and honorable, and she must certainly not dwell on her growing attraction toward him. Once she’s healed, she has to leave. She can’t stay at this ranch and make a life with him and his niece. There’s no “ifs, ands, or buts” about it. Except there’s a ten-year-old matchmaker in their midst who is determined to get the two of them together. And she’ll come up with an assortment of creative ways to do it.

"Dazzling" --Publishers Weekly (starred review) When his mail-order bride arrives from New York, a Wyoming rancher gets more than he bargained for in this first-rate romance from the bestselling Jo Goodman. For fans of Linda Lael Miller and Catherine Anderson. SHE HAS NOWHERE LEFT TO TURN Jane Middlebourne needs a way out. In 1891, life in New York is unforgiving for a young woman with no prospects, especially when her family wants nothing to do with her. So when Jane discovers an ad for a mail-order bride needed in Bitter Springs, Wyoming, she responds with a hopeful heart. HE HAS EVERYTHING TO LOSE Rancher Morgan Longstreet is in want of a wife who will be his partner at Morning Star, someone who will work beside him and stand by him. His first impression of the fair and fragile Jane is that she is not that woman. But when she sets out to prove him wrong, the secrets he cannot share put into jeopardy every happiness they hope to find….

A cowboy through and through, ranch owner Mallory Kirk knows what it means to put in a full day's work. But does his new cowgirl? He has his doubts that Morie Brannt will be able to pull her own weight, even if the petite young woman does seem to have a lot of spirit. As they spar over events at the ranch and a past that threatens their hopes for the future, sparks begin to fly, and Mallory can't help but notice Morie in a new light. But is this tough Wyoming man ready to love?

A Kirkus Best Fiction of 2019 Pick! A cross between Daniel Woodrell and Annie Proulx, Wyoming is about the stubborn grip of inertia and whether or not it is possible to live without accepting oneself. It’s 1988 and Shelley Cooper is in trouble. He’s broke, he’s been fired from his construction job, and his ex-wife has left him for their next door neighbor and a new life in Kansas City. The only opportunity on his horizon is fifty pounds of his brother’s high-grade marijuana, which needs to be driven from Colorado to Houston and exchanged for a lockbox full of cash. The delivery goes off without a hitch, but getting home with the money proves to be a different challenge altogether. Fueled by a grab bag of resentments and self punishment, Shelley becomes a case study in the question of whether it’s possible to live without accepting yourself, and the dope money is the key to a lock he might never find. JP Gritton’s portrait of a hapless aspirant at odds with himself and everyone around him is both tender and ruthless, and Wyoming considers the possibility of redemption in a world that grants forgiveness grudgingly, if at all.

A Stranger In The Family by Patricia McLinn released on Mar 24, 1995 is available now for purchase.

Trail to justice -- Susan Page Davis -- Hearts on the road -- Diana Lesire Brandmeyer -- A wagonload of trouble -- Vickie McDonough.