Home at last? Jace Trent is the definition of unsettled. But it’s a lifestyle he’s beginning to outgrow. So when Layla Dempsey returns home to Cupid’s Bow, Texas, it seems like fate. His best friend’s little sister is all grown up and so are Jace’s feelings for her. Everything changes, though, when he realizes that Layla’s been keeping a secret from him—his six-year-old daughter, Addie. Jace is furious at Layla’s betrayal. He’s missed so much of his daughter’s life! Yet how can he stay mad when a future with Layla and Addie is right in front of him. Jace will do anything to gain Layla’s trust—even pose shirtless in her cowboy fund-raising calendar—because he’s not letting the two of them walk out of his life again.

They’re complete opposites! Life as a traveling physical therapist suits former army medic Ross Taylor. Two weeks in Covenant Falls, Colorado, helping out at an equine therapy program won’t change his desire for freedom. So why does it feel like the whole town is trying to get him to stay—from the veterans at New Beginnings Ranch to the scruffy little dog who adopts him? And then there’s Susan Wall, the beautiful innkeeper he can’t stop thinking about. For Susan, Covenant Falls is home, a safe place. Falling for a wandering man is a bad idea, no matter how much she’s drawn to him. But Ross wandered into her town. If he needs what she’s found here, she’ll try to help him find it, too…including love.

A DOUBLE SURPRISE… Rodeo cowboy Grayson Cox had no intention of returning home to Cupid’s Bow, Texas. His troubled past was something best left behind. But when he suddenly finds himself serving as guardian to twin godsons, Grayson knows he’s in way too deep to stay away. Thankfully, not everyone in Cupid’s Bow holds a grudge. Librarian Hadley Lanier remembers Grayson’s rebellious youth, but she also sees how good he is with the twins—and she definitely likes what she sees. It feels like a perfect match, until Hadley receives a career opportunity she’s long dreamed of, leaving her with a tough decision. But how can she choose between something she’s always wanted and the man she’s discovering she can’t live without?

Home at last? Jace Trent is the definition of unsettled. But it’s a lifestyle he’s beginning to outgrow. So when Layla Dempsey returns home to Cupid’s Bow, Texas, it seems like fate. His best friend’s little sister is all grown up and so are Jace’s feelings for her. Everything changes, though, when he realizes that Layla’s been keeping a secret from him – his six-year-old daughter, Addie. Jace is furious at Layla’s betrayal. He’s missed so much of his daughter’s life! Yet how can he stay mad when a future with Layla and Addie is right in front of him. Jace will do anything to gain Layla’s trust – even pose shirtless in her cowboy fund-raising calendar – because he’s not letting the two of them walk out of his life again.

Eve Gaddy delights her fans with a classic "secret baby" story . . . A bittersweet reunion. A second chance at happiness. The daughter who may never forgive them both. Sixteen years ago, rodeo hungry Jake Rollins left Happy, Texas and love behind. What he didn't know was that he'd left his unborn daughter behind as well. After a chance meeting with young Leigh, he can't shake his suspicions and arrives in Happy, determined to find the truth and correct the worst mistake of his life. Widow Anna Connor has no more reason to trust champion bronc rider Jake Rollins when he blows back into town than when he'd broken her heart sixteen years ago, leaving her devastated and pregnant. She'd picked up the pieces of her life and found a good man, a man she eventually loved, to help her raise her baby. She doesn't owe Jake anything. She shouldn't care at all . . . except the sexiest cowboy she's ever known is unfinished business for her heart and the father of her child. Like it or not, the time has come to introduce Jake Rollins to the daughter he's never known. Can they navigate the rocky road of redemption and find a way into each other's hearts? Can they forge a real family, or will they have to put their daughter's feelings first if she rejects the father she never knew?

Eliza Houghton (b. 1843) was the youngest child of George Donner, one of two Springfield, Illinois, brothers who organized the ill-fated California-bound emigrant party that bore their name. Eliza and her older sisters were rescued by relief parties that made their way to the stranded travellers at Donner Lake, but their parents perished, and the girls were left to make their way alone in the West. The expedition of the Donner party and its tragic fate (1911) begins with Mrs. Houghton's account of her childhood and the family's tragic overland journey, and rescue. She continues with her life as an orphan, first at Fort Sutter, and then with a family in Sonoma and with her older half-sister in Sacramento. She describes the impact of the gold rush and new immigration on the area, farm work and domestic work, and her own education in public schools and St. Catherine's Convent in Benicia. She writes at length of the emotional scars caused by contemporary rumors of cannibalism among the Donner Party and offers full accounts of Donner family history as well as the background of her husband, Samuel Houghton. An appendix contains several documentary sources for the history of the Donner Party.