Kathy Stegman

The rich farmlands of the Dakota Territory in 1887 are finally beginning to yield the abundant harvest the pioneers had dreamed about so long. The establishment of the railroad has brought significant changes to the small town of Blessing as well as prosperity to the Bjorklund family and their neighbors. Among the townsfolk is reverend John Solberg. The reverend, rejecting the persistent efforts of matchmaking mothers, develops a friendship with Mary Martha through their common love of books.

America struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination. Promises will be broken, and everyone you have grown to love will be asked to pay a high price to make freedom for the slaves more than just a mockery.

Dark clouds and chaos descend lower upon America as the war rages around them; threatening all they hold dear. Carrie and Robert are once more pulled apart, and Carrie finds herself the target of a hostile group of men determined to stop her from providing medical care for black residents of Richmond. How long can she continue to save other people's lives at the risk of her own? Aunt Abby is sucked into a violent riot in the North, while Matthew faces the greatest challenge of his life.

Lilly Arendale has fought the anger of prejudice all her life. Her Guatemalan mother and wealthy English father were very much in love and gave her the best of upbringings, but their family was never accepted in either country. Now, orphaned and alone in the mining town of Butte in the Montana Territory, the effects of racism have left Lilly with a one-year-old daughter and a fierce desire to avoid men at all costs.

Miriam Bryant has always dreamed of leaving the never-ending work of her family's remote mountain ranch to travel abroad as a genteel lady. She's thrilled when the opportunity finally arises, but a gruesome hunting accident crushes her plans, leaving her stranded for weeks in a mining town. The single bright spot in her disappointment comes in the form of this mountain town's newest doctor. Fresh out of medical school, Alex Donaghue is excited to join his brother's practice and prove himself in the mining town of Butte, in Montana Territory.

Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Elsa must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.

Bridget O'Donnell left Ireland, dragging along her reluctant twin sister, Alana, to create a better life in the new world. The sisters travel to Sweetwater Springs, Montana, intending to live with their uncle's family. Upon arrival, their plans are derailed by news of their aunt's illness. James Whitson, a cowboy on the Thompson ranch, is in town to drop off a letter at the train station. When he meets the twins, he's immediately smitten with Bridget.