Gail F. Cortner

Raised in a cult where opinions and freedom in women were not tolerated, Mara Greene narrowly escaped a life as a child bride—one where she would’ve been shared and owned by all the men in the compound. Her testimony helped put the cult leader in prison, but she’s never truly gotten past the horrors inflicted on her. Her conditioning to keep silent persists even now—despite having found a safe haven at the Resting Warrior Ranch.

Rucker Sloan, thinks all he’s good for is a fighting, killing machine. Long-term relationships are out of the question. Until he meets a nurse who’d risk her life for someone she doesn’t know… After her mother died of a broken heart, nurse Nora Michaels joined the Army to do something to help others and to escape her sad memories. Deployed to Afghanistan, she hopes she’s making a difference, especially when she treats a cranky wounded soldier who just might be more broken than she is.

Shade Sterling has carried a torch for Lizzy Conners since senior year of high school. But the timing never felt right for them, especially since his ex-girlfriend, Ariel, disappeared without a trace years ago. Now, with their 10-year class reunion approaching, Shade is tired of waiting. Determined to move on with his life and take a chance with Lizzy, he’s all in...until a car is dredged up from a local pond and Ariel’s remains are found inside.

The last time PI Blaze McClintock was on her family’s ranch, she left in handcuffs. She vowed then to never go home again...until her estranged father is accused of murder. He’s not a good man - this entire Montana town knows that. But Blaze believes her father is innocent, and she’ll do anything to prove it, even ask the one man who broke her heart for help - the only man in town who’s on her side.

Librarian Julia Winston is ready to ditch the quiet existence she's been living. She's made a list of new things to experience, but falling for Jamie Caine, her sexy military pilot neighbor, isn't one of them. Julia's looking to conquer life, not become the heartbreaker's latest conquest. But when two young brothers wind up in Julia's care for the holidays, she'll take any help she can get. Happy to step in, Jamie reveals a side of himself that's much harder to resist. Not only is he fantastic with kids, he provides the strength Julia needs to tackle her list.

Ledger McGraw may know all about horses, but he doesn't know anything about the lie that broke up his first romance with waitress Abby Pierce. Abby, tricked into marrying the wrong man, is at the end of her tether in her abusive relationship. When she learns the truth about her terrible marriage, she becomes desperate to escape it - before her jealous husband kills her.

Ex-military man Thorn Grayson has debts to pay. So, when a plane crashes in the mountains near his cabin, he’s hired to find the wreckage - and the kidnapped woman believed to be the sole survivor. But when he locates Geneva, or "JJ" as she insists on being called, she’s not at all what he expected. JJ isn’t sure she can trust the mysterious man who’s come to her rescue. But she has secrets of her own - secrets she’ll do anything to keep. So, she’ll follow his instructions and keep her distance to get off this mountain alive without blowing her cover.

The Sterling Ranch’s season opening isn’t going so smoothly. With the ranch’s lodge full of guests and a Montana blizzard threatening, Will Sterling needs help - and he needs it fast. So when his childhood friend Poppy Carmichael agrees to lend a hand, he’s grateful for a second chance...and more enticed by the woman she’s become than he cares to admit. For Poppy, it was supposed to be a retreat full of horse rides and hoedowns - with a side of showing Will what he’s been missing all these years.

Deputy Jaxson Gray has found the fresh start he needed in small-town Montana. In Luna Declan, he finds something he didn’t even know he craved. Wary of getting too close, he backs away, only to become enmeshed in a local investigation that brings his past and present crashing together. Because whoever killed town matriarch Vi Mullen knows about an older crime that implicated Jaxson.

Hank Savage has always believed his old girlfriend was murdered. Now he's come home to Cardwell Ranch and, with the help of PI Frankie Brewster, is determined to find the killer. Trying to keep their feelings at bay, Hank and Frankie quickly learn that every lead reveals a life steeped in secrets - and danger. And that someone from Hank's past will do anything to keep the truth from being revealed.