Showing results by author "Carolyn Brown" in All Categories

As Endora Simmons plans her Christmas wedding, she's delighted to have her last two sisters, Rae and Bo, finally back in Spanish Fort, Texas. Endora figures if she keeps them busy, they won't have time to think about leaving again. So, Endora talks Rae into teaching Sunday school. As a former police officer, surely Rae can corral the rowdy kids into making Christmas decorations for the upcoming pageant. No question the most high-spirited (uncontrollable?) kids in the class are gorgeous, rugged Sheriff Gunner's twin daughters.

Unsure of the future but ready for risks, Libby O’Dell trades big-city life for whatever the back roads hold. In this case it’s the small community of Sawmill, Texas, where Libby’s taken a temporary job putting an antique store in order. Her new boss, Benny Taylor, a handsome charmer with a three-legged dog named Elvis, isn’t a bad change of scenery, either. Across the street Benny’s surrogate grandmothers—the widows Minilee and Opal—are ready with homemade corn bread, sweet tea, and an invitation for Libby to join their book club.

Cassie O'Malley is on the run. In a few months, her inheritance will kick in. Until then, she just needs a job and a place to stay under the radar. But when Cassie gets off the bus in north Texas and runs smack into the town sheriff, she quickly does the first thing she can think of—approach the handsome stranger in the café and pretend to be a couple. Luckily, the sheriff believes it, and the man surprisingly plays along—all the way up to the courthouse, where the officer insists on escorting them to get married.

Cathy Andrews wants it all: a husband, a baby, and a little house in her charming small town of Cadillac, Texas. With all that she’s gone through in her past, she’s earned her happily ever after and is more than ready to put down some long-term roots. The trouble is, she’s no longer sure the reliable man she agreed to marry is the right guy. Sure, he’s got great teeth and hair, but he’s also got dreams of being a politician—and Cathy doesn’t know if she’s ready to be just arm candy to a man who doesn’t stir her blood.

Ivy Cameo Johnson, an oil baroness from Houston, has wealth that draws men like flies to honey, yet she also possesses intelligence and an awkwardness that runs them off. John William Dalhart, a Texas oil baron himself, out to prove his father and new business partner both wrong, was also born into wealth. There’s been no end to the women interested in him, but is it for what he has rather than who he is?

Since it’s Christmas, all seven sisters will be coming home too. The sisters take the holidays very seriously, and as soon as they’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, it’s on to decorating for Christmas. All of the sisters, and some helpful neighbors, pitch in to make the spirits bright, but younger sister Endora is dismayed to find some of her sisters flirting with the handsome men who’ve come to help.

Nita, Sharlene, and Billy Joe, all about to turn 80, are tired of waiting their turn for a funeral dinner. They each have a bucket list and are determined to tick off at least a few of the items before they go. So what’s left but to hit the road? They enlist two drivers—Billy Joe’s great-grandson, Ford, who has just gotten out of the Air Force, and Sharlene’s great niece, Joelle, a schoolteacher who has the summer free.

A week before your wedding is no time for your ex to ride back into town, stirring up trouble. But that’s exactly the predicament Darla McAdams finds herself in. With practically the entire town of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, in attendance, the last place she wants to be is at her grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary party with the whole family, her fiancé and her old flame all in the same room.

Angela Marie has spent all of her thirty-five years on Meadow Falls, the farm that’s been in her Texas family for generations. It wasn’t her plan. It was an obligation. Now that her parents—less loving kin than strangers—have passed, the whole shebang belongs to Angela. And a legacy she never wanted is hers to uphold. She can’t forsake it now. Her beloved nanny, Mandy, who was always more of a mother, needs a caregiver herself.

Just as flowers blossom in springtime, so do second chances and new beginnings in these heartwarming stories of family, homecoming, and love....

What do a runaway bride, a free spirit, and a corporate exec have in common? Besides all being down on their luck, Lainie, Jodi, and Becky are Lizzie Cornell's granddaughters. Upon inheriting their grandmother's home and family bait shop, the three cousins return to Catfish, Texas, grieving Lizzie's passing and hoping to find the fresh start they all need.

A sassy redhead with an axe to grind…After catching her husband kissing another woman in the barn, Loretta Sullivan Bailey left Lonesome Canyon Ranch and swore she’d never come back. But when her daughter threatens to drop out of college to become a rancher’s wife, Loretta refuses to let her baby make the same mistake she did. She returns to the ranch, determined to get her daughter back in school by the summer’s end…and resolute on ignoring her feelings for her ex-husband.

When hunky rancher "Lucky Beau" Luckadeau accuses spitfire Milli Torres of stealing his prize bull, she promptly shoots at him, triggering a neighborly feud that only gets resolved when they discover they share a steamy hot memory from a night long ago. It was a night of passion that has haunted Lucky. The mysterious beauty he seduced at a cousin's wedding has disappeared. He's always been lucky at cards, lucky with cattle, and lucky with land, but he's never been lucky in love.

After being the center of nasty gossip in her last hometown, all Julie Donovan wants in Saint Jo, Texas, is a quiet, uneventful life for her and her daughter, Annie. But when a sexy cowboy walks into her classroom with a daughter who looks like Annie's twin, suddenly the whole town is looking for explanations... Devoted single dad Griffin Luckadeau will do anything to protect his own, and no sassy redhead is going to get in his way. When he thinks Julie is scheming to steal his ranch out from under him to benefit her own daughter, sparks really begin to fly...

High-powered career woman Austin Lanier suddenly finds herself saddled with an inherited watermelon farm deep in the countryside. She's determined to sell the farm, until her new, drop-dead sexy neighbor Rye O'Donnell shows up. Rancher Rye O'Donnell thinks he's going to get a good deal on his dream property - until he meets the fiery new owner. Rye is knocked sideways when he realizes that not only is Granny Lanier's city-slicker granddaughter a savvy businesswoman, she's also sexy as hell. Suddenly Rye is a whole lot less interested in real estate and a whole lot more focused on getting Austin to set aside her stiletto heels.

Secrets told in the church ladies' room are supposed to stay in the ladies' room. But that doesn't mean that what Trudy overhears there during her great-aunt Gertrude's funeral won't change the rest of her life. Trudy has a daughter in the middle of a major rebellion, a two-timing husband who has been cheating for their entire married life, and a mother with Alzheimer's residing in the local nursing home.

Jane Day is racing to stay ahead of the paid assassin who had been her fiance. On the run in Wichita Falls, Texas, she meets Nellie Luckadeau, a spitfire of an elderly lady, who desperately needs someone to drive her home and work on her ranch. But Nellie's drop-dead gorgeous cocky cowboy grandson "Lucky Slade" is sure he can spot a con artist a mile away and no way in hell is he going to let some upstart fleece his granny.

After seven years of misery and abuse, it's all over—Hannah O'Malley is officially divorced. Hallelujah. It's like every Christmas in her life all rolled up into one glorious day. Not only does Hannah get to keep her grandmother's spacious old house, but she has full custody of her sparky five-year-old daughter. All Hannah has to do now is put the past behind her.

Come hell or high water, Emmy Jo Massey will have a wedding. After three generations of Massey women with children out of wedlock, she wants the whole town of Hickory, Texas, to witness the legitimacy of her union with Logan Grady. But dream weddings aren't cheap. So she accepts a highly lucrative stint as a home health assistant to retired realtor, and town recluse, Seth Thomas - a decision her great-grandmother Tandy is dead-set against.

Everyone is talking about Jennie Sue Baker and the mess she made of her life in New York. The former high school queen bee - and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas - has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie’s fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight. They say she’s taken a job as a housekeeper, gotten a garage apartment, and might be crushing on Rick Lawson, a simple farmer with modest dreams.