Showing results by author "Cindy M. Amos" in All Categories

Returning from their honeymoon, Jusdyn surprises Arie with a trip to Diamond Springs valley below the Linquist ranch only to discover an old-timer on the brink of foreclosure. While they try to unravel a family riddle, summer delivers wheat harvest where the all-hands-on-deck summons takes Jusdyn away from his restoration of the storm-damaged prairie. A maniacal Linquist tradition to be the first farmer cutting in the county sets off a chain reaction of dysfunction-fed difficulties. When tensions reach an all-time high, a demonic debacle sweeps the ripened fields—a devastation of epic ...

Greer Trousdale finds her new job at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital off to a rocky start in the spring of 1937 when her special skills as medical transcriptionist collide with the handsome x-ray doctor, Thane Keaton, during a crisis. A Geiger counter becomes an intermediary of sorts until a date at the lush Garfield Park Conservatory sets their hindered mutual attraction into better alignment. When a careless orderly poses an internal threat, Greer must learn more about the x-ray machine, using her typewriter keyboard’s QWERTY as a secret code. On a hunch, she’ll employ a low-dose of ...

Volunteering at a mall gift wrapping station should lend Larelle Larson some clarity for celebrating Christmas. But a stubborn door latch puts her into the warming arms of Norde Howell, the tall MBA student posing as mall janitor while he works his way through college. Norde willingly steps into the role of fake date for Larelle, but every nuance seems to be more genuine as a string of Christmas events draws them together as a couple. With outside-the-box ideas to stimulate the mall’s business, Norde slowly wins her heart—until the allure of the opulent east-side mall confuses Larelle ...

~Where staying above sea level requires careful alignment~ Indigo Ownley hesitates to aid a motorist in distress along the Great Dismal Swamp, and then cringes when she sees the NBA Tidewater Titans’ star center, Shae Swain. Reprimanded for his ejection from a game, Shae receives a penalty of two hundred community service hours and frantically needs to get started before another December day passes—so he selects Indigo’s nonprofit that mentors promising athletes. A chance encounter with a poster in the mop closet reveals that Indigo is really IOU, a lithe player he shared the court ...

New in town, Willow Stevens arrives at The Master’s Toolbox hardware store, hoping to get some assistance with a detailed home improvement project. Caught soldering a seam for his latest metal-craft project, Evan Masterson soon becomes interested in another type of bond—right in time for Valentine’s Day. When Willow offers to help with his Etsy page and shares an idea to improve the store’s garden section, how can Mr. Fix-it refuse? Find out why Evan’s toolbox might need a trinket to guard it from here on out. When romance flutters down on Sweetwater, Kansas, the hardware store ...

~Where touching the ocean somehow touches two hearts~ Ready to escape high-and-dry Kansas, Wynn Yardley arrives too late for the Dreams Come True event, but her request for a trip to the ocean’s edge still falls within foundation director Teague Montgomery’s power to grant. Following his plan to cut expenses, Teague brings Wynn to the Outer Banks at his grandmother’s beachfront timeshare while he stays with an old family friend in Millionaire Row. Wynn’s open-eyed delight of time spent on the shore fills a lonely spot in Teague’s heart. A walk on the pier takes them beyond the ...

Riding the popularity of Florida’s expanding rail line in 1904, Mattie Jo Pike has to administer first aid after two hobos squabble at her water tower stopover in Favoretta. The kindly victim, Mo Rudyard, doesn’t seem like the train-jumping type, but her stern Florida cracker father won’t let the man hang around long enough to learn more about him. Undercover, Morrison can’t seem to please his entrepreneurial father, and to aggravate matters, his priceless secret token has been stolen. He traces the token’s path to a hobo village where anarchy rules the cutthroat roost. With the ...

~Where a shared heritage becomes a bonding landscape~ On a forty-acre pocket of land his Grandpa Rowdy received as a gift off the neighbor’s sprawling ranch, accountant Reece Myers methodically strives to improve his standing in life. Next door, sassy Jodie Givens continues her sequined approach to ranch living, secretly scheming to regain Reece’s land until betrayed by hired help, leaving her entire ranch to face dissolution. A cataclysmic kiss exchanged the day she’s apprehended for owing back taxes turns into a pact between them to rectify land holdings. Jodie struggles to reinvent...

Amid the record heat of August 1955, artist Kathleen Litton comes to Mesa Verde to restore the pictographs left in cliff dwellings by the ancient Anasazi people. Plagued by a contaminated seep at beloved Balcony House, geologist Miles McShane has to match wits with an unknown threat to protect the nation’s antiquities. Kat’s colorful charm softens his heart, yet her commitment to excellence leaves her vulnerable to the danger of deception. The unyielding heat of late summer places the entire park on a crumbling edge as recurring trouble strikes Miles’ last nerve. Ropes and ladders ...

~Embracing progress becomes a matter of the heart~ The Lure of Modernization Busy with her downtown beautification work, Elina Marshall witnesses near calamity as Lathe Dailey, Flora’s new town manager, rescues a widow and her children from a downburst when the old railroad water tower fails. The Marshall family soon attends the world-famous 1904 St. Louis Exposition, and Lathe is invited along to contract the new waterworks that will modernize their town with running water. Romance leads the way through exotic gardens and a gondola ride, until drama unfolds down The Pike’s rowdy midway...

~ His quest for safety… Her conquest for love~ Safety manager Duncan Reed works to flush out an illicit labor union tapping out the oil company’s insurance benefits in El Dorado, Kansas. When his path crosses newly widowed Lorna Rae Holmes, their friendship lends her courage to pursue a long-held dream. Lo-Rae Cakes becomes a reality after she moves to prosperous Kansas City. But the harrowing Midwest floods in the summer of 1951 pressure Lorna Rae to evacuate, reuniting her with the compassionate safety manager who has a soft spot for both her cake and her daughter. A cresting flood, a...

When Happy Lehman rolls her VW bug over right in front of Kirk Anders’ house, she lands on a novel way to get the building pro’s attention. Quick on her feet to recover, she pitches a partnership plan to match up a construction fundraising idea for her nonprofit clothes closet, The Prosper Portal, with some masculine hammer power. Kirk has a few hesitations of his own—including being scorched by his last goodwill partnership. And those fancy she sheds Happy has in mind for her Flirty Half Dozen aren’t exactly his specialty. Happy’s quest for the ultimate chandelier-topped pink ...

Invincible as island naturalist, Ciera Journey completes her nocturnal patrol for sea turtles nesting on Cape Fear and happens upon Ryne Faulkner rowing to the private resort island at the helm of a rowdy group of marginalized campers. With the turtle work by night and nature appreciation outings by day, Ciera begins to feel the sting of burnout, though the campers rise to the challenge of hands-on interaction. Shared adventures at the settler’s hidey-hole and legendary hermit’s shack spark a bond between her and the camp’s enigmatic counselor, but dare she contemplate a life beyond ...

Home economics student Annalee Blanchard hastens to get her field practicum in place, but her arrival distracts handsome farmer Turner Sloan, overturning his tractor into a gully which puts her in rescue mode. Compliant and a bit endearing, the farmer agrees to become Client Number Fifteen and seems eager to accept dietary instruction during her weekly sessions. When trouble rears its head with an elderly client, Annalee presses him for compliance using her food deliveries for leverage. Days before graduation for the Class of 1959, a shocking loss in the Home Economics Department throws her...

Denton Stephens plies his trade as a hauler until he drops through a rain-slicked bridge and falls into the Marias Des Cygnes River, where he’s rescued by pretty Haven Christiansen from the nearby ranch. Even with her father in a wheelchair, Haven manages to keep the Kansas ranch running, but when the construction crew lines up equipment to build the replacement bridge, realignment of the pasture’s fence puts her on overload. Needing a new hauling base, Denton trades off ranch work for room and board. When a troublesome project boss makes unwanted appearances, Denton infuses his ...

~A new destiny floats ashore on an island swept by love~ Visionary Remi Fontaine arrives for his summer job as distinguished visiting professor at a coastal university in North Carolina, hiding his faltering allegiance to his family’s legacy as pioneering oceanographers. As his faculty contact, graduate coordinator Nia Parnell introduces him to little-known natural gems along the coastline as they co-teach a summer session course. Remi’s growing affection for all things terrestrial mingles with his attraction for Nia, until a diving malady strikes and forces him to contemplate a major ...

SALVAGING DOCTOR JUNK ~Where love salvages two hearts on the ledge of loneliness~ Delayne Davidson has a knack for flushing secretive birds from their cover, but when she goes into the Ozark backwoods to buy a puppy, she flushes out a handsome young veterinarian as a bonus. Try as he might, Kemp Junkowski just can’t seem to gain business at his fledgling animal clinic in Harrison, Arkansas, park headquarters for the picturesque Buffalo National River. As they bond over a mutual love of animals and time spent on the river, Delayne suggests inventive ways to strengthen his business ties. ...

~Where the heart’s freedom to take wing starts in a cozy roost~ When event coordinator Season Aldridge takes a position in Red Cloud to promote writing at the famed Willa Cather Foundation, her quest to discover the best of Nebraska brings her into a collision course with handsome wildlife outfitter Rance Foreman as their observation blind collapses on the banks of the Platte River. A disruption in the courtship of the flocking sandhill cranes marks the beginning of another kind of allure, but when his group of rowdy hunters crashes her all-ladies writing retreat weeks later, the lodge ...

Lacey Woodhouse arrives at River Ranch to deliver the bank’s notice of default for unmade mortgage payments, but plunges into a horse trough and meets the struggling owner, rancher Wray Benson, up close and personal. When a bouquet of field daisies finds its way to her car windshield weeks later, she decides to throw caution — and conflict of interest — to the wind. Time in the country charms Lacey and when she learns of Wray’s support of an ailing family member, it softens her heart, leading to sweet romance.

Deep within Montana Territory, in 1885, miner Chance Mullan checks the rail spur for his expected shipment but picks up two famished siblings, instead - the adult offspring of his recently deceased work partner. Relegated to sleeping on the rear porch, Serafina Redmann never imagined such a bleak existence at the edge of civilization, but the fervor of the villagers to grow the settlement into a permanent town makes her want to stay and contribute.