Craftie Ladies - Love Inspired Historical Lone Star Cowboy League: The Founding Years Continuity Series

July is fast approaching, and that means the new Love Inspired Historical three-book continuity series, Lone Star League: The Founding Years, will be making its debut.

Stand-In Rancher Daddy

Book 1 in the Lone Star League: The Founding Years continuity series
July 2016 release

by Renee Ryan

Suddenly a Father

Rancher CJ Thorn isn't ready to graduate from uncle to brand-new daddy—but he has no choice. After his widowed brother runs off, a pair of adorable twins have no one but CJ…and lovely neighbor Molly Langley. She's helped with the girls for so long that she's almost part of the family. Almost. CJ knows his family isn't good enough for her. Not when his brother's actions have disgraced the Thorn name yet again.

Watching CJ become a devoted father would soften any woman's heart. Yet Molly must remain immune. CJ deserves more than a woman who can't have children. Held back by fear, it'll take a disaster forcing the community together before they're ready to risk a chance on happiness.

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A Family for the Rancher

Book 2 in the Lone Star League: The Founding Years continuity series
August 2016 release

by Craftie Lady Louise M. Gouge

From Neighbor to Daddy

Rancher Edmund McKay likes his life simple and quiet—everything feisty neighbor Lula May Barlow is not! But with a cattle rustler on the loose, he's duty-bound to protect the widowed mother, even without her approval. Yet he never expected to enjoy her company. And he certainly never thought her crowded, bustling house would be the first place he'd ever feel at home…

After a harsh childhood, Lula May knows how to stand on her own two feet. She doesn't need Edmund's help—but she's starting to want it, all the same. So are her children, who clearly have matchmaking in mind. And when a threat from the past resurfaces, she realizes all that's at stake…including her chance for a lifetime of love.

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A Rancher of Convenience

Book 3 in the Lone Star League: The Founding Years continuity series
September 2016 release

by Regina Scott

Fill-In Father…and Husband

Sweet mail-order bride Nancy Bennett can't believe it when her husband is exposed as a cattle rustler—and killed. And when the banker holding the ranch's mortgage questions whether she can run the ranch on her own, the pregnant widow has nowhere to turn. Until steady foreman Hank Snowden proposes marriage…

Racked with grief about his role in Lucas Bennett's death, Hank resolves to do right by the man's wife and child. So it's natural for him to step in as Nancy's newly minted husband. But the marriage of convenience may become more than a mere obligation…if only Hank and his bride can brave the first steps toward elusive true love.

The Harlequin of the Moment

Yesterday, we talked about the first Harlequin that we read.  Today, we're talking about the most recent.  So, what are you reading, per Harlequin, today.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Captain's Mission is the first book I've read by Debby Guisti. I really like Debby so I was pleased that I enjoyed her book too! This is book 2 in her "Military Investigations" series. Her heroine CID Agent Kelly McQueen has the unpleasant task of investigating the death of a solider during a tranining exercise. The soldier was killed was under the command of Captain Phil Thibodeaux. The mystery of whe ther the soldier was killed by accident or murdered soon begins to threaten Kelly in particular. And what about the aging mother of the dead soldier? Why isn't she getting the care Kelly thinks she needs. Both Phil and Kelly have to get past their pasts to figure out the truth of this death and what's keeping them from a love they both deserve. Good book!

Lyn Cote


I just finished Camy Tang's "Protection for Hire" and highly recommend it. The alpha heroine is a former mobster who has given her life to Christ and doesn't quite know what to do with herself. It's such a great inner conflict to watch this heroine try to figure out how to be herself while also projecting her faith. Camy handles it beautifully and I really enjoyed the insight into the Asian/American culture.


Linda Goodnight



I'm reading Cheryl Wyatt's "Doctor to the Rescue".

Leann Harris


The Harlequin I read most recently was WAKING UP MARRIED by Mira Lyn Kelly, from the new Harlequin KISS line. I really enjoyed the snappy banter between the hero and heroine. It will be fun seeing how this new contemporary line develops.

Teri Wilson


I last read Regina Scott's The Rake's Redemption, a November 2012 LIH title. I couldn't wait to read this book since it promised to solve the mystery of the Everard Legacy. Naturally, it did not disappoint me one bit. Now, I'm in deep with one of the LIH titles off my TBR pile - Renee Ryan's Courting the Enemy. Love, love, love her WWII spy thriller romances. They keep me on the edge of my seat.

Christine Johnson



The most recent Harlequin book I've read is our own Winnie Grigg's "Hand-Picked Husband." Love Winnie's books. I also recently enjoyed Susan Sleeman's "Double Exposure" and Sandra Orchard's "Critical Condition" which, incidentally, is about a nurse! I've come full circle.

Lenora :)



I most recently read Virginia Carmichael's debut novel from Love Inspired, Season of Joy. I loved the setting (a homeless shelter), and I loved the characters and really rooted for them to find their happy ending!

Missy


Oh wait! I read Seasons of Joy by Virginia Carmichael, too. And I really loved it. It was a tender story about personal growth and helping those in need, and I really loved the main character's work with the homeless shelter. That's a spin you don't see very much of in novels.

Naomi Rawlings



Last week I read Lyn Cote's Frontier Family, a Love Inspired Historical. I walked away with new knowledge about Quakers, with a real urge to spend a weekend in a cabin (she described it so well), and an attachment to Sunni and Noah. It was a great story that inspired me to go looking for her previous Gabriel Sisters' book.

Pamela Tracy

Hello 2012

The Craftie Ladies wish you a blessed New Year.

Wishing everyone a blessed time with family and friends, and great things in the year ahead. Naomi Rawlings.

Happy New Year. May you all have many blessings in 2012.

Merrillee Whren

To everyone reading this, I wish you a new year filled with unexpected blessing, challenges that stretch but not defeat you and joy in the knowledge that you are loved.

Winnie Griggs Small Towns, Big Hearts, Amazing Grace

I wish all of you a wonderful, blessed 2012!! May God fill your lives with love and happiness.

Missy Tippens

In 2012, may all your needs be met and all your dreams take wing. Blessings!Regina Scott

Last year was all the things it should have been: brilliant, tragic, spiritual, heartbreaking, exhausting, exhilarating, surprising, bewildering, dazzling and wondrous. I can only hope this year will be the same.

Sherri Shackelford, Winning the Widow's Heart, June 2012

Terri Reed here on this new day of 2012. I wish you all a wonderful and blessed new year. I have a new release out this month, the second book in my Protecting the Specialists series. The Secret Heiress hits the shelves on January 3rd. I'm doing a blog tour to celebrate the new release. Click here if you'd like the dates and links to the blogs. One commenter during the tour will be drawn to receive a ten dollar gift card.

An Honorable Gentlemen by Regina Scott

How exciting to have Gwendolyn Allbridge, the heroine from An Honorable Gentleman, a November 2011 release from Love Inspired Historical written by Regina Scott, with us today.

1. Tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I help my father manage Blackcliff Hall, one of the most beautiful estates in Cumberland. From the top of Blackcliff Fell, you can see for miles. There are salmon in the streams, deer in the woods, and everywhere the fiery colors of autumn right now.

2. What do you do for fun?

Live! Forcing all the numbers associated with the estate to make sense, keeping up the gate house where my father and I live, growing and preparing the produce from my small garden, getting the Hall ready for the new owner--there are very few tasks that I don’t enjoy. Well, I don’t enjoy it when someone is sick and a villager comes for me and my mother’s cures. I love making people feel better, but I don’t like that they were sick to begin with. I’ve seen too much of that.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I’ve put off making any more of my mother’s cures since she died a year ago, especially her horehound syrup. She was the village midwife. With the nearest physician over twenty miles away, she did a lot more than bring babies into the world. Everyone loved her. They expect me to follow in her footsteps, but how can anyone live up to her skills?

4. What are you afraid of most in life?

Having to leave here. This is my home! It doesn’t matter that things have run down a bit with the last estate owner passing away. I know Sir Trevor Fitzwilliam, the new owner, will set things to rights. He has to! The village depends on the prosperity of Blackcliff. They won’t last another winter without some help!

5. What do you want out of life?

To give it my all and someday reach heaven to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

6. What is the most important thing to you?

My father and my home. And Sir Trevor Fitzwilliam, but don’t tell him I said that. He can be quite puffed up with his own consequence when he wants to. And then, at times, he doesn’t seem to believe in his future at all. Perhaps that’s why God sent him here to Blackcliff, to find what really matters.

7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?

I read the Bible, and my friend Ruth Newton and I share books we get from the lending library in Carlisle. I like stories about real people overcoming great odds. I don’t much like the gothic stories like those by Mrs. Radcliffe. A spooky old estate? Really! I live with that every day! All her heroines really needed was a good dog at their sides and a loaded pistol in their pockets. That’s how I met Sir Trevor when he showed up at the estate in the night.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would make myself faster and more clever so I would have half a chance of keeping up with everything!

9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I have Dolly. Father would scold me terribly for mollycoddling her, as she was bred to protect the property. Truly, would you baby a 160-pound mastiff? She’s the biggest of the breed ever raised in the Evendale Valley, and my constant companion. People think she must be vicious given her size and her brindled color. But she’s a sweetheart.

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I’d go back to before my mother contracted consumption and stop it from happening. And perhaps shake some sense into Sir Trevor’s parents as well. Imagine not bringing your child into a family, a place where he can feel loved! But then, maybe that’s why he met me!

A CONTEST AND A FEATURED BOOK: AN HONORABLE GENTLEMAN BY REGINA SCOTT

The Craftie Ladies say: Don't forget to sign up for our book give away! http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/16640-holiday-hideout
Be Sure to Add Your Name!

When the owner of ramshackle Blackcliff Hall arrives, the locals have high hopes that Sir Trevor Fitzwilliam will set things to rights. Especially Gwen Allbridge, the estate manager's daughter who has single-handedly kept Blackcliff Hall going. Now she must convince Trevor to stay and make the hall—and the village depending on it—prosperous again.The decaying estate is just another reminder to Trevor of his noble father's rejection. Abandoning it for London could restore his cheer…but how can he disappoint Gwen? Her faith in him makes him yearn to live up to the ideals she holds dear. As disturbing, unexplained events encroach on the pair, Gwen's steadfast courage will rise to meet Trevor's newfound honor as they learn that there's no dream like home.

Furry Friends Who Steal the Show

Hi, friends! Regina Scott here. I was looking back over the last few weeks of posts and smiled at Leann’s story about babysitting Ollie, her son and daughter-in-law’s slobbering dog. Our dog doesn’t slobber. He doesn’t shed either. That was a requirement for getting him. My husband and oldest son are allergic to animal hair, so the only way for us to have a pet is to get one that’s hypoallergenic.

We looked at a number of breeds, like Portugese water dogs (think of Bo, the First Dog), poodles, and some terriers. Irish terriers intrigued my younger son and me because they were called the daredevils of the dog world. That turned out to be the understatement of a lifetime!

Meet Fergus. He’s three-quarters Irish terrior, one-quarter German wire-haired pointer, but he has the terrier coat we needed. The pointer part of him comes out when he looks out the back door. He tends to point at whatever interests him. Unfortunately, one of the things that interests him most is jumping. He can hit four feet straight up from a stand, more than six foot at a run. He was over our six-foot solid-wood fence within hours of coming home. After several such escapes, my husband added three more boards to the top of the corner Fergus went over most often. He backflipped over it. No lie. He just jumped onto one side of the corner, and did the Flosbury flop over the other.

My husband added chicken wire. Fergus scrambled over it. My husband built a lip. Fergus went after a different corner of the yard. Finally, after much research, my husband strung a stout wire about three inches from the wood and about six inches from the top of the fence. It isn’t electrified, but the idea is that Fergus will hit it on the way up and be so startled it will break his concentration and make him drop back into the yard. It actually worked!

And then he learned to dig.

For the first year and half, our lives revolved around outwitting Fergus. In the process, we learned to love our determined escape artist. He’s much less likely to try to get out these days, which is a blessing! Although some days it's hard to find him among the pillows and stuffed animals on my son's bed. I also learned to understand why my friends are so devoted to their pets. That’s one of the reasons I included a dog in my November release from Love Inspired Historical, An Honorable Gentleman. Dolly is the largest mastiff ever bred in the Evendale Valley of England’s Lake District. She was meant to guard the Blackcliff Estate and its treasures, but she’s become a good friend to my heroine Gwen Allbridge. RT Book Reviews claimed, in fact, that Dolly nearly steals the show. Just like Fergus.

So what about your pets? Any other escape artists out there? Or other furry friends who like to steal the show?