Ann H. Gabhart

It is 1936 and Kate Merritt works hard to keep her family together. Her father slowly slips into alcoholism and his business suffers during the Great Depression. As her mother tries to come to grips with their situation and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to it, it is Kate who must shoulder the emotional load. Who could imagine that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what the Merritts need?

When a young woman's plans for her future fall apart at the close of World War II, she discovers new purpose as a midwife in the hills of Kentucky--and a possible chance at new love.

Widow Rose Meadows eagerly accepts her brother-in-law's offer for her and her two daughters to live on his farm after her treatments in a sanatorium finds them needing a home. But is this scarred and reclusive man ready for all the changes these women will bring to his life?

Struggling with the strict rules of her Shaker village, Jessamine is tempted by the seductive outsider Tristan to explore forbidden aspects of life, a situation that forces her to choose between an unknown existence and the peace of her home.

Inconsolable when the man she has loved for years marries her sister, Kate immerses herself in her community's war effort after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and considers her growing feelings for handsome best man Jay, who she fears she will lose after he enlists.

In 1964 Kentucky, fourteen-year-old Jocie Brooke is about to experience an unforgettable summer--her father has found a new love, her hippie sister is about to have a baby, and her aunt is finally pleasurable to live with--but when a black family moves into the neighborhood, Jocie finds herself befriending a young boy that some townspeople shun.

When murder comes to call at a stately Victorian house, the town of Hidden Springs looks to Deputy Sheriff Michael Keene to solve the crime before anyone else dies.

With the country--and her own household--on the brink of civil war, pampered gentlewoman Charlotte Vance hatches a plan to avoid her new stepmother and win back her man by joining the Shaker community at Harmony Hill. Little does she know that this decision will lead her down a road toward unforeseen peace--and a very unexpected love.

In the quiet community of Hollyhill in the mid-Sixties, whispers of mistakes from the past threaten to destroy relationships that everyone thought were strong.

Darcie and Walter Goodwin join a Shaker village to escape a cholera epidemic sweeping the area. It's meant to be a temporary stay, but Walter is killed in a riverboat accident. With no family and no money, Darcie has little choice but to stay with the Shakers. To complicate matters, she is expecting a baby conceived before she and her husband came to the Shaker village. Marital relationships are considered sinful in this celibate community, putting...