Ann H Gabhart

It is 1936 and Kate Merritt, the middle child of Victor and Nadine, 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...

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.

"If any place on God's earth was designed to help one heal, it is Meadowland. Surely here, at her brother-in-law's Kentucky farm, Rose and her daughters can recover from the events of the recent past - the loss of her husband during the 1918 influenza epidemic, her struggle with tuberculosis that required a stay at a sanitarium, and her girls' experience in an orphanage during her illness. At Meadowland, hope blooms as their past troubles become rich...

"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"--

"Darcie and Walter Goodwin join a Shaker village to escape a cholera epidemic, but when Walter dies, Darcie is left alone--and lonely. Can love live again for this widow in a community that doesn't believe in marriage?"-- 1849. 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...

It is 1844 and Lacey Bishop's life is a tangled mess. Estranged from her own family, at age 16 she went to work for a preacher and his wife. When his wife died, the preacher convinced Lacey that the only decent thing to do was to marry him. That way she could continue to act as mother to the little girl who was left on his doorstop. But Lacey never expected he would decide to take them all off to a Shaker village. There she's still married but living...

In the autumn of 1941, rumors of war whisper through Rosey Corner. The town practically vibrates in anticipation, as if it is holding its breath. But for Kate Merritt, it seems life is letting out a prolonged sigh. As Kate watches her sister marry the man Kate has loved since she was fifteen, her heart is silently breaking. And even the attentions of Jay Tanner, the handsome best man, can't draw her interest. Then suddenly, Pearl Harbor changes everything....

The summer of 1964 certainly was eventful, but it's nothing compared to what's coming to the Brooke family and to Hollyhill, Kentucky. David finally gets up the nerve to pop the question to Leigh and wedding plans are in the making. But the past is coming to call on many in Hollyhill, threatening to destroy the relationships that everyone thought were so strong. Two people--one David thought was gone for good and the other no one's ever heard of--are...

Jocie Brooke has never wanted for love, despite the fact that she hardly remembers her mother. Jocie's father, preacher David Brooke, has done his best to be both father and mother to his daughter. Even Jocie's spinster Great-aunt Love, who's slowly going senile, cares for Jocie in her own stern way. But in their small town of Hollyhill, Kentucky, painful secrets lie just beneath the surface, and inquisitive spirits discover surprising truths. There's...

"Two years ago, Carlyn Kearney's husband went missing during the Civil War. Now penniless and evicted from her home, she seeks refuge within a Shaker village. While she wrestles with whether or not to commit herself fully to their life, mysterious deaths occur--and she comes under suspicion. Can she help Sheriff Mitchell expose the true culprit?"--