Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

This powerful new novel by the bestselling author of Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life begins when a teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away, and in this instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever. Richly written, deeply moving, beautifully crafted, Blessings tells the story of Skip Cuddy, caretaker...

Jasmine Houston, a widow with a young son, agrees to harbor former slaves at her horse farm outside of Lowell, even though her father, a plantation owner, supports slavery. When a boardinghouse keeper unwittingly becomes involved with a traveling peddler who sells something infinitely more valuable than shoes, Jasmine is devastated to discover that her son and the former slaves have been kidnapped. Jasmine's determination to free them threatens to...

The rolling fields of Shelby County are home to some of the finest horseflesh and bluest blood in Kentucky. With its rural beauty and tranquil lifestyle, it is easy to see why the locals call it Paradise County. But beneath the serene exterior lies a dark underside, and an evil that threatens everyone who touches it. Alexandra Haywood and her younger sister, Neely, have always loved Whistledown, the family's magnificent Shelby County horse farm. After...

"In 1929, Ruth Farley, a fiercely independent woman, homesteads a tract of land in a beautiful canyon in the Southern California desert. Determined to live on her own terms and to be free of troubling human attachments, Ruth initially rejects the help of the miners and cowboys who are her neighbors and struggles to develop the homestead on her own.". "Gradually, however, Ruth learns that survival is a far more complicated and dangerous business,...

A belligerent blonde swinging a tire iron is the last thing Doug Hawkins expects during a romantic rendezvous with another woman. Deep down, Doug is glad his ill-advised dalliance is over before it started. And he is so intrigued by hot-blooded Alex McGregor, he begins a one-sided flirtation with a single goal in mind: to get under her skin. Alex doesn't take kindly to strangers, especially those who trespass on her property.

"Ruth Farley, the fiercely independent young woman who was the protagonist of Small Rocks Rising, is still on her homestead at the end of a rugged canyon in California's Mojave Desert, still struggling to survive on her own but now also facing the ever-growing responsibilities of motherhood. Her expanding world encompasses the vast panorama of Depression-era Southern California - isolated miners and ranchers striving to hang on until times are better;...

At the turn of the century, Cordelia Underwood of Maine inherits a parcel of land which is believed to contain a treasure, the hunt for which involves her with wacky characters. A tale of romance, smugglers and moose, and a debut in fiction.