Dakotas Historical Fiction

Best-selling author Lauraine Snelling crafts tales of forgiveness and love that listeners adore. This volume combines the first three novels in Snelling's inspiring Dakota series, which follows the intertwining lives of five women living in the early 1900s farming community of Soldahl, North Dakota. All arrive expecting a life different than the one that awaits them, but plenty of perseverance - and opening their hearts to God - will shine a guiding light toward true happiness.

A weak voice moaned from the horse’s back. Sheriff Caleb Stenesrude climbed over the gate in a blizzard and reached up in time to catch the woman as she fell. To his astonishment, a small child, hanging on for dear life, fell with her. Under his breath, he thanked the good Lord for bringing them this far and for a dog with a nose and ears to beat all. As the North Dakota storm continued to scream outside the house on the edge of town, Caleb tried to tend to the near-frozen mother and boy.

Dakota Riley is a member of the Seattle Drug Task Force. During an investigation into an international drug smuggling ring, he loses his best friend and partner. To add insult to injury, he is assigned a rookie, Marc Bradley - the son of a black fisherman from South Carolina. Seeking revenge rather than justice, Dakota ditches the rookie...and almost gets himself killed. After leaving the hospital for a "forced" vacation, Dakota and Marc head to Marc's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. A day out on a fishing boat goes wrong when a mysterious storm arrives. The boat is destroyed, and the two men wash ashore...in 1861....

The lives and schemes of frontier politicians, Northern Pacific Railroad executives, bonanza farmers, and homesteaders converge in the story of Frances Houghton Bingham, who marries the son of a Red River Valley bonanza farmer in order to remain near her new husband's sister. Emotionally complex, willful and resourceful, Frances is seduced by the myths of opportunity driving the settlement of Dakota Territory, and dares to dream of a new world in which to realize her unconventional desires.

Temporary Bride: Lena Stevens has lived through more than her share of troubles. After losing her mother and father when she was young, Lena learned that every kindness came with obligation. Now a widow with a small child, Lena has lost the one thing she had left: her house. She has no desire to be a burden on her neighbor, even if the man was foolish enough to promise her late husband to watch out for her. But when propriety demands a marriage, Lena makes Anker vow to annul it come spring.

The Civil War created countless spinsters and widows. Anna Olson was one of them. With no prospects for marriage and family, Anna pins her future on the frontier and heads west to stake a claim on the wide-open prairies.“Most women go from their father’s house to their husband’s house,” Anna said. “Here, I have my own house. I am my own person.” But the Dakota Plains are not empty. Anna’s new life collides with a Lakota warrior. Two Hawks MacKenzie, the son of a Scots fur trapper and a Lakota woman, takes an unusual interest in his new neighbor.

Nora Arnsby fights her way into a world dominated by men. When a break-in shatters the sense of home she's created, Nora can’t find her footing. With the intruders growing bolder and her safety at risk, she reaches out to the only person who will listen, even if it means asking a man for help. The stranger across the street is handsome and persistently kind, so different from other men. Mathias Horton refuses to let any woman get close to him. Mathias must resume the life he gave up to save the one who ignites his battered heart, or admit defeat and let her go back to Deadwood.