She came to Sawyerville looking for a husband—not another mother telling her how to live.
Caroline Martin crossed a continent to escape the life she left behind in New Hampshire. Strong, independent, and determined never again to let anyone control her future, she has made a new home among the brides of Sawyerville.
Then she meets Zachary Allen.
The handsome, fearless logger is everything Caroline never expected to find. Their courtship moves quickly, and when Zachary asks her to marry him beside the rushing Umpqua River, Caroline believes at last that she is about to have something she has never truly known—a home and family of her own.
Until the very next morning.
A letter arrives from Missouri announcing that Zachary's widowed mother is coming to Sawyerville…and she intends to live with her son.
Marceline Allen is proud, formidable, and completely convinced that family comes first. Caroline knows only one thing: she will not begin her marriage beneath another mother's roof.
But beneath Caroline's stubborn refusal lies a secret she has never told Zachary—a painful chapter from her past that left her ashamed, grieving, and determined never to depend upon anyone again.
As tempers flare and a wedding is put in jeopardy, Caroline may have to decide whether protecting herself from the family she once had will cost her the family she could still have.
And in Sawyerville, love has a habit of appearing where no one expects it…even for the mother of the groom.
A warm, emotional frontier romance about second chances, forgiveness, unexpected love, and discovering that sometimes the family we choose can heal the wounds left by the family we were born into.
