Fall in Love with Texas

Pick up these charming series set in the Lone Star State

By M. Clare Haefner

One of my favorite historical fiction authors, Amanda Cabot, set her newest series in the Texas Hill Country in the 1850s. Out of the Embers (Revell, March 2020) starts the Mesquite Springs trilogy with a suspenseful story that, like all of Cabot’s historic Christian novels, mixes in some sweet romance.

Ten years after her parents were murdered, Evelyn Radcliffe still can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched. When the orphanage that was her refuge is burned to the ground, Evelyn sets out to make a new life for herself and 6-year-old Polly in Mesquite Springs. When trouble follows, Evelyn knows she needs help, but is reluctant to trust rancher Wyatt Clark, especially when she learns his dreams don’t include a ready-made family.

The story continues in Dreams Rekindled (Revell, March 2021), focusing on Wyatt’s sister, Dorothy Clark, whose ambition in life is to write another novel that stirs things up like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When dashing newspaper man Brandon Holloway sets up shop, Dorothy hopes she’ll get the chance to make her dreams come true, but another newcomer has very different plans for Mesquite Springs and its newspaper.

Dreams Rekindled was just as charming as Out of the Embers, with more romance in the air and mysteries to solve as the plot unfolds and the characters discover the healing power of truth. My own journey as a writer helped me relate to the characters on a deeper level and my investigative skills had me reading between the lines to unravel what would happen next.

I’m looking forward to the series’ conclusion, which Cabot says is coming soon, to see how it all plays out.

Modern-day romances from Emily March

If contemporary tales are more your thing, pick up the latest novel from author Emily March (a Texas A&M graduate) and find out why troubled souls find peace in Enchanted Canyon.

Boone (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, December 2020) completes the Eternity Springs: The McBrides of Texas trilogy that’s part of March’s wider Eternity Springs collection (the McBride books are officially numbers 16-18 in the series).

Most of the McBride trilogy is set in Redemption, Texas, which is in the opposite direction of Ruin in case you were wondering. This charming Hill Country romance features lots of references any longtime Texan will appreciate, including Enchanted Rock, which is in the vicinity of this fictional tourist town that reminds me of Fredericksburg.

Like the other books in the collection, Boone can be read as a stand-alone, but will be more enjoyable if you read Jackson (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, June 2019) and Tucker (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, February 2020) first, as Boone and his McBride cousins have interwoven story lines throughout each book as each McBride must come to terms with his past to find love and a permanent place to call home.

I started reading the McBrides of Texas trilogy on the recommendation of a friend who knows I’m always on the hunt for good books set in Texas or written by Texas authors. I enjoyed March’s witty, fast-paced, character-driven romances so much that I plan to read the entire Eternity Springs series, even if most of the novels are set in Colorado.

When I’ve finished that collection, I’ll check out her six-part Brazos Bend series along with her other contemporary and historical romances.

You can check out her recommended reading order at emilymarch.com.