“The San Antonio Series – Books One, Two, and Three”

Allow me to introduce PROTECTED, a Western romance set in the 1860s. It is a story about authentic people, but also about love and the gritty, real-world road back to faith.

Eighteen-year-old Abby travels to Texas with her parents and three other families in a wagon train. Disaster strikes, and the orphaned children must fend for themselves. The responsibility of completing the trip to San Antonio lands on her. After a close call with two questionable men met on the trail, the others persuade a very reluctant Abby to finish the journey disguised as a boy.

Enter Manny, a tall, lean, Hispanic Texan, returning home from a cattle drive. He intercepts the wagon train and offers to help them finish their journey, believing all the while that “Abner” is leading the small band of orphans. Making friends is difficult for him, and he unexpectedly relishes his growing relationship with his new friend.

Abby is an independent woman at a time when society expects women to be anything but. Her challenge is giving up control and placing her faith in God. Manny, disfigured in a fire as a child, finds it difficult to acknowledge his God-given worth and to place his trust in others.

Friendship, romance, betrayal. Forgiveness does not come easy. Spend some time in this scorching Texas summer, and discover the surprise waiting for you there!

PROTECTED is Beauty and the Beast crossed with John Wayne’s The Cowboys and Disney’s Mulan, with a splash of Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. It is book one in the San Antonio series.  It won the Gold Award in the 2022 Global Book Awards.

You may purchase Protected as an eBook, a paperback, or an audiobook. All are available on Amazon. Click below.

Protected: Book 1

In Book 2, A Father’s Gift, we see Abby and Manny settled in San Antonio, where they anticipate the birth of their first child. Nausea plagues Abby every morning, and fears keep her awake at night. Orphaned at age eighteen, she prays daily for a safe delivery and a future with her child.

Now more than ever, Manny yearns for guidance from his own father. But good news can’t be shared with a man who’s been dead for years. Sheriff Williams delivered the devastating news of Mark Blair’s death at the hands of an unscrupulous card shark when Manny was only five years old. His grandmother, Yaideli, raised him, doing her best to stand in the gap. She did well by him and taught him how to become an upstanding, caring man.

The impending responsibility of fatherhood looms over Manny like a storm cloud. He fears he will fail his young family. So many questions surround his father’s death. The desire to know what happened, to understand why Mark left him behind, overwhelms Manny. It’s nearing Christmas and the babe’s birth. He sets out on an adventure of discovery and finds something completely unexpected. Abby and Manny receive a precious gift—learning about the love and sacrifice only a father can give.

A FATHER’S GIFT is The Searchers crossed with It’s a Wonderful Life, with the family secrets of Secondhand Lions and the heart of a Christmas homecoming story. It finaled in the 2023 Selah Awards.

You may purchase A Father’s Gift as an e-book, a paperback, or an audiobook. All are available on Amazon. Click below.

https://a.co/d/043U8EVi

Book Three, Accepted, tells the story of Manny’s best friend, Jonathan Campbell, and we meet a new character, Quenby Martin.

Against the backdrop of the Civil War, spirited Quenby despises the monotony and restrictions imposed on women. Then, San Antonio’s most respectable widow befriends her. Unbeknownst to Quenby, her genteel companion harbors a dangerous secret.

Soon after, Quenby meets Jonathan, a Texan farmer struggling to make ends meet, and eagerly offers her help. Despite Jonathan’s reservations about trusting his future livelihood to the pretty young know-it-all, he accepts. As their relationship develops, Quenby’s confidence and knowledge lures Jonathan in.

Quen draws the attention of a bounty hunter, whose charms cannot hide his evil intentions. Danger puts Quen’s wavering belief in God to the test. With the hunter on her heels, she embarks on an important mission that inadvertently involves Jonathan in a web of kidnapping and murder. His efforts to keep her safe expose his growing feelings.

Will Quenby have enough courage to face the perils of standing up for what she believes in? And at what cost?

Immerse yourself in the Texas frontier in Book Three of the San Antonio series.

ACCEPTED is Harriet crossed with True Grit and Far and Away, with a touch of The Hiding Place—a story of courage, conviction, danger, and love on the Civil War–era Texas frontier. It finaled in the 2024 Selah Awards and also won gold in The Bookfest Awards.

You may purchase Accepted as an e-book, a paperback, or an audiobook. All are available on Amazon. Click below.

https://a.co/d/01PoR6Rg

Book Four is next, and it tells the story of Grady Strong. Grady runs into trouble and is given a choice: join the Texas Rangers and help protect the frontier from the Comanche and their raids, or go to jail. He chooses the Rangers.

Despite his almost hero worship of Bone Dobbins, his captain, Grady is disappointed when his company turns out to be less than ethical. In a battle with the Comanche, Grady is wounded and left for dead.

Natalie was stolen by the Comanche when she was seven years old. Grown now, she regards them as her family and is content with her life. Until the dreams begin. She sees a Man in White in her dreams, and feels compelled to find him, to learn who he is. No one in the tribe can answer her questions. So she sets off on a quest, driven by a compulsion she does not understand.

God directs her steps, though she doesn’t recognize him as such, and her path crosses Grady’s. Will Natalie leave the family she loves? Will Grady’s allegiance to Texas be tested? Find out in Pursued, coming in 2027.