Showing posts with label #DeniseFarnsworth. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2026

Spotlight and Giveaway: Freed by the Frontier by Sherry Shindelar, Denise Farnsworth, Susan F. Craft

About the Book

Book: Freed by the Frontier

Authors: Sherry Shindelar, Denise Farnsworth, Susan F. Craft

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: June 30, 2026

Three remarkable women find themselves caught between two worlds on the American frontier. A captive of the Comanche must choose between escaping to white society or her growing feelings for a rising war chief in 1850s Texas. A Georgia judge’s daughter flees an unwanted betrothal during the War of 1812, only to be captured by Creek warriors but protected by a mysterious brave. And in 1754, an English lady traveling the Great Wagon Road to become a music teacher discovers her carefully planned future may not survive her attraction to a protective frontiersman.

From quaint civilized towns to treacherous mountain passes and wilderness villages, three couples navigate cultural divisions, overcome past wounds, and face deadly dangers to discover that love knows no boundaries. But as war clouds gather and ancient tribal alliances shift, will their newfound relationships survive the coming storm? Or will the clash of worlds tear them apart?

Three unforgettable romances prove that God’s greatest blessings often come disguised as our greatest challenges, and that true love can bridge any divide.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Authors

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. When she is not busy writing, she is an English professor working to pass on her love of writing to her students. Sherry is an award-winning writer: 2025 Maggie winner, 2023 Genesis finalist, Maggie finalist, and Crown finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years. She has three grown children and three grandchildren. Connect with Sherry at sherryshindelar.com.

North Georgia native Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, has authored over twenty traditionally published novels and novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A wife and mother of two adult daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

Nationally acclaimed writer of inspirational historical romance, Susan F. Craft retired after a 45-year career in communications. A widow who was married 48 years to her high school sweetheart, she has two adult children, one granddaughter, and a granddog. A history nerd, she enjoys painting, singing, and sitting on her porch watching chipmunks dine from her bird feeder. She recently learned how to play the ukulele. Soli Deo Gloria

More from the Authors

Imagine a time when the U.S. not far from the coast was unsettled wilderness. Where brave settlers faced the challenges of isolation and nature as they established a toehold of civilization. Where multiple nations clashed in battle as they vied for control of land and waterways.

This setting seeded with inherent danger and wild beauty calls to those of us who write frontier historical romances from the 1700s and 1800s. Three of us from Wild Heart Books—Sherry Shindelar, Denise Farnsworth, and Susan Craft—came together to pen a trio of novellas, Freed by the Frontier. Each of our stories connects to one of our previous series, but each novella can be read independently. We invite you to journey with us back to rugged mountains, wagon roads, and frontier settlements.

Wichita Path Sacrifice by Sherry Shindelar

The frontier has always captured my imagination. It is a place of hope and hardship, new beginnings and trials, dreams and risk, and in my stories, a place where love is forged. My novella is the prequel to Texas Forsaken, Book One in my Lone Star Redemption series. Wichita Path Sacrifice tells the love story of captive Maggie Logan (Eyes-Like-Sky) and Dancing Eagle, a renowned Comanche warrior. The story is set in Comancheria in the 1850’s when the Comanches ruled the southern Plains and settlers entered the Texas frontier at their own risk. Years ago, the real-life story of Cynthia Ann Parker broke my heart. Cynthia was captured by Comanches at age nine, and lived with them for twenty-four years, married, and had children. When she was eventually recaptured by cavalry and Texas Rangers, she wanted nothing to do with the settlers’ world. Her heart belonged to the Comanche and her husband and children who were lost to her. Cynthia’s story had a sad ending that haunted me. I wanted to write a captive story with a happier ending, and that desire led to Texas Forsaken. The prequel, Wichita Path Sacrifice, inspired by the real-life stories of Cynthia Ann Parker and her cousin Rachel Plummer, is an enemy-to-lovers story of love blossoming in the midst of trials, when it seems all hope is gone. It’s a story of choices between paths. Love requires sacrifice. Eyes-Like-Sky and Dancing Eagle must decide how much they’re willing to let go of and risk if they are to claim the dreams of their heart.

Ofuskee Trail Surrender by Denise Farnsworth

Keturah Caldwell disappeared from A Counterfeit Betrothal, the first book of my Scouts of the Georgia Frontier series. Pledged to wed the hero of that novel, the daughter of a Georgia judge was abducted by thieves and sold to a war party of Creek braves. One of them, known as Wildcat, quietly protects her on the journey to his village in present-day Alabama. Keturah soon learns she has more in common with the adopted son of the micco than she would ever have guessed. When his cruel stepbrother turns his sights on Keturah and her younger sister, Keturah is forced to trust Wildcat in a marriage of convenience, though she vows to convince him to help them escape. They grow from enemies to lovers amid the War of 1812, as she learns that sometimes, greater blessings can come from abiding than from escaping.

Keturah also meets another captive, Susannah Moore, heroine of A Contrary Betrothal (formerly released as Bent Tree Bride), coming August 18 of this year.

Wagon Road Serenade by Susan F. Craft

An enemies-to-lovers historical romance, this novella is set in1754 on the Great Wagon Road spanning from Philadelphia, PA, to Augusta, GA. I wrote this novella as a complement to my three-novel Great Wagon Road series.

Elizabeth Stanton, her reputation marred from an injustice in London, seeks a second chance as a music teacher for a women’s academy in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She joins a wagon train, but scarred from her past, she vows never to rely on a man again. James Morgan, a widowed trapper, hears a vile rumor about Elizabeth and regrets agreeing to drive one of the academy’s wagons. To Elizabeth, James is another charming scoundrel. To James, Elizabeth is a tainted woman to be avoided. Both resist a growing attraction. James admires her willingness to help others. Her soft soprano voice fills the nights with a melancholy sweetness. Had he received false information and misjudged? Elizabeth tries to remain indifferent, but when he saves her and an orphan girl after Indians kidnap them, her heart softens.

Will his gentle treatment erase her misgivings? Can she trust him? Will their hearts reject discord and blend into a serenade of love?

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 11

Artistic Nobody, July 12 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, July 13

Texas Book-aholic, July 14

Jeanette’s Thoughts, July 15

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, July 16

Tell Tale Book Reviews, July 16

Lyssa Loves Books, July 17

lakesidelivingsite, July 17

Guild Master, July 18 (Author Interview)

Books You Can Feel Good About, July 19

Cover Lover Book Review, July 20

Simple Harvest Reads, July 21 (Guest Review from Donna)

Holly’s Book Corner, July 22

Fiction Book Lover, July 23 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, July 24

Giveaway

To celebrate their tour, the Wild Heart Authors aare giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/7zZDM/freed-by-the-frontier-celebration-tour-giveaway

Friday, May 22, 2026

Spotlight and Giveaway: The Schoolmarm and the Miner by Denise Farnsworth

About the Book

Book: The Schoolmarm and the Miner

Author: Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: May 5, 2026

A teacher seeking independence. A widower guarding his heart. In Georgia’s gold country, the richest prize may be the love they’re afraid to claim.

Adelaide Duncan’s dream of teaching is within reach until her father’s drinking and gambling force her to start over. Taking a position in the rough-and-tumble gold rush town of Dahlonega[DF1] , she’s determined to prove herself. But unruly students, strict rules against [DF2] teachers courting, and her growing feelings for a certain widowed father threaten the independence she’s fought so hard to claim.

Wade Coulter walked away from the law after he lost his wife and unborn son. Raising his daughter alone is safer than letting anyone else in. But Lotty’s beautiful new teacher makes him question everything. Just as he begins to trust again, a dangerous man from Wade’s past threatens both the women he loves.

A gold strike on Wade’s property promises security…but also revives old dangers. Scarred by her father’s choices, Addie fears any man who might put [DF3] selfish desires before love. As deadly threats close in and the past refuses to stay buried, Wade must prove he’s changed or risk losing his chance at happiness forever.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

North Georgia native Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, has authored over twenty traditionally published novels and novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A wife and mother of two adult daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

More from Denise

At the end of book one of my Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush series, The Songbird and the Surveyor, the bad guy walked free! Saloon and mine owner Charles Martin’s manipulative plotting and family money spared him from facing justice. Well, we can’t have that…

Wade Coulter, the sheriff whose sister died in a confrontation with Charles, turned in his badge after the man avoided standing trial for kidnapping the wife of Jesse Holden (the hero of book one) and his theft of a local mine owner’s gold. Jesse and Genny left North Georgia for a fresh start, but Wade gets stuck with the burden of failure and—following the deaths of his wife and unborn son—heartache. He’s retreated to his mountain farm with his plucky overall-wearing daughter, Charlotte, determined to keep her safe from the criminals who frequent gold rush boomtowns like the county seat of Dahlonega.

But then a new teacher arrives…one who is also fleeing heartache in hopes of a fresh start. Forced by the mistakes of her drunken father to seek employment in the gold fields rather than at the prestigious girls’ academy from which she just graduated, Adelaide Duncan has no other choice than to make her way in Dahlonega. If that means doing battle with thieves on the square, a pompous school board president, and bullies as big as she is, fine.

The one battle she doesn’t count on is keeping her heart safe from a moody widower who needs convincing by Addie and his aunt, the owner of the boardinghouse where Addie lodges, that his mannerless daughter desperately needs to attend school. It soon enough becomes clear that, despite her guardedness, Lottie longs for a mother’s love. Just when the discovery of gold on Wade’s land allows him to picture a family in his future, an old nemesis shows up with a new scheme…one that once again endangers the women Wade loves.

The Schoolmarm and the Miner packs humor, romance, action, and all your favorite tropes into a real-life town setting so charming, it’s a Hallmark movie-filming destination. After you read the story, you’ll want to plan a road trip to tour the gold museum in the historic courthouse and the drippy tunnels of the Consolidated Gold Mine, one of many that operated in Lumpkin County from the 1830s through the early 1900s. As you wander the North Georgia mountains, you’ll see why I’ve long felt there’s still plenty of treasure there. And fodder for great stories!

Blog Stops

Fiction Book Lover, May 12 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 12

Texas Book-aholic, May 13

For Him and My Family, May 14

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, May 15

Lakesidelivingsite , May 15

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, May 16

Devoted To Hope, May 17

Jeanette’s Thoughts, May 18

Books You Can Feel Good About, May 19

Connie’s History Classroom, May 20

Simple Harvest Reads, May 21 (Guest Review from Donna)

Holly’s Book Corner, May 22

Cover Lover Book Review, May 23

Pause for Tales, May 24

Lyssa Loves Books, May 25

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Denise is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/DSQoC/the-schoolmarm-and-the-miner-celebration-tour-giveaway

Thursday, March 5, 2026

Blog Tour and Giveaway: The Maiden and the Mountie by Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

About the Book

Book: The Maiden and the Mountie

Author: Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

A marriage of necessity. A secret buried deep. In Georgia’s gold country, love may be the most dangerous treasure of all.

Gage Edmonds plans to use his engineering degree to blaze new roads in the Southern frontier—but first, he must follow in the footsteps of his war hero father and prove he’s worthy of their family name. His assignment to the Georgia Mounted Militia puts him between gold-hungry settlers and Cherokees soon to be forced from their homes. The local miller’s captivating daughter, Anna Walker, makes him question everything he thought he wanted. Grieved at the treatment of the peaceful Cherokees, Gage chooses not to re-enlist but agrees to work as a translator, even if it might cost him his chance at redemption.

Daughter of a European mother and Cherokee father, Anna has seen the way new settlers have pushed her father’s people out of their homes. She vowed never to fall for a white man. Least of all, a soldier. Yet when Sergeant Edwards endangers himself to keep the peace during a clash at her father’s gristmill, she admits there’s something honorable about him. Over Anna’s protests, her father seeks to secure her future in Gage’s hands.

On the eve of eviction, members of a local village hide their gold, trusting Anna with its safekeeping until they can return. When dangerous men discover the secret, she’s forced to rely on Gage for protection. But just as she begins to trust him, a secret her father has kept threatens to tear them apart. Can Anna trust this soldier with the truth—and her heart?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

North Georgia native Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, has authored over twenty traditionally published novels and a number of novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A wife and mother of two young adult daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

More from Denise

The vanished pieces of our history have always intrigued me as an author. Houses, towns, lives that were once so vital but now of which there is no trace left except in books and oral accounts. For The Maiden and the Mountie, tales about two vanished things caught my attention when I lived near Cumming, Georgia—a Cherokee removal fort and Cherokee gold. Local historians have long debated the location of Fort Buffington and legends of Cherokee gold hidden in tunnels with secret vaults and deadfalls…or buried in clay pots, some of which were reported to have been found.

The second book of my Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush series is set during the fall and winter of 1837. Gold had been found in the late 1820s on Cherokee land, land which was then divvied up in a state lottery. Lottery winners prepared to move onto farming lots of a hundred and sixty acres or mining lots of forty acres. Much of that property already had “improvements”—homes, outbuildings, and businesses. The majority of the Cherokee people had “Americanized,” adopting the clothing, religion, language, and farming and business methods of their white neighbors. That did not stop property- and gold-hungry settlers from taking Native American land.

Some Cherokees moved to Oklahoma Territory before the May 1838 deadline set by the national government. Others lingered until the last, fed by rumors and hopes that the legal efforts of their leaders in Washington would succeed. Many of them endured harassment by Pony Club members. Eventually, the remaining Cherokees were rounded up by mounted militia, forced into hastily constructed removal forts, and escorted on the tragic winter march that became known as the Trail of Tears.

No doubt about it—this is grave subject matter. But wouldn’t writing a trilogy about the Georgia Gold Rush without including an account of the Cherokee Removal be an even graver disservice to the actual history and the proud people who endured it?

The Maiden and the Mountie focuses on the mixed-blood Cherokee family of the heroine, Anna Walker, whose father operates a gristmill—another setting unique to fiction but so vital to nineteenth-century communities. For this angle of the story, I was able to draw on my brief stint as a county employee when I spent some time as a docent at Freeman’s Mill in Gwinnett County. The hero, Gage Edmonds, yearns to live up to his father’s military record and at the same time defend the heritage of his Cherokee grandmother-by-marriage. The conflict he rides into as a member of the Georgia Mounted Militia constructing Fort Buffington in Cherokee County convinces him he can better serve the native people as a translator than a soldier. Defending Anna and her family from members of the Pony Club makes his quest even more personal. Little does he know the woman he’s falling in love with has been called on by her father’s people to help hide Cherokee gold.

Themes of The Maiden and the Mountie include finding one’s identity in God, friendship that spans social boundaries, the power of adopted family, and love that blooms amid the harsh winter of conflict. I hope you’ll join Anna and Gage in the tumultuous days of the Georgia Gold Rush and look for The Schoolmarm and the Miner coming later this year.

Blog Stops

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, February 21

Blossoms and Blessings, February 22

Books Less Travelled, February 22

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, February 23

Texas Book-aholic, February 24

Devoted To Hope, February 25

Holly’s Book Corner, February 26

For Him and My Family, February 26

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, February 27

Betti Mace, February 28

Jeanette’s Thoughts , March 1

lakesidelivingsite, March 2

Cover Lover Book Review, March 3

Books You Can Feel Good About, March 4

Pause for Tales, March 4

Locks, Hooks and Books, March 5

Lyssa Loves Books, March 6

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Denise is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/UE2FM/the-maiden-and-the-mountie-celebration-tour-giveaway

My Review

The Maiden and the Mountie is the second installment from Denise Farnsworth's Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush series. I have not read the first book and believe this one can easily be read as a stand alone. I adored Anna and Gage's story. It was full of adventure, love, and faith. I enjoyed taking this adventure with them and wanted to see how it would end for them.

I am going to give The Maiden and the Mountie four and a half stars. I recommend it for readers who enjoy reading clean historical romance. I am looking forward to reading the other books from the Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush series to see where else Denise Farnsworth takes her characters to.

I received a copy of Denise Farnsworth's The Maiden and the Mountie from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Spotlight and Giveaway: The Songbird and the Surveyor by Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

About the Book

Book: The Songbird and the Surveyor

Author: Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: November 3, 2025

A marriage of protection. A past full of pain. In Georgia’s wild gold country, love might strike when it’s least expected.

Genevieve Gillbard knows she’s no longer safe in the rough-and-tumble gold rush town when she overhears her controlling guardian’s plot to steal gold from a local mine owner. It takes every ounce of her courage to escape, and now she’ll do anything to keep herself safe, even accept a temporary marriage of convenience from a man who clearly wants nothing more than his independence.

After losing his first wife, surveyor Jesse Holden swore never to let anyone close enough to need him again. But when he discovers the woman he knows as the Songbird of Auraria injured and unconscious in the woods, he can’t abandon her, not with the memory of his failure to protect his wife hanging over him. He’ll keep this woman safe until she’s out of harm’s way, even if it means doing the one thing he swore he’d never do again.

As Genny recovers under Jesse’s care, she discovers he’s nothing like the manipulative men of her past. But can she trust him with her heart—knowing he plans to leave as soon as her guardian is brought to justice? And even then, she fears the sham marriage might not be enough to keep her safe from her guardian’s long reach.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

North Georgia native Denise Farnsworth has authored around twenty traditionally published novels and a number of novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

More from Denise

A Gold Rush…in Georgia?

Celebrate Lit Blog Post for The Songbird and the Surveyor by Denise Farnsworth

(writing as Denise Weimer)

Did you know there was a gold rush in Georgia that began twenty years before gold was discovered in California? That Georgia gold was purer than any found in the country? Comment below if you did. And I tip my hat to you. I come across many native Georgians who are unaware of this major event in their state’s history.

My first series, The Georgia Gold Series, touched on the Georgia Gold Rush. In the ten years since its release, I’ve written novels set between the Revolutionary War and contemporary times. (I also recently got married. Thus, the name change from Denise Weimer to Denise Farnsworth. I hope you’ll look for my future novels under my new name!) The period of the 1830s is one largely untouched in American history by fiction writers. I always knew I might revisit that decade in more detail. Thus, The Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush was born.

Gold was first discovered by white men on Coker Creek in 1827, but it wasn’t until fall of 1828, when Benjamin Parks found a nugget as he returned from filling his cattle’s lick log west of the Chestatee River, that the mining industry exploded in North Georgia. The area was flooded by prospectors who clashed with the native Cherokee people. The land was soon taken from them and divvied up in a lottery of ninety-two districts, with farming plots set at a hundred and sixty acres and gold lots at forty acres. By June of 1832, almost six hundred surveyors from across Georgia were hard at work.

The gold belt stretched from Clarkesville to Canton (the setting of book two), with major concentrations near Dahlonega (the setting of book three). Auraria, located on the mountain ridge between the Etowah and Chestatee rivers, was one of the boom towns that lingered into the twentieth century, although now only a few abandoned buildings remain. Think Wild West before the west went wild. Into this setting I dropped the story of a guilt-haunted surveyor with a dangerous streak of wanderlust and an orphan who’s learned to sing for her life.

Genevieve Gillbard’s neglectful father has died and left her in the care of her guardian, a volatile saloon owner with unwholesome intentions. When she overhears a plot that implicates Charles Martin and one of his employees in a scheme to kidnap her and siphon off a local miner’s gold, Genevieve flees…right into the arms of another man she surely can’t trust.

Blaming himself for the death of his wife, Jesse Holden wants nothing less than being saddled with the wounded songbird he rescued from a drunken miner on his first trip to Auraria. But when he learns that Genny’s guardian is the same man responsible for his wife’s death, he agrees to shelter her to give his sheriff friend, also his former brother-in-law, time to entrap Charles. Neither of them expect to be forced into a marriage in name only—at least until Genny reaches her majority. Despite his efforts to hold his heart at bay, Jesse was raised by his minister-father to treat women right—something so new to Genny, it crumbles her walls. But will the emotional price of trusting Jesse prove higher than the risk to her physical safety?

Although set near raucous boom town of Auraria, The Songbird and the Surveyor is a story of quiet healing and second chances. Of rescues and God’s miraculous redirection. Of learning to spot the real among the counterfeit…and hold onto it for all you’re worth.