Ladies of Sweet Town Gazette

1. Nature's Autumn Decorations, And How To Use Them

2. Nut Gathering Party

3. All Hallow Eve

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imagination

Sweet Town
by Sarah Christian

In the shadow of wild Deadwood sits quiet Sweet Town. Established in the Dakota Gold Rush of the 1870s, Sweet Town is surrounded by gentle hills and fields of clover. It's a place where anyone can start over and redemption is never out of reach.

Sweet Town romances tell the stories of the community as its members fall in love. These inspiring stories explore the power of charity, the nature of good and evil, and all the miracles that can happen when you open your heart.

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A Bride's Price 1 - A BRIDE'S PRICE: As a mail order bride. Lucy arrived in Gold Rush era Dakota Territory near Deadwood, only to discover her intended has been murdered. Running from a painful past, instead of the settled home she imagined, she finds herself looking into the intense eyes of US Marshal Kit Price. 

Determined to solve the murder and uncover Lucy’s secrets, Kit can’t let himself be distracted by the unusual beauty from back East. MORE...

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What Child Is This 2 - WHAT CHILD IS THIS: Some mothers are created through birth and some are born through an interesting series of events. Days before Christmas as a blizzard hits Sweet Town, Dakota Territory, a baby is found abandoned in a lonely shack. With no nursing mothers in town, the unmarried Emma Brown takes responsibility for him, but not everyone is happy with this act of kindness. Anger and judgment drive the town to turn their backs on Emma and her young charge, leaving her frightened and unsure of who can be trusted. When a handsome stranger with piercing blue eyes arrives, the mystery of the baby's birth deepens.

A sweet, short story about charity and the power of love, What Child Is This explores the true meaning of Christmas. MORE...


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Calling His Bluff 3 - CALLING HIS BLUFF: After Emma Brown adopted an abandoned baby boy, her life was changed forever. Then the mysterious Neal Leonetti came into Sweet Town and rumor said he’d come looking for a lost child. Emma fled, only to be trapped in a blizzard. All his life Neal has fought to protect the vulnerable, like finding a lost baby for his mother. And when Emma ran in the night, Neal could do nothing more than follow. MORE...


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Not Always Nice 4 - NOT ALWAYS NICE: When financial ruin struck Bridget O'Brien's family, she found herself pushed into an unwanted engagement. The defiant beauty who had turned away suitors in Boston stepped off of a stage coach in the Dakota Territory to meet the childhood friend who would be her husband. From boy to man, he'd grown strikingly handsome and her first glimpse of him took her breath away. And then he told her he had no intention of marrying her. MORE...

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Preacher's Wife 5 - PREACHER'S WIFE: Hiding from a man who wants him dead, Matthieu Whitney has finally made a peaceful life for himself as the pastor of Sweet Town. Much of that peace relies on passing as white, which proves agonizing as he finds himself driven to distraction by the beautiful and sharply intelligent Beulah Douglass. Already struggling as a young mother alone, Beulah isn't looking for trouble. Certainly not the kind of trouble that comes in the form of a tall, dark, and handsome pastor with haunting green eyes and a protective streak as wide as the Mississippi. Can Beulah have any hope of being the Preacher's Wife? MORE...

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Doctor's Midwife 6 - DOCTOR'S MIDWIFE: Ever since she was widowed and lost her unborn child, midwife Mika has been one of the walking wounded. She came to Sweet Town at the invitation of her late husband's best friend, providing healing to the tiny community. But even this modest niche she's made for herself is threatened when a handsome doctor arrives in town, with new theories on medicine, a drug for every malady, and no place for caring for the soul as well as the body. MORE...

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Carpenter's Rose 7 - CARPENTER'S ROSE: What's a spinster schoolteacher to do when an entire town is playing matchmaker? Aimee Whitney arrived in Sweet Town in the middle of an early snowstorm and only survived the night thanks to the kindness of a handsome blue-eyed stranger. But an unmarried woman sleeping under the roof of the wealthiest bachelor in town gets people talking and now there's no shutting them up. MORE...

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Silver Bells 8 - SILVER BELLS: Isolated in her cruel step-father's cabin on the frontier, Hannah has been caring for her younger siblings since their mother died. Now that she's eighteen, her step-father plans to marry her off to an old prospector and get rid of the children once and for all. With a blizzard blanketing the Dakota Territory and little more than hope, Hannah escapes with her siblings to try to find a safer life. But can a Christmas miracle save them from being lost forever? MORE...

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Blacksmith's Christmas Bride 9 - BLACKSMITH'S CHRISTMAS BRIDE: Therese Nováková thirsts for adventure and freedom, but instead she spends all her days working herself to exhaustion in her family's hotel. Now her father is pushing her to marry a rancher so she can work herself to exhaustion for him instead. If she has to marry, she'd prefer it be with her handsome best friend, the town blacksmith Hunter Franklin, but he's shown no interest in her. After overhearing Therese tell her father that he's not like other men, Hunter is looking to prove himself and show her that he's every bit a man and far more than a friend to her. As the biggest, strongest figure in town, he's not used to ever having to compete against others, but now he has to prove himself the better man than this newcomer rancher. A blizzard and a wild sleigh ride through the snow covered prairie pits Hunter and Therese in a race against time to help a community against starvation, spread Christmas charity, and save one another. MORE...

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Teacher's Pet 10 - TEACHER'S PET: With her orphaned siblings to raise and a cruel stepfather intent on hunting them down, Hannah Colflesh already has plenty to deal with. Then came the flu epidemic. Caring for her ill baby sister and ailing townspeople, she'd be utterly lost if it wasn't for the support of the dashing new teacher, Nate Carlton. Nate always figured he'd have a family someday, but with Hannah he'd gain one in an instant. That would be perfect if it weren't for the fact that his father forbids the match and Hannah herself has sworn off marriage, never wanting to repeat her mother's mistakes. With the outbreak growing worse, neither can promise what the next day holds. Both committed to caring for others, do they dare take the leap of faith to care for one another? MORE...

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Rancher's Woman 11 - RANCHER'S WOMAN: Life on the frontier is hard, especially for a woman alone, ruined by the man she loved. Esther White was forced to work as a soiled dove to survive, but now that she's the housekeeper for a handsome foreign rancher she can put all of that behind her. Except for the fact that her new employer wants to woo her and the entire town disapproves. Jachym Marek has always honored tradition and done what's expected of him, but Esther makes him want to break out of the mold. No woman has ever fascinated him the way she does, nor made him feel so protective. The only man who can see the purity and value within her, he has to fight everyone to keep her with him, even as she tries to pull away to protect him from her reputation. With love and redemption on their side, could a soiled dove become the Rancher's Woman? MORE...

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Author's Muse

12 - AUTHOR'S MUSE: Three years ago, Isabelle Lindholm started a double life, writing dime novels under the name Jamison Ross to save up money for her and her son's escape from an abusive husband. But after fleeing to begin anew in Sweet Town, she faces an unpleasant surprise when her handsome editor steps off of a stagecoach and announces he's looking for Mr. Ross, because he's wanted for murdering Belle's husband.

Theodore Tulloch can't believe that his prize author Mr. Ross could be responsible for killing anyone, which is what drove him out west, wanting to clear the man's name. He finds an enigmatic beauty at Ross's address, the widow of the murder victim, who refuses to tell him where Ross has gone. Logic says she's guilty as sin, but when he looks in her eyes he wants nothing more than to protect her.

With mayhem hitting the sleepy streets of Sweet Town and a dangerous mystery to solve, Theodore might have finally found his own muse. MORE...


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Orphan Lost

13 - ORPHAN LOST: The frontier is never entirely safe and David knows that better than most. After his mother died and his father turned cruel, he ran away and survived on the plains of the Dakota Territory alone at the age of fourteen. He eventually found his way to safety and security in Sweet Town, but now another orphan is missing in the Black Hills, and this one much younger than David was. With a protective mother bear on the prowl and a mysterious one-handed old prospector out there, David must hurry to find the lost little girl before it's too late. MORE...


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Lawyer's Lady

14 - LAWYER'S LADY: After caring for her elderly grandparents, spinster Laura Berg was ready to experience a new life on the frontier. But instead of opening her bakery and adopting one of the town's orphans like she planned, she finds herself in an unexpected custody battle with the orphan's long lost wealthy - and very handsome - uncle.

Gerard Barnes has a very simple goal: find his nephew and bring him back to Boston, where he can be properly brought up as an heir to the family's fortune. What he gets instead is an adventure through the Black Hills with Laura after the boy runs away. Now he finds his goal changing, torn between familial duty and a burgeoning love for this independent beauty.

When their search becomes a matter of life and death, Gerard and Laura have only each other to turn to. Will it be enough? MORE...


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Miner's Vow

14 - MINER'S VOW: After struggling for far too long sharecropping in Georgia, Sasha Douglass follows her sister Beulah into the Dakota Territory, where opportunities abound. Sasha hopes making a new life might also mean finding a romantic hero of her own to sweep her off her feet. But Seamus O'Brien - a man with big dreams who promises things he has no right promising - can't possibly be that hero.

A perpetual disappointment to his father and a poor replacement for his dead brother, Seamus travels to Sweet Town where his brother-in-law is the mayor and richest man around, hoping a little bit of that luck might rub off on him. But while he's hunting the biggest gold vein in the Sweet Town foothills, he finds himself entranced by a far more precious treasure: Sasha herself. MORE...


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Therese Nováková's family recipe for Bohemian koláče.

Dough Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast or 1¾ teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup warm milk (105 to 115°F)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp table salt
½ teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg
About 4 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

Egg Wash

1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp cream, milk, or water

Cheese Topping

16 oz. farmer cheese or cream cheese, softened or a combination of the two equaling 16 oz.
1/2 cup granulated sugar or more to taste
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Prune Topping

1 lb. pitted prunes, or 8 ounces pitted prunes and 8 dried pitted cherries
2 cups water
About 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice or prune juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves (optional)

For directions and more variations see: http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2013/08/kolache/#wdmqDFJYGYTGwI21.99

 

 

   
 
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