Death by Coconut by Susie Black

Death by Coconut

by Susie Black

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Book Blurb:

The Mart Murder Magnet Meets Her Match 

Obnoxious Mystique Swimwear sales rep Simon Posnick was universally despised by competitors and customers alike. So the question wasn’t who wanted the lying, cheating scoundrel dead. The question was who didn’t. Mariel Levine, Laurie’s Fashions' swimsuit buyer and Holly Schlivnik’s career mentor, is wrongly arrested for murdering Posnick by impaling him with the jagged edge of a coconut shell at the base of his skull. The wisecracking, irreverent President of Mermaid Swimwear jumps into action to uncover the real killer. But the treacherous trail holds more dangerous human predators than the alligators and black pythons in the Everglades. Everything turns out differently than amateur sleuth Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a killer hell-bent on revenge.

Excerpt:

 I took the long way around to Avril’s booth, buying time to come up with a plausible line of questioning that wouldn’t get me thrown out of her booth for the second time in twenty-four hours or convince her that I’d gone around the bend.  

Tried as I might, no pearls of wisdom popped into my head, so I took a page out of my dad’s game book: forge ahead and punt. I strolled into her booth as if yesterday’s altercation had never happened.  

“Hey, Avril, how ya doin’?”  

She looked up from writing an order and eyed me up and down with less enthusiasm than an infected tooth extraction.  “Return to fling more insults?” 

Yeah. And who told you? 

 “Nah. Just wondering where you were this morning before dawn.” 

 She checked her watch. “Happy hour doesn’t begin until four o’clock in most establishments. But with such a crazy question, you apparently got a head start.” 

“So, where were you?” 

“Seriously?” 

“As a heart attack.” 

“Why?” 

“Answer the question.” 

“Where the hell do you think I was, for crying out loud?” 

I smiled sweetly. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.” 

She clucked her tongue. “It’s not any of your business, but I was in bed asleep, the same as most normal people. Why?” 

I ignored her question and answered with another of my own. “Do you ride a lightweight ten-speed touring bike?” 

She burst out laughing. “Are you on medication?” 

Yeah. And who told you? 

“Do vitamins count?” 

“Not unless yours are laced with a hallucinogen.” 

“So, do you ride a touring bike or not?” 

She rolled her eyes. “ The answer is no. I don’t ride a touring bike, a training bike, a motorbike, a mountain bike, or any other type of bike. I never learned to ride a bicycle. Now, tell me the reason you care.” 

“Because I was walking northbound on the boardwalk, on the way back to my hotel from the pier right before sunup. A rider on a lightweight ten-speed touring bike rode too close to me and clipped me with their handlebars. The momentum threw me into the steel arm rail.” I pointed to my midsection. “Two sore ribs and I'm black and blue around my middle, and the bastard never even stopped.” 

She pinched her lips. “Let me assure you, if it were me on the bike, you wouldn’t be standing asking the question.” She pointed to the booth entrance. “Since we’ve cleared this issue up, get the hell out of my booth and don’t come back.” 

I blew her a kiss and got out while the getting was still good. 

That went well... if your idea of a great time is a migraine. I doubt I’ll be invited for Thanksgiving dinner, but at least Avril’s answer confirmed my original theory. Do I believe her? Yeah. Even an Academy Award-winning actor couldn’t fake that level of righteous indignation. Was I disappointed or relieved? Maybe a little bit of both.  

 Author Bio:

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple, but now calls sunny Southern California home. She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, to keep her girlish figure, she’s a dedicated walker. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector and ardent sailor. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.  

Looking for more? Contact Susie at: 

E-mail: mysteries.authorsusieblack@gmail.com 

The Forecast is Murder by Susie Black

 

The Forecase is Murder

by Susie Black

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Book Blurb:

The United Television Network exiles disgraced investigative reporter Sunny Knight to a remote California desert affiliate. The station owner tells Sunny that, since nothing happens in the middle of nowhere, the station does not need an investigative reporter, and she is now the weather reporter. After they have a vicious altercation, the station owner’s bridge partner is discovered dead, and Sunny’s boss is arrested for the murder. Despite her differences with her boss, Sunny is convinced that the station owner didn’t do it. The wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to nail the real killer. But with a clown car full of viable suspects to investigate, will Sunny bring the right one to justice or become their next victim? 

Excerpt:

“Mrs. McClintock, allow me to introduce you to Nelly Dean Knight, our new weather reporter.” Wait. What? Weather reporter? Who? Me? She clamped her slightly gnarled fingers tightly over mine and gave my hand a firm shake. “Edwina McClintock. Head honcho of this establishment.” She let go of my hand and swept hers across the room. “To save us both a lot of time and aggravation, here’s how it works around my shop. I run a tight ship. I don’t put up with crap from anyone…so don’t even try wasting my time. Show up when you’re supposed to. Come to work prepared. Do your job right. Around here, it’s my way or the highway. Follow my rules, and we’ll get along fine. If not, you and the little still left of your broadcasting career will be history faster than you can say Cactus City.” She narrowed her eyes. “We clear?” Clear? As mud. Who the hell does she think she’s talking to? I spoke through gritted teeth. “So, if you bothered to read my resume, you’d see I am an award-winning investigative reporter, not a weather girl, as you disrespectfully referred to me. I dunno who’s supposed to take that dead-end job, but it sure as hell isn’t me.” She grinned impishly. “You have spunk and guts, young lady. Good on you. So, here’s the thing. I don’t need an investigative reporter. Truthfully, not enough goes on out here in the middle of nowhere to investigate. She shook the resume at me. “We can do each other some good. You need a way back into the industry, which I can provide, and I need someone who understands the importance of accuracy in reporting.” I grinned. “You don’t need a reporter. The receptionist is qualified. How hard is it to say it’s going to be beastly hot today and a little less hot tonight?” “Lives and livelihoods depend on the weather here. Use your investigative skills to go into the field and report how our severe and often unpredictable weather impacts the residents and the economy. The weather reporter is critically important to the community we serve.” The madame missed her métier. She should have gone into sales. “Show me the compensation package.” I scanned it, then held out my hand. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll make a lot more as a mortuary cosmetician.” She wrinkled her nose. “Good grief. Talk about a grim career choice. That one wins the gold medal.” I grinned. “Grim, yes, but since death is inevitable, you’re never out of work.” “Before you go, just to be sure you understand how much you’re walking away from, let’s go over the offer.” I rolled my eyes. “Go over it all you want, but the numbers don’t lie. I earned double the salary in Newark.” “Consider the benefits we include. It’s not how much you earn; it’s how much you keep.” She grinned. “And this is a helluva lot better gig compared to preparing corpses for funerals.” She had me there.

Author Bio:

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple, but like her protagonist in The Sunny Knight Mystery Series, she now calls sunny Southern California home. She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector and ardent sailor. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect. Looking for more? Contact Susie at: E-mail: mysteries.authorsusieblack@gmail.com

Three Reasons to Start with Pearson Grove

If you are looking for a complete Western romance series with strong heroines, dangerous secrets, and a Texas frontier town worth visiting, begin with Pearson Grove. 

My mother Caroline Clemmons wrote many connected Western romance series, but the Pearson Grove series has a special advantage for readers who want a satisfying, contained reading journey. It includes three complete stories—Mail-Order Moriah, Alexandria’s Awakening, and Deborah’s Dilemma—all set in the fictional Texas frontier town of Pearson Grove. 

You will find romance, certainly. But you will also find the things that make a Western setting come alive: people trying to outdistance the past, danger that can reach even a seemingly peaceful town, and neighbors who discover that building a community requires courage as well as kindness. 

Here are three reasons Pearson Grove is an excellent place to start. 

1. Start With Hope—and a Mail-Order Bride 

A mail-order bride romance begins with hope. 

That hope may be cautious. It may be born from desperation. It may come after loss, disappointment, or a long journey. But at its heart, the trope asks a question that readers never tire of exploring: Can two strangers create a life together when the future is uncertain? 

That question is at the center of Mail-Order Moriah, the first Pearson Grove novel. 

Moriah Singleton has endured hardship every step of the way. She has traveled from England to America and then toward Texas, looking for an opportunity to build a safe, stable future. With few choices available, she answers a mail-order bride advertisement—and hopes the arrangement will give her a home and, eventually, a way to bring her beloved sister to Texas. 

That is an emotional beginning with real stakes. 

Moriah is not traveling west simply because she has been swept up in a romantic fantasy. She is trying to survive and to create a future for someone she loves. Her determination gives the story weight from the first page. 

The man waiting for her in Pearson Grove is Scott Ferguson, a Texas shopkeeper with worries of his own. He is not searching for a glamorous adventure. He wants a wife and partner, someone who can share life with him and help in the practical work of a frontier business. 

A mercantile owner is an especially fitting hero for a story about a developing Texas town. The general store is where people gather for supplies, news, conversation, and sometimes gossip. Scott’s livelihood connects him directly to the pulse of Pearson Grove. 

But a marriage arranged by letters still requires trust. 

Moriah and Scott must learn what cannot be communicated in correspondence alone: whether the other person is dependable in a crisis, whether they can work through disappointment, and whether an arrangement created from necessity can become a relationship built on affection and respect. 

That is what makes Mail-Order Moriah such a strong entry point. It introduces Pearson Grove through the eyes of a newcomer. Readers experience the town’s promise and uncertainty alongside Moriah as she decides whether Texas can become home. 

If you enjoy mail-order bride romances, practical marriages that slowly become something more, and heroines who refuse to give up on a better future, Moriah’s story is a wonderful place to begin. 

2. Stay for the Outlaws, Secrets, and Suspense 

Pearson Grove may be a place where people hope to make a new life, but this is still the Texas frontier. 

The town has dangers at its edges and secrets within its families. Caroline did not write the Pearson Grove books as simple romances in which a couple only needs to overcome a misunderstanding before reaching a happy ending. Her characters face real threats, difficult truths, and situations that test their judgment. 

That blend of romance and suspense is the second reason to start the series. 

In Alexandria’s Awakening, Alexandra Novak’s comfortable, protected life changes after a devastating fire and a family secret force her to question what she thought she knew. The events do not merely inconvenience her. They require her to grow beyond the expectations and assumptions that have shaped her life. 

Her romance with Pearson Grove Sheriff Virgil Witt develops in the midst of that upheaval. 

Virgil has devoted himself to protecting the town, and he has little reason to believe a dangerous job leaves space for romance. Alexandra, meanwhile, must decide who she wants to be when the life she expected no longer feels secure. As new threats close in on the Novak family, both characters must decide whether they can rely on one another. 

The story’s suspense works because it is tied to character. Alexandra cannot solve her problems by returning to the sheltered life she once knew. She must become more aware, more courageous, and more honest with herself. Virgil cannot simply keep his heart locked away behind the obligations of his job. He must decide whether protecting others can include allowing himself to be loved. 

Then Deborah’s Dilemma raises the stakes again. 

Deborah Taber is trying to find her own purpose in Pearson Grove when violence rocks the community. Her brother is shot. Her family’s newspaper is firebombed. And Trey Pearson—the man Deborah has quietly loved for years—becomes caught in suspicion and danger. 

That is the kind of crisis that affects an entire small town. 

A firebombed newspaper is more than a damaged building. A local newspaper represents public information, community conversation, and the ability to bring wrongdoing into the light. Attacking it is an attempt to frighten people and silence the truth. 

For Deborah, the danger is personal as well as public. She has to decide whether she can trust Trey when others question him. Trey must confront an enemy while trying to clear his name and protect the people he cares about. 

The Pearson Grove books offer a satisfying mix for readers who like their historical romance with mystery and peril. You get the emotional reward of a developing relationship, but you also get a compelling reason to turn the page. 

The outlaws and secrets are not there simply for excitement. They reveal character. They show which people are loyal, which ones are brave, and which ones will stand beside another person when it would be easier to step away. 

3. Fall in Love With a Frontier Community 

The third reason to start Pearson Grove is the town itself. 

A good fictional Western town needs more than a few buildings and a dusty main street. It needs people who feel connected to one another. It needs jobs, families, old disagreements, shared challenges, and enough warmth that readers can understand why someone would risk so much to belong there. 

Pearson Grove has that sense of community. 

Across the three books, readers encounter people who are making a living, raising families, protecting neighbors, keeping businesses open, and trying to create a safer town than the one they may have found when they arrived. The characters’ lives overlap, and that continuity makes the series particularly rewarding when read in order. 

In Mail-Order Moriah, Moriah arrives as an outsider. Pearson Grove is unfamiliar territory, and she must learn whom she can trust. The town offers possibility, but Moriah’s future depends on whether she can find a genuine place within it. 

In Alexandria’s Awakening, the town’s sheriff is not just a romantic hero. Virgil Witt is part of the framework that keeps Pearson Grove functioning. His commitment to safety reflects the larger concern of a frontier community: people must be able to depend on one another. 

By Deborah’s Dilemma, danger is no longer confined to one household. The shooting and firebombing put the whole town on edge. The threat demands a response from people who care about the truth, about one another, and about what kind of community Pearson Grove will become. 

That is the heart of the series. 

Pearson Grove is built on more than romance. It is built on belonging. 

The heroines do not find love and then disappear into an isolated happy ending. Their choices strengthen families, businesses, friendships, and the town itself. The heroes are not merely handsome men with uncertain pasts. They are shopkeepers, lawmen, and men with ties to the people and place around them. 

A tight-knit community gives historical romance an additional layer of comfort. Readers can enjoy danger and suspense because they also know there are people willing to help. A neighbor may provide a warning. A friend may offer shelter. A family may stand together when an enemy tries to divide them. 

That feeling of connection makes Pearson Grove a series you can settle into. 

It is also one reason the trilogy’s shorter length is a strength. You can follow three romances and watch the town’s world deepen without needing to commit to a dozen books. The complete reading order is simple: 

Mail-Order Moriah 

Alexandria’s Awakening 

Deborah’s Dilemma

Each book gives readers a new central couple and a fresh conflict, while the town remains the shared thread. By the final story, Pearson Grove feels less like a fictional setting and more like a place readers have come to know. 

A Complete Series, Ready to Read 

There is something especially satisfying about beginning a series that is already complete. 

You can meet Moriah and Scott, continue with Alexandra and Virgil, and then follow Deborah and Trey into their dangerous final story without waiting for a new release. The three books offer a full journey through a Texas frontier town shaped by hope, threat, resilience, and love. 

The Pearson Grove series may be smaller than some of Caroline’s other Western romance collections, but it delivers a complete and richly connected reading experience. It is ideal for readers who enjoy historical romance with a strong sense of place, women who grow through adversity, honorable men who must learn to trust, and suspense that gives every emotional decision added meaning. 

Begin With Mail-Order Moriah 

If Pearson Grove sounds like your kind of Texas town, start with Mail-Order Moriah. 

Moriah’s journey is the doorway into the series. She arrives in Texas after hardship and uncertainty, hoping that a mail-order marriage will give her a chance at safety, purpose, and a future for her sister. Scott Ferguson is a shopkeeper facing his own troubles, and together they must decide whether they can turn an uncertain arrangement into a lasting partnership. 

Their story introduces the town, its people, and the central promise of the series: even in a world marked by danger and difficult choices, brave people can create a life worth sharing. 

Dark Night of the Soul by Michelle Miles

 

 

Love made him dangerous.

Devotion will make him unstoppable.

Dark Night of the Soul

War of the Brotherhood Book 1

by Michelle Miles

Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance

Love made him dangerous. Devotion will make him unstoppable.

For centuries, Kincade survived by control.

Forged by the Brotherhood, he learned to bury his humanity, suppress his instincts, and become exactly what they needed him to be—a weapon. Darkness was safer than feeling. Obedience was survival.

Then she changed everything.

When the woman he loves is taken, restraint shatters. The careful balance he's fought to maintain slips—and the Brotherhood sees their opening. They want the monster he used to be. The weapon they never quite lost.

To save her, he may have to become exactly that.

As ancient secrets rise and factions fracture, the line between protector and destroyer begins to blur. Every step closer to her pulls him deeper into the war he tried to escape—and toward the darkness he swore would never rule him again.

Because this time, love isn't his weakness. It's his point of no return.

Dark Night of the Soul is a dark paranormal romance set within the War of the Brotherhood—a high-stakes spin-off arc in the Dream Walker universe. You do not need to read the previous Dream Walker books to enjoy DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL. This spinoff is designed to stand on its own.

 

Perfect for readers who love:

* Dark, emotionally intense paranormal romance

* Immortal antiheroes and devotion-driven stakes

* Secret orders, hidden wars, and found family

* Love that becomes defiance

 

Content Note: This book contains dark themes and intense scenes, including violence, injury and blood, torture / forced restraint, psychological trauma, and situations involving coercion / control. It also includes threats to a loved one. Reader discretion is advised.

 

"Dark Night of the Soul by Michelle Miles is everything dark paranormal romance should be—intense, emotional, and completely consuming. I devoured it."

— Michelle M. Pillow, NYT Bestselling Author

 

Available in eBook, paperback, and audio! 

 

Author’s Site * Amazon * Apple * B&N * Smashwords * Books2Read * Bookbub * Goodreads

MICHELLE MILES believes in fairy tales, true love, and a little bit of magic in every story. She writes fantasy, paranormal, and young adult books packed with adventure, action, and swoon-worthy romance—because what’s a story without a bit of danger and a whole lot of heart? From angels and demons to dragons, elves, and time travelers, her books are filled with epic quests, fierce heroines, and the kind of heroes worth falling for.

When she's not crafting new adventures, she brings stories to life as a narrator and hosts Miles Beyond the Page, a podcast where she chats with authors about their writing journeys. A Texas girl through and through, she loves getting lost in a good book, binge-watching movies, hiking the trails, and sipping a glass of wine. Come hang out with her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more!

 

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * TikTok * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Enter the Dark Night of the Soul Giveaway Here

Three Texas Settings You’ll Love in Caroline’s Westerns

Texas is not just where many of my mother Caroline Clemmons’ Western romances happen to take place. It is part of the emotional fabric of the stories: a place of hard-won beginnings, close communities, wide-open possibility, and people determined to make a home where the land itself can be demanding. 

Readers often come to a Western romance for a handsome cowboy, a courageous heroine, danger, humor, family ties, or a satisfying happily-ever-after. Caroline’s Texas-set books offer all those things, but they also offer places readers can picture long after the final page. A dusty frontier town can become a refuge. A ranch can represent both responsibility and belonging. A hill-country road can bring a frightened woman toward the chance for a new life. 

Below are three Texas settings readers will love visiting in Caroline’s Westerns: the wild beauty of the Texas Hill Country, the spirited frontier town of Tarnation, and the family-centered world of Kincaid Springs. 

1. The Texas Hill Country: Beauty With Backbone 

The Texas Hill Country has a special place in the American imagination. Its rolling terrain, rugged ranch country, open skies, and seasonal wildflowers create a setting that is romantic without ever becoming too easy. The beauty is real, but so are the distances, isolation, uncertainty, and physical work required to build a life there. 

That contrast makes the Hill Country an ideal setting for Caroline’s Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride series. Across six books, women travel to Texas hoping for a better future. Some are seeking marriage, some are running from danger, and all are facing the uncertainty that comes with arriving in a place far from the lives they have known. 

A mail-order bride story naturally begins with risk. A woman may know a prospective husband through letters, but letters cannot reveal everything about a person—or about the difficult realities of starting over on the frontier. The Hill Country intensifies that uncertainty. The heroines must decide whom to trust, how to protect themselves, and whether a different future is worth the gamble. 

In Gentry and the Mail Order Bride, Heidi reaches Texas expecting to marry the son of family friends. Instead, she learns that her intended groom has died. Suddenly, the future she believed was waiting for her no longer exists. Gentry, her late fiancé’s ranch partner, offers her a practical way forward, but their arrangement creates a new and unexpected emotional journey. 

The Hill Country setting matters because it makes Heidi’s circumstances immediate and believable. She is far from home, facing an uncertain future in a place where a ranch partnership, a stable household, and trustworthy neighbors can make the difference between security and hardship. 

The landscape also echoes the larger theme of the story. Like the country around them, Heidi and Gentry’s new relationship has potential, but it requires patience, strength, and care to grow. 

Other books in the series show different sides of starting over in this rugged country: 

• In Jesse and the Mail Order Bride, Rosalind arrives while fleeing a dangerous former employer, and Sheriff Jesse Cannon must balance his duties to the community with his growing feelings for her. 

• In Quinn and the Mail Order Bride, Priscilla meets a man guarded by betrayals from his past, and her quiet persistence challenges him to reconsider what he believes about trust. 

• In Levi and the Mail Order Bride, Maeve discovers that the man who sent for her is cruel and unsuitable, forcing her to make a brave choice rather than accept an unsafe future. 

• In Keith and the Mail Order Bride, Elliana is escaping a vengeful cousin, while Keith must decide whether the peaceful life he wants can include the risk—and the love—she brings. 

• In Sidney and the Mail Order Bride, a general-store owner who thinks he knows exactly what he needs finds that the woman who arrives is not at all what he expected. 

The Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride series makes the setting feel active because the land and its communities affect every decision. These are not stories in which a heroine can easily walk away from an unhappy situation and return to her old life. Texas offers possibility, but it also requires courage. 

For readers who enjoy mail-order bride romances, frontier challenges, and couples who build trust one choice at a time, the Hill Country is a setting worth returning to. The series is a six-book saga of love, courage, and new beginnings in Texas. 

2. Tarnation, Texas: A Frontier Town Full of Second Chances 

If the Hill Country represents a wide-open new beginning, Tarnation, Texas, represents what can happen when brave people decide to build a community together. 

Tarnation is the fictional setting for Caroline’s seven-book Bride Brigade series. Nestled near the Palo Pinto Mountains, it is a growing Texas frontier town with bachelors in need of wives, women in need of opportunity, and townspeople who gradually become a genuine support system for one another. 

The premise begins with Lydia Harrison, a wealthy and kind-hearted woman who helps organize a group of women traveling to Texas. The women have different pasts, different fears, and different dreams, but they share a hope for a safer, more meaningful future. 

That shared journey gives Tarnation its particular charm. The town is not simply a destination where each heroine finds a husband and disappears into private married life. It is a place where women support women, friendships develop, and earlier characters remain part of the growing community. 

In Josephine, the first book in the series, Josephine Nailor and her best friend flee oppressive fathers after a newspaper advertisement gives them hope of a new beginning. Josephine eventually reaches Tarnation, where Michael Buchanan—the town’s mayor and mercantile owner—recognizes her courage and strength. 

Their romance is shaped by the town itself. Michael is invested in Tarnation’s future, and Josephine must decide whether she can trust a man with authority after the painful control she experienced in her past. The relationship is not only about attraction. It is also about whether she can claim a place in a community that gives her the chance to define her own future. 

Throughout the series, Tarnation offers a lively cross-section of frontier life: 

• A mayor and mercantile owner helps guide a developing town. 

• A minister and widower seeks hope and a family after loss. 

• A wealthy rancher hides his circumstances to find a woman who will love him rather than his money. 

• A saloon and opera-house owner represents the town’s growing business life. 

• A former Pinkerton agent searches for peace after years of violence and danger. 

• A newspaperman and aspiring woman writer clash over ambition, work, and the right to tell stories. 

• A doctor and a gifted folk healer must confront their opposing beliefs when the town needs both of them. 

Those roles make Tarnation feel alive. Readers see romance, certainly, but they also see work, faith, medicine, journalism, commerce, gossip, prejudice, friendship, and the daily complications of forming a community in a rugged place. 

The setting is especially appealing because it offers hope without pretending that hope is simple. The Bride Brigade heroines carry difficult histories. Some are fleeing danger, shame, poverty, or unwanted marriages. Others have experienced loss and rejection. The town does not erase what happened to them, but it gives them room to heal, contribute, and be known for who they are rather than what they have survived. 

Tarnation’s strong community spirit is one of the series’ defining features. The connected stories allow readers to revisit favorite characters and see the town grow and change over time. 

For readers who love small-town historical romance, courageous women, found family, and interconnected books, Tarnation offers the best kind of Texas welcome. 

3. Kincaid Springs: Family, Ranches, and Frontier Adventure 

The third Texas setting readers will love is Kincaid Springs, the fictional community at the center of The Kincaids series. 

Set in late-1800s Texas, primarily near Kincaid Springs, the series combines family legacy, ranch life, romance, danger, and the complicated consequences of secrets from the past. This is Texas on a broader, more adventurous canvas. The setting includes ranch country and community life, but the stories also travel beyond the town when danger or justice demands it. 

At the heart of the series is the Kincaid family. That family connection gives the setting emotional weight. Kincaid Springs is not merely a location where strangers happen to meet. It is a home base, a place where relatives, friends, and newcomers can find help in a crisis—and where each person’s choices affect the people around them. 

In The Most Unsuitable Wife, Pearl Parker is protecting her younger siblings from threats connected to a fortune she does not know she possesses. Texas rancher Drake Kincaid is facing a separate problem: his parents’ will requires him to marry before his thirtieth birthday or lose the ranch he has worked to preserve. 

Their marriage-of-convenience arrangement brings Pearl and her siblings to Kincaid Springs, where the ranch is both a source of security and a responsibility. Drake’s connection to the land is not incidental. It represents his family’s history, his livelihood, and the life he hopes to preserve. 

Pearl’s arrival changes the meaning of that home. What begins as a practical agreement becomes an opportunity for both of them to create a family built on trust rather than obligation. 

The Kincaid Springs setting also allows Caroline to explore frontier life through several different lenses: 

• In The Most Unsuitable Husband, Sarah Kincaid returns home with three rescued orphans and a gambler whose motives are not what they seem. 

• In The Most Unsuitable Courtship, Rena and temporary Federal Marshal Storm Kincaid confront murder, loss, and a dangerous pursuit that takes them toward Vernon, Texas. 

• In Gabe Kincaid, a woman fleeing murder and hiding behind multiple identities arrives with a traveling circus, bringing mystery and danger to Kincaid Springs. 

• In Monk’s Bride, a widow and her young son seek refuge with family while threats from gambling debts follow them to Texas. 

This series has a more sweeping family-saga feeling than a single-town romance alone. The setting supports stories of ranch inheritance, legal troubles, law enforcement, business, family loyalty, and people who must decide whether they can trust again after betrayal or loss. 

Kincaid Springs works so well because it offers both refuge and responsibility. Characters may come there seeking safety, but they soon discover that becoming part of a family and a community means showing up for others as well. 

The setting has room for humor, romance, suspense, and hard choices. A ranch can be threatened. A secret can arrive in town. A stranger can need protection. A family can disagree fiercely and still stand together when it matters most. 

For readers who love Texas family sagas, marriage-of-convenience romances, spirited heroines, and a little suspense with their happily-ever-afters, Kincaid Springs is an unforgettable place to visit. The series is set near the fictional town in late-1800s Texas and emphasizes frontier beauty, hardship, family loyalty, healing, and trust. 

Why These Texas Settings Matter 

The Texas Hill Country, Tarnation, and Kincaid Springs are very different settings, but they share the qualities that make Caroline Clemmons’ Western romances so inviting. 

Texas setting	Series	What readers  will find
Texas Hill Country	Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride	Rolling terrain, ranch country, mail-order  brides, resilience, and new beginnings
Tarnation, Texas	Bride Brigade	A lively frontier town, women’s friendship,  community, and second chances
Kincaid Springs, Texas	The Kincaids	Ranch life, family legacy, adventure,  danger, and enduring love

In each setting, Texas is more than a dot on a map. The landscape influences how people travel, work, survive, and make decisions. The towns create opportunities for connection and belonging. The ranches carry family history and responsibility. And the challenges of frontier life make kindness, courage, and loyalty matter all the more. 

My mother wrote characters who do not wait for perfect conditions before they pursue happiness. Her heroines arrive in Texas with strength, intelligence, and hope. Her heroes learn that protecting a home means more than protecting land or a business—it means making room for love, trust, and partnership. 

Whether you prefer rolling Hill Country landscapes, a growing town full of determined women, or a family ranch saga with danger around every bend, Caroline’s Texas Westerns have a setting ready to welcome you.