The Mountain Holly Tree

She crossed the country to become a bride—but Paulette Collier fears she may never be brave enough to become a frontier wife. Nineteen-year-old Paulette has survived the deafening textile mills of Manchester, New Hampshire, and traveled all the way to the rugged Oregon town of Sawyerville with other prospective brides. Yet once she arrives, fear keeps her hiding inside the Ladies' House. Until her friends drag her to a barn raising—and she meets Alexander Michaels. The handsome young logger is everything Paulette is not: strong, confident, and completely at ease in the dangerous wilderness. And when Alexander compares her to the rare mountain holly—a small, delicate plant able to flourish beneath towering trees—Paulette begins to wonder whether he might see something in her she has never been able to see in herself. Then a terrible accident leaves Alexander badly injured. To help the man she is falling in love with, Paulette must enter the hospital she fears, face the sight of blood that brings back haunting memories, and care for wounds that could end Alexander's livelihood forever. She runs from fear more than once. But each time, she comes back. And as Alexander heals, Paulette discovers that courage is not the absence of fear. Sometimes courage is simply loving someone enough to stay. A tender, clean historical Western romance about healing, trust, quiet courage, and discovering that even the most delicate flower can survive on the frontier.