Sandra Dean Trotter

The town's blacksmith is in need of a bride--but he didn't expect to also become a father. Merrick Benton wants a family of his own, but he can't seem to string two words together around the eligible ladies in town. A mail-order bride is the perfect solution to his problem. Eleanor Stevens and her sister were both widowed when their husbands died in a mine explosion. Desperate for a new beginning, they each answer advertisements from men in Crest Stone, Colorado. Eleanor is certain that a new husband in a faraway place will be exactly what her sister Rebecca and her children need to heal. ...

Halia Watkins has her hands full cooking, hosting, and keeping her boisterous young cousin, Wavonne, from getting too sassy with customers. Having fast-talking entrepreneur Marcus Rand turn up in her kitchen is annoying enough when he's alive - but finding his dead body face-down on her ceramic tile after hours is much worse. Marcus had his enemies, and the cast iron frying pan beside his corpse suggests that at last, his shady business deals went too far. Halia is desperate to keep Sweet Tea's name out of the sordid spotlight but her efforts only make Wavonne a prime suspect.

Success-driven Hope Fletcher has some lofty goals for her life. But is it really too much to want a thriving cake-design business by age 29? Marry a perfect (emphasis on the perfect) man by age 30? Then have the kids, dog, and house in suburbia by age 34? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Dean. Wonderful, dreamy Dean who loves kids (and will eventually grow to love dogs) steps into Hope's world. He's the exact type of man she's been looking for, and she starts falling. Hard.

Samantha Owens' estranged stepfather has died, leaving her his cottage in Nantucket - a place she fled years ago, never planning to return. As a single mom, Samantha can't afford to pass up a financial windfall like oceanfront property. So she travels home to fix up the house and sell it...never suspecting that Landon Reed still lives two doors down. As their long-dormant romance begins to bud again, Samantha must face a past that separated her from the God of her childhood. And she must tell Landon why she fled the island in the first place - a secret that could tear them apart.

Ask Kennedi Mason and she'll say she and her husband, Blake, have a good marriage. That's why she can't wait to tell Blake the fabulous news - that something he's always wanted has finally happened. But when Blake arrives home that evening, he has an announcement of his own, one that shocks Kennedi into silence.

Four women will have to make some very difficult decisions and search for help from God to get through trying times.

The Johnson Sisters is the riveting story of a close-knit bunch struggling to keep the family legacy going in spite of their differences.