Books

Butter in the Well
A Scandinavian Woman’s Tale of Life on the Prairie, 1868-1888
Book 1 in the Butter in the Well Series

Swedish immigrant Kajsa Svensson Runeberg fights to survive and build a homestead on the Kansas prairie as she and her family faces the trials of weather, disease, accidents, and loneliness.

This historical fiction, written in...

Prairie Bloomin’
The Prairie Blossoms for an Immigrant’s Daughter, 1889-1900
Book 2 in the Butter in the Well Series

Popular Kansas author Linda K. Hubalek continues the story of a Swedish immigrant family featured in the Butter in the Well series with the second book Prairie Bloomin’ (formerly titled Prärieblomman).
Prairie Bloomin’ features the...

Harvesting Faith
The Final Tale of Life on the Prairie
Book 3 in the Planting Dreams Series

The inevitable happens- time moves on and we grow older. Instead of our own little children surrounding us, grandchildren take their place. Each new generation lives in a new age of technology, not realizing the changes the generations before theirs has...

Egg Gravy
Authentic Recipes from the Butter in the Well Series

Faded recipes. We’ve all come across them from time to time in our lives, either handwritten by ourselves or by another person in our family, or as old, yellowed newspaper clippings stuck in a cookbook of sorts.

While doing research for the Butter in the Well series, the author...

A historical western romance set in the 1890s.
Rancher Moses Brenner needs to decide whether to stay working on his adoptive grandfather’s ranch or pursue a new career. He leaves the ranch for a week to travel to western Kansas, hoping to find the graves of his parents, who were victims of a wagon train attack twenty years ago.
Faith Geller’s life...

Rancher Carsten Brenner feels obligated to escort Emma Hamner on the train to Texas when his two brothers and her two cousins switch their destinations. The three couples were on a trip, paid for by their grandfathers, to explore the women’s family’s past in Texas’ cattle drive history and for the men to decide if they want to commit to life on...

An American historical romance set in the 1890s.

Rancher Beckett Brenner was thrilled to change his destination to escort Greta Wilerson to Kentucky instead of continuing on the planned train trip to Texas.

Beckett, his brothers Asher, and Carsten, along with their neighbors, female cousins Greta, Alva, and Emma, were on a trip paid for by their...

An American historical romance about trusting others to form a new family.

Kansas Rancher Asher Brenner was relieved to escort Alva Wilerson to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair instead of continuing on the planned train trip to Texas with his brothers and her cousins.

Shy and reserved, Asher had secretly admired Alva for years but was hesitant to...

An American historical romance about facing truth and hardship to find love.

Rancher Luther Tucker would prefer to never to set foot off the Cross C Ranch in Kansas, but his grandfather insists he takes a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The only part of the trip that excites Luther is that he can sketch and paint the natural wonders he’ll...

Trail of Thread
A Woman’s Westward Journey, Historical Letters 1854-1855
Book 1 in the Trail of Thread Series

Taste the dust of the road and feel the wind in your face as you travel with a Kentucky family by wagon train to the new territory of Kansas in 1854.

Find out what it was like for the thousands of families who made the cross-country...

Thimble of Soil
A Woman’s Quest for Land, Historical Letters 1854-1860
Book 2 in the Trail of Thread Series

Experience the terror of the fighting and the determination to endure as you stake a claim alongside the women caught in the bloody conflicts of Kansas in the 1850’s.

Follow the widowed Margaret Ralston Kennedy (a relative of the author)...

Stitch of Courage
A Woman’s Fight of Freedom, Historical Letters 1861-1865
Book 3 in the Trail of Thread Series

Stitch of Courage, the third book in the Trail of Thread series, tells the story of the orphaned Maggie Kennedy, who followed her brothers to Kansas in the late 1850s.

The niece of Margaret Ralston Kennedy, the main character in...

Strong Women contains all three books in the Trail of Thread series.

Trail of Thread: Taste the dust of the road and feel the wind in your face as you travel with a Kentucky family by wagon train to the new territory of Kansas in 1854.

Find out what it was like for the thousands of families who made the cross-country journey into the unknown. This...

Tying the Knot follows Kizzie Pieratt as she receives trunks and quilts from her relatives to use on her family’s wagon trip from Kansas to the Indian Territory.

Each chapter is like a short story, where Kizzie learns about the significant moves previous generations have made for their families, just like she is about to do next.

This book...

Planting Dreams
A Swedish Immigrant’s Journey to America, 1868-1869
Planting Dreams Series, Book 1

Can you imagine starting a journey to an unknown country in 1868, not knowing what the country would be like, where you would live, or how you would survive? Did you make the right decision to leave in the first place?

This first book in the Planting...

Cultivating Hope
Homesteading on the Great Plains, 1869-1886
Planting Dreams Series, Book 2

Can you imagine being isolated in the middle of treeless grassland with only a dirt roof over your head? Having to feed your children with whatever wild plants or animals you could find living on the prairie?

Sweating to plow the sod, plant the seed,...

Harvesting Faith: Life on the Changing Prairie, 1886-1919
Planting Dreams Series, Book 3

Imagine surveying your farmstead on the last day of your life, reviewing the decades of joys, hardships, and changes that have taken place on the eighty acres you have called home for the past fifty years. Would you feel at peace or find remorse at the...

Kansas Dreams contains all three books in the Planting Dreams series.

Book 1, Planting Dreams: A Swedish Immigrant’s Journey to America, 1868-1869.

Can you imagine starting a journey to an unknown country in 1868, not knowing what the country would be like, where you would live, or how you would survive? Did you make the right decision to leave in...

A sweet historical romance set in 1873.
Rania Hamner and her family emigrated from Sweden fourteen years ago to work on a Texas ranch, working cattle and herding them up the Chisholm Trail.

Something in her life on the trail caused her to doubt her worth, and her ability to trust a man enough to become his wife. Once the family buys a homestead...

Mail-order bride Millie Donovan was looking forward to meeting Sam Larson, a Kansas homesteader, who she is sure, from reading his heartfelt letters, will provide her with the love and safety she wants and needs. Millie arrives on the train, not realizing that her husband-to-be was killed in an accident, until Clear Creek’s town marshal informs...