Waiting Season — Melanie Lageschulte

A new year brings new challenges … and the chance to make a dream come true.

Melinda expects to spend January lounging by her farmhouse's fireplace, paging through the seed catalogs' promises of spring. After all, the slower pace of rural life was one of the reasons she'd left the city behind.

Instead, she must face her fears when the worst of winter's threats arrive at her door. Braving blizzards to care for her animals, thawing her acreage's water lines, and anxiously watching over the pregnant sheep in her barn fill her shorter days and longer nights. She trudges on because Horace's offer stands firm: He'll sell her the farm in the spring if she still wants to stay.

But as winter tightens its grip on the heartland, Melinda's biggest challenges are still to come. When a series of events threatens to break her heart and shatter her hopes, can she find the courage to see the season through?