In The Shepherd's Heart by Tracie Peterson, widowed sheep rancher Vincent Duran seeks a mother for his two children. In No Room at the Inn by Misty M. Beller, when Noah Bentwood is snowed in while traveling through the Rocky Mountains, innkeeper Hope Palmer's family heirloom disappears, and she and Noah work together to find it before Christmas. In A Star in the West by Karen Witemeyer, friendly correspondence with Stella Barrington evolves into something more when Harvard mathematics professor Frank Stentz arrives in Waco, Texas.