Heidi Gray McGill Shares Her New Release and a Giveaway

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She can Outride, Outshoot, and Outwork Any Man on the Ranch — So Why Can’t She Just Let Someone Love Her?

A Review-Inspired Look at Keeper of My Heart by Heidi Gray McGill

Some folks ride hard into a story expecting a formula: cowboy meets girl, sparks fly, wedding bells ring at sunset. Keeper of My Heart, Book Six in Heidi Gray McGill’s Discerning God’s Best series, lopes right past that fence and into territory that feels both wilder and truer than most romance novels dare to travel.

Meet Cecelia Shankel. Born in the saddle. Raised on grit. The woman who outrides, outshoots, and outworks every hand on the family’s Missouri spread. As one reader put it, she “harkens back to the very real, but often erased, women who wore trousers and boots as they rode fences, cared for livestock, and put the home in homestead.” Cecelia doesn’t make herself small for anyone. If a man can’t stand on his own two feet, he’s got no business standing next to her.

Then Jimmy Reeves shows up from Philadelphia. He’s book-smart and organized down to the last pocket watch tick, but more comfortable with formulas than feelings. He came west to study medicinal plants, not to be rattled by a sharp-tongued woman who can probably rope a steer better than he can tie his own cravat. What readers found endearing — and what makes this opposites-attract, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story crackle — is that Jimmy isn’t the typical macho hero. He’s anxious, a little naive, wired a little differently than most, and figuring out his calling between the pages of a compounding ledger. Yet, as one reviewer noted, “his anxieties won’t deter him from absorbing everything the West is willing to teach.”

Grumpy Meets Sunshine on the Frontier

Here’s what lights the fuse: Cecelia thinks Jimmy is an arrogant city doctor with soft hands and softer instincts. Jimmy thinks Cecelia is an impulsive wildcard who runs on instinct the way he runs on logic. Their forced proximity — she’s assigned to teach him the land, whether or not she likes it — turns mutual irritation into something neither of them counted on.

Readers cheered the slow burn. Cecelia, the wounded heroine, believes she must always be the best to prove her worth. Jimmy has spent his whole life valued for his mind. And tenderness in boots and a work shirt is not something his medical school prepared him for. Their caretaking moments, particularly when Cecelia nurses him through a smallpox outbreak, strip away every layer of competence both wore like armor, and what’s left underneath is two people who are genuinely scared to need each other.

“For the first time, she wondered if she was lonely or simply stubborn.” (KOMH Chapter 13)

That question cuts to the marrow of what makes this book more than a romance. It’s a story about self-sufficiency as both superpower and prison. The tagline captures it cleanly: “In a world where independence is survival, can two opposites surrender to God’s best plan for their lives?”

Faith That Fits Like a Well-Worn Saddle

What readers praised most consistently, and what sets McGill’s storytelling apart from the crowded frontier romance corral, is that faith runs through this book the way a river runs through dry land. It’s not preachy. It’s not tacked on for decoration. It’s there in the quiet moments, in the prayers that sound less like stained glass and more like real people bargaining with God in the dark.

“You gave him a mind that can heal people. You put him here long enough for us to lean on it. If You send him back, You will have to deal with what that does to my heart because I cannot pretend it will not hurt.” (KOMH Chapter 28)

That is not the prayer of a woman with everything buttoned up. That is a wounded heroine at the end of her rope, talking to God the way you talk to someone you trust even when you’re furious. It is the kind of honesty that readers highlighted, marked, and came back to. One reviewer confessed she “was tempted to highlight the entire book.”

The spiritual throughline challenges what one reader called “the deep-rooted belief in our own self-sufficiency.” Both Cecelia and Jimmy arrive in the story convinced their strength is enough. The smallpox outbreak, the rivals-to-respect tension, the frontier medicine clash between Jimmy’s medical school training and Robin “Singing Bird” Manning’s plant knowledge — every plot element conspires to prove them wrong in the most grace-filled way possible.

And that is exactly where God meets them — not in the moments when they have it together, but in the ones when they finally admit they don’t.

Why Readers Can’t Stop Talking About This One

Book Six earned the loudest ovation in the series. Reviewers who had followed the Discerning God’s Best series from the beginning called it the best yet. New readers who started here found it completely accessible. The details (period-accurate frontier life, class differences, gender roles, Indigenous plant medicine) drew readers so deep into 1870s Missouri they could practically smell the saddle leather and wood smoke.

And unlike so many historical romances where the heroine’s spunk is waiting to be tamed, Cecelia’s strength is never the problem. Jimmy doesn’t come in to fix her. He comes in to be her equal. As a reader summed it up with refreshing directness: “It is nice to hear a male character that isn’t the macho hero we so frequently see in romance novels.”

Grab Your Copy and Join the Giveaway!

Keeper of My Heart is available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

And here’s the fun part. I’m giving away an eBook copy of Keeper of My Heart! Leave a comment below and answer this question to enter: 

Cecelia is the girl no man can tame, until the right one stops trying to. Have you ever met someone who challenged you in ways you didn’t expect? Did it change you?

Heidi would love to hear your story.

I will draw a winner from all comments and will be in touch directly. So don’t be shy. Pull up a chair, leave your thoughts, and invite your friends to come on over and chat. I will be here to ride the conversation alongside you.

Don’t miss the rest of the Discerning God’s Best series, and keep your eyes on the horizon for what’s coming next. Cecelia’s sister, Serafina, left readers hungry for more, and the trail doesn’t end here.

AUTHOR BIO: Heidi Gray McGill is an award-winning Christian fiction author who proves that a bit of humor and faith can go a long way—even when writing with her nose practically touching the screen. Since launching her writing journey in March 2020, Heidi has penned nine books that artfully blend God’s love and wisdom into historical and contemporary fiction. Her Discerning God’s Best series has snagged five NEST awards, with “Dial E for Endearment” even making a splash as a finalist for the CIA Award (no spies involved, just good storytelling).

Heidi’s characters are like that perfect cup of coffee—warm, relatable, and sometimes just what you need to get through the day. Her stories don’t just entertain; they offer a comforting dose of healing through God’s Word.

Living in a cozy town near Charlotte, NC, Heidi shares her life with her husband of over thirty years, who, rumor has it, is as devoted as her readers. When she’s not cooking up a storm, beating everyone at board games, or getting lost in a good book, she supports fellow authors, passing on the encouragement that has fueled her writing.

Curious? Visit HeidiGrayMcGill.com to connect with Heidi, follow her on social media, and maybe even snag a free prequel to her bestselling series. Because who doesn’t love a good story, especially one that brings a little light into your day?

Christian Fiction. Relatable Characters. Life-changing stories. Fusing Faith and Fiction™.

 

When the Sky Turned Black by Pam Crooks

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A couple of weeks ago, my daughter told us about Kanopy, a video streaming service where one can watch movies for kids and adults free of charge with a library card or a university login.

Here’s what Kanopy says that it offers: documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films and educational videos that inspire, enrich and entertain. We partner with public libraries and universities to bring you an ad-free experience that can be enjoyed on your TV, mobile phone, tablets and online.  https:/www.kanopy.com

So we opened an account–super easy–and since my daughter mentioned she’d watched The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns, we did, too.  We were able to keep the documentary for 72 hours.

I’d heard about The Dust Bowl for years, and while it’s not the most popular documentary Ken Burns has directed (The Civil War is), the show was riveting and informative. The video contains amazing film, photographs, and–my favorite of all–input from survivors who shared their memories as children.

How the Dust Bowl Started:

During World War I and continuing into the 1920s, the Great Plains enjoyed a wheat boom where the crop was plentiful and prices were high. Buoyed by this prosperity, farmers attained even more acres and plowed them under, a plan they couldn’t have foreseen would lead to the biggest man-made ecological disaster in America’s history.

Those deep-rooted grasses had held the soil in place for centuries. When the rains stopped in the 1930s, the exposed land turned to powder–literally–and the constant wind wreaked havoc. Crops failed, cattle suffocated, and children were sickened from breathing dust-filled air. People stuffed wet rags around windows and doors, yet the dirt still came in, coating dishes, beds, and even babies in their cribs. The film doesn’t shy away from the horrific emotional toll, either. Some who were so overwhelmed from the stress, poverty, and unrelenting hardship, took their own lives to end the despair.  Including a seven-year-old boy.

Unimaginable heartbreak.

On April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—a massive dust storm rolled across the region, causing blizzards so thick they blotted out the sun. People hid inside their homes and truly believed it was the end of the world. Can you blame them?

Our president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was dedicated to doing what he could to help.  He brought on Hugh Hammond Bennett, a soil scientist known as the “father of soil conservation.” Bennett urged farmers to abandon harmful plowing methods and adopt practices that would save the soil before more of the Plains blew away.

How the Dust Bowl Ended:

Eventually, farmers–who initially resisted Bennett’s advice to change their plowing methods–eventually came around to give them a try.  And they worked. The land didn’t heal overnight, but his soil saving practices helped reduce erosion, hold more moisture in the ground, and made farming more sustainable. Bennett gave people hope that, with better care, the Plains could still produce crops instead of simply blowing away.

At last, the rains began to return in 1939, bringing relief and signaling the end of the worst years the Plains had ever endured.

The worst of the Dust Bowl struck the southern Great Plains, especially southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, northeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.  By 1940, about 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states, making it one of the largest migrations in American history.

 

Did anyone in your family ever share stories about the Dust Bowl years?

Have you ever heard a personal story from someone who lived through the Great Depression or the Dust Bowl?

Heidi Gray McGill Will Come Friday!

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Heidi Gray McGill is riding this way and will arrive Friday, April 10, 2026!

She’s going to tell us about a new release called Keeper of My Heart and she’s toting an ebook copy of the book to give away.

As always to enter the drawing you must leave a comment on her Friday post. Easy.

So join us in welcoming her back. She can’t wait to see you.

Her question is: Has anyone challenged you in ways you didn’t expect? Be thinking about that.

Cabins on Wheels

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My husband really wants a travel trailer. He bought the truck to pull it a couple years ago, and is dying to get the trailer. I like the idea of traveling too, except that weekends are my writing time, and despite what my husband thinks, writing on the road is not conducive to greater creativity. At least not for me. I do best as a hermit in a space with a closed door with no sound and no disturbance. So, maybe that means when he gets his trailer, I’ll get to retire from the day job so my weekends will be move available. Somehow, I don’t think that will fly just yet, but who knows? It might make a good bargaining chip.

Homes on wheels are nothing new in the American West. One has only to picture the iconic wagon train to realize that. However, there were other, more permanent homes on wheels in use in the late 19th century as well. Ones I recently discovered during a research rabbbit trail for my current work in progress.

I’m working on another western fairy tale retelling – this time a Rapunzel story. My long-haired heroine has been raised by a traveling medicine show peddler who uses her amazing tresses as a tool to sell his invigoratin hair tonics and beautifying elixirs. Wanting to keep the heroine isolated and firmly under his control, and needed to travel every week for his business, they live in two wagons. One is the peddler wagon he uses to sell his merchandise, and the other is more of a homey cabin on wheels. A sheepherder’s wagon.

The sheepherder’s wagon was invented in Wyoming in 1884. Designed for shepherds who lived out with their flocks for months at a time, these small cabins on wheels (also known smiply as “camps” or “arks”) were ideal for a sturdy, warm, transportable home. Typicaly build for one person, the one I’m imagining for my heroine and her “Papa” has been expanded slightly to allow for a second, upper bunk at the back of the wagon.

Did you notice the wagon tongue right outside the door? Many times, travelers would use the tongue as a step if the didn’t have a portable stair option like the one pictured above. Also notice that the door is crafted in the Dutch style with and option to open just the top half. This is how the traveler would drive the team. They would sit on a bench inside the door or stand behind the closed bottom section of the door, and drive from there.

Most of these wagons incuded small cookstoves inside. Imagine you were caught in a Wyoming blizzard. You’d definitely want a way to stay warm. The stovepipe extended through the canvas roof.

There were also lots of drawers and cabinets to hold belongings. Just like in trailers today, people needed to be able to store their belongings securly during travel. Only the most essential items would be taken. There often was a window at the back, above the sleeping bunk.

The table for eating would foldor pull out when needed to save space. It was very tight quarters. Typically, these wagons were about 12 feet long and a little over six feet wide.

What do you think? Ready to go camping in a 19th century sheepwagon?

Are you a camper? Tent, travel trailer, or RV? What do you like most about camping?

When “The West” Was Still East of the Mississippi

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Last month, my writing bestie, Liz Flaherty, and I went on our biannual retreat. Even though we talk every day on gChat, these retreats are our shared personal moments of Zen. We’ve been going on retreat together every late winter and early fall for at least ten years. The late winter is usually four nights, 5 days in a place that offers decent restaurants, a few shops, and quiet places to set up to write. Think boutique hotels and state park inns. We’ve actually been going to the same boutique hotel in the hills of southern Indiana for several years, but this year, we tried a new adventure.

We chose the hills of southern Indiana again, but this trip, we booked four nights at an inn in New Harmony, Indiana. Neither of us had ever been there before, so we were taking a chance, but the website looked good and the history looked downright fascinating.

New Harmony is the site of two early American Utopian communities formed when “out West” was the frontier in what is now the Midwest United States. George Rapp, who began the Harmony Society settled on the banks of the Wabash River in 1814. The Harmonists, a religious sect, believed that Jesus was coming back very soon, so they lived their lives in striving for perfection in everything they did. They formed a community together, building over 150 log structures and creating the town of Harmony. They were entirely self-sufficient, although they did trade goods with towns along the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, including places as far away as New Orleans and Pittsburgh.

In 1824, Rapp sold the community to Robert Owen, who had enough money to simply buy the whole town. Owen was more of a secularist, focused on social equality and education, as well as nature rather than perfection. The people who settled in New Harmony were progressive thinkers, scholars, even early feminists who all lived together communally. New Harmony was bastion of social progress out on the frontier. They founded one of the nation’s first co-ed public schools, they had trade schools, and they studied nature, in particular geology. The experiment thrived in some ways, but also failed due to internal conflicts, lack of strong leadership, and a lack of skilled labor and production.

The town is now a National Historic Landmark, and although it is no longer a “Utopia,” they’ve done a great job at preserving the stories of the utopias and ideals that both Rapp and Owen tried to create. The whole town just reeks of history, and Liz and I found something new to explore each afternoon after we got done writing for the day. It’s different from other small tourist towns in that it doesn’t cater to shoppers, it caters to lovers of history. The town is quite walkable. As a matter of fact, we saw more golf carts than cars.

The thing we noticed most about our stay in New Harmony was how incredibly peaceful the town was—the quiet, which could’ve been disconcerting, was actually extraordinary. We wandered–oh, how we wandered! All through an old hilly cemetery,  through the spectacular cathedral labyrinth, past home after restored home, and into a lovely old church that remains open twenty-four hours. The beautiful magnolia trees, the spring flowers, the friendly folks we met while walking, the labyrinths and museums, even the restaurants exuded the harmony and peace that was the cornerstone of the town in the early nineteenth century.

This place was the frontier, the West in 1814, but it wasn’t the Wild West. It wasn’t cowboys and cattle drives and saloons and ranches. Rather it was one group of people’s vision of what paradise could be.

What’s your vision of paradise? Mine varies—sometimes it’s a house in a small town on Lake Michigan that is easy walking distance to the lake where I can walk the beach whenever I want. Other times it’s a small cottage in Provence, living among the lavender fields and vineyards. But my paradise always includes Husband, my kids, my friends, and books!

FYI: Make It Real, book 2 in my Walkers of River’s Edge series is still on sale for just 99 cents, but only for a few more days! If you haven’t been to River’s Edge yet, now’s your chance. More sweet, small town romance in beautiful southern Indiana!

 

It’s Yee-Haw Day!

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The fillies are riding in with news fit for sharing!

Sarah

I have some really exciting news! I’m having a book party, 30 authors are joining me, and YOU are invited! I hope I’ll see you there! Just click right here to join in the fun next week! 

 

Karen Witemeyer

I was thrilled to learn that my western Beauty & the Beast retelling, To Love a Beast, is a finalist for the prestigious Selah Award in the category of Historical Romance. This is such an honor. Yee Haw!

Karen Kay

NEW RELEASE COMING SOON!

Please look for this new title soon!  It is edited now and is currently with my proofers…meaning it should be released within the new couple of weeks.

This is book #6 in THE MEDICINE MAN Series, and meanwhile, all the previous books in this series are on sale:

SHE STEALS MY BREATH —  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TNDS67H?tag=pettpist-20  — SHE CAPTURES MY HEART — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNSHPSMR?tag=pettpist-20 — SHE PAINTS MY SOUL — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDCG2QWZ?tag=pettpist-20 — SHE BRINGS BEAUTY TO ME — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2VW3GMJ?tag=pettpist-20 — SHE BELONGS IN MY WORLD —  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBPKBXBZ?tag=pettpist-20


 

Heather Blanton Has a Winner!

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Thank you for visiting again, Miss Heather! We enjoyed having you.

Now for the Drawing!

One commenter will win a copy of Fernando’s Fortune. This guy is super hot.

And the Winner is…………

MARY GARBACK

Woo-Hoo! Congratulations, Mary. Now watch for Miss Heather’s email

Heather Blanton – the Vaquero Who Shaped the Cowboy & a Giveaway

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Telling the West Right: Honoring the Vaquero Who Shaped the Cowboy

By Heather Blanton

Long before the American cowboy was immortalized in dime novels and Hollywood, his story had already begun—written in the dust and discipline of the Hispanic vaquero. These skilled horsemen, shaped by Spanish tradition and forged in the rugged lands of Mexico and California, laid the groundwork for what would become one of America’s most enduring icons.

Even the word cowboy finds its roots in vaquero, from vaca, meaning cow. But this influence runs far deeper than language. Vaqueros were masters of horsemanship, introducing the techniques of roping, branding, and cattle handling that became essential to ranch life. Their gear—wide-brimmed hats, leather chaps, spurs, and expertly crafted saddles—was born of necessity and refined through experience. Anglo settlers moving west didn’t invent the cowboy’s way of life—they learned it.

And they learned more than skill. The vaquero lived by a code: quiet competence, resilience, respect for the land, and pride in honest work. This wasn’t the reckless gunfighter of legend, but a man whose survival depended on patience, discipline, and grit.

Yet somewhere along the way, that truth was overshadowed. The myth of the American cowboy grew larger than life, often leaving behind the very culture that shaped it. What we celebrate today is only part of the story.

That truth is exactly why I wrote Fernando’s Fortune. I’ve spent my career telling stories of the American West, but the deeper I went, the clearer it became—some of its strongest roots were being left out of the telling. The vaquero wasn’t a side note. He was the beginning.

Don Fernando Diego Garcia de la Vega begins as a man who seems to have everything—a family fortune, a storied California hacienda, and a life marked by charm and privilege. But one reckless, passionate mistake with the governor’s daughter costs him everything. Stripped of his inheritance and cast out from the only home he’s ever known, Fernando is forced into exile in the untamed American West.

He arrives determined to reclaim his fortune within a year, convinced he can conquer the frontier as easily as he once won admiration in Monterey. But the West has no patience for pride. It is a hard land, filled with danger, hardship, and people who cannot be swayed by charm alone—especially a strong-willed frontier woman who refuses to be bought, bullied, or wooed.

 

What follows is not just a fight for survival, but a reckoning. Fernando came chasing wealth. Instead, he is forced to confront who he truly is when everything else is stripped away. In the end, he may gain far more than he ever lost—or risk losing everything that truly matters.

Because the West is more than myth. It is a story shaped by many hands, many cultures, and many truths. And if we’re going to keep telling it, we ought to tell it right.

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Comment, and you are entered to win a paperback of Fernando’s Fortune! Do you think the vaquero is a forgotten hero of the West?

 

He was a prince of California. One scandal made him an outcast.

Don Fernando Diego Garcia de la Vega had it all: a family fortune, a legendary hacienda, and a life of effortless charm. But a single, passionate mistake with the governor’s daughter leaves him stripped of his inheritance and banished from the only home he’s ever known.

Exiled to the untamed American West, Fernando vows to regain his fortune within a year. He expects to conquer the frontier as easily as he once charmed the ladies of Monterey. But the Wild West is a brutal teacher, filled with ruthless scoundrels, unforgiving land, and a feisty frontier woman who refuses to be bought, bullied, or wooed.

He came to find his fortune. He might just lose his heart—or his life—in the process.