Laramie Series

Smiling At Heaven

Laramie Series Book 6

In the fall of 1919, Thea Hansen’s world seems to spiral out of control. First, her dearly loved father dies suddenly from the influenza epidemic sweeping across the globe. Then her brother, Lloyd, returns from The Great War transformed into a brooding stranger. Could it get any worse?

Yes, indeed. With a brutal murder close to home and her brother as chief suspect, Thea’s wildly spinning world doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. She’s lived in bucolic Blessing, Kansas, all her life, after all, and hasn’t had much experience with out-of-control worlds.

Still, the bright and level-headed Thea knows a good thing when she sees it, and she sees it in the person of Augustus Davis. As her brother’s former commanding officer, Gus Davis knows Lloyd is no murderer and as a skilled attorney, he’s determined to prove it. Together, Thea and Gus will deal with unexpected malice and obsession, with assault and fear, with secrets and suspects, and in the end, ordinary little Blessing will hold a lot of shocks for Thea Hansen. Passions revealed. Lies uncovered. Murderers exposed. But what Thea is willing to do to keep her world balanced and her future settled may be the most surprising thing of all.

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Smiling at Heaven concludes where the first novel of Hasley’s Laramie Series began in Blessing, Kansas. With 40 years between first book and last, the story of the Davis family and their extended lives comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Gold Mountain

Laramie Series Book 5

When Dinah Hudson leaves China in 1901, she hopes to leave behind dark memories of violence and sudden death as well. Visiting her married sister in California will be just what she needs to help her forget her experiences during China’s murderous Boxer Uprising. Explore the exhilarating delights of San Francisco. Encounter a city so forceful, so dazzling that it takes her breath away. Above all, live for the moment. During the Boxer Uprising Dinah almost lost her life so living for the moment is a sweet luxury she is not willing to forego.

But Dinah’s life in California takes an unexpected turn when renowned social reformer Donaldina Cameron enlists her aid in rescuing young Chinese girls smuggled into the city for slavery and prostitution. For practical, progressive Dinah, the venture soon becomes a passionate calling. Following Miss Cameron’s fearless lead, Dinah finds herself breaking into opium dens and storming brothels. Every calling comes with a price, however, and for Dinah Hudson that price may prove too high.

Because not everyone shares her zeal for freeing enslaved girls, especially not the men who profit from human trafficking. Men that hide behind position and power. Faceless men that live in the shadows. Ruthless men that allow nothing and no one to get in their way. Truth is that every man in Dinah’s glittering but treacherous San Francisco world is suspect. Dangerous. Even deadly. For her own well-being, a determined woman must learn that when her heart gets in the way of her good sense she should ignore deceptive emotions and stay focused on the cause. For Dinah Hudson, it’s either that or die trying.

Circled Heart

Laramie Series Book 4

Johanna Swan is a survivor. She escaped death twice as a child in China during the Boxer Uprising of 1900 and twelve years later as a young woman aboard the ocean liner Titanic. An educated suffragist and social worker, Johanna is too petite and inelegant to show to advantage in the era of the graceful Gibson Girl. Not that she cares about her inadequate fashion sense or lack of style. She’s an heiress, after all, with ambitious plans to help the poor and immigrant women of Chicago using the progressive services of the Anchorage, one of many Crittenton homes that were established in the late nineteenth century for assistance to abused and destitute women.

Johanna manages her life the same way she runs a business. Invest sensibly and ensure a sensible return. Never be obligated. Keep emotion out of decision making. Reduce risk. Maintain secure profits. Keep firm control of your assets. But the emotional turmoil in her family and the growing confusion in her own heart when it comes to charismatic, sentimental and she fears deceitful Drew Gallagher are interfering with Johanna’s orderly existence. For all her logical decision making, it will be the shifting emotions of desire and despair that finally force Johanna to realize that love is more complex and life far less predictable than any business venture.

Where Home Is

Laramie Series Book 3

The year is 1910. Katherine Davis, M.D. is an intelligent, self-assured, and attractive woman whose confidence perfectly reflects the confidence of a new century overflowing with scientific, medical, and technological breakthroughs. Without a moment’s hesitation, young Dr. Davis accepts the professional invitation of a lifetime when she travels to Chicago’s Hull-House to work with the celebrated social reformer, Jane Addams. Katherine is an excellent doctor eager to make a difference in the world and the people around her, and Chicago’s crowded tenements with their burgeoning immigrant population offer just that opportunity.

Everything Katherine believes about right and wrong, about good and evil she learned from her parents and the secure childhood they gave her. But times have changed, and Katherine can no longer rely on the values of the past. She has outgrown that past, and the home of her childhood seems outdated and old-fashioned compared to the progressive society around her. She’s an independent woman, who must make her own way and follow her own ideals.

When Katherine meets the dazzling Douglas Gallagher, a man as confident and as fearless as she, a successful man who has left his own past behind, an uncompromising- even ruthless -man, she must choose between her past and her future. And the choice is so much more complicated than she expected! Because for Katherine, deciding where – and who – home really is will change her forever. And for good.

Waiting for Hope

Laramie Series Book 2

In 1905, Hope Birdwell is a spirited young woman of strong will and uncompromising dreams. Exchanging her routine life as the domestic servant of a wealthy family for the demanding self-reliance of a Wyoming homesteader is the first step in her plan for success. Hope is finally on her way to the home and the future she has always desired, and she will not allow any distractions into her life – or her heart.

What Hope doesn’t realize is that her dream of a bright and independent future will be threatened by secrets from her past, a past darkened by the shadows of prostitution and violence. In order to make a new home and claim a new love, Hope must confront everything she is trying to escape. When she is forced to risk everything for the place and the people she has grown to love, Hope will discover the danger and the power and the freedom of truth.

Lily’s Sister

Laramie Series Book 1

Louisa Caldecott, a progressive woman and independent business owner in 1880 Kansas, is principled, strong-willed, passionate, and generous to a fault. Satisfied with her comfortable life, Lou is content to live in her sister Lily’s shadow. Until she meets John Rock Davis, Civil War veteran and man with a past. Until her cherished hometown is rocked by violence and fear and her friends and neighbors begin to act like strangers. Until she is forced to take a stand that threatens to destroy her safety, her happiness, and everything she holds dear. Then all hell – but heaven, too – breaks loose and self-sufficient Lou finally understands the cost of courage and the power of love.