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A New Historical Romance from Fan-Favorite Jody Hedlund Recently widowed Annalisa Werner has the feeling her husband was murdered but can't prove it. Alone with her young daughter in 1881 Michigan, she has six months left to finish raising the money needed to pay back the land contract her husband purchased, and the land is difficult to toil by herself. She needs a husband. With unmarried men scarce, her father sends a letter to his brother in the Old Country, asking him to find Annalisa a groom. For nobleman Carl von Reichart, the blade of the guillotine is his fate. He's been accused and convicted of a serious crime he didn't commit, and his only escape is to flee to a small German community in Michigan where he'll be safe. He secures a job on Annalisa's farm but bumbles through learning about farming and manual labor. Annalisa senses that Carl is harboring a secret about his past, yet she finds herself drawn to him anyway. He's gentle, kind, and romantic--unlike any of the men she's ever known. He begins to restore her faith in the ability to love--but her true groom is still on his way. And time is running out on them all. ** ### From Booklist Despite her husband’s faults, the last thing that young wife Annalisa expected to face was his untimely death. Annalisa’s father, in an effort to help his now-widowed daughter keep her farm, writes to his brother in the old country asking that he find a husband for Annalisa. Meanwhile, in Germany, fate steps in and exchanges the hangman’s noose reserved for the wrongly convicted aristocrat Carl von Reichert for an escape route to the same small Germanic Michigan settlement that Annalisa calls home. As their lives and hearts begin to intertwine, it is only by discovering their own genuine identities that Annalisa and Carl can find their true homes. Swiftly becoming a well-known contender in the world of Christian historical fiction, Hedlund skillfully taps into her own German heritage to develop this tale of Old World romance and masked identity set against the backdrop of a nineteenth-century German American community. --Elizabeth Ponder ### From the Back Cover 2014 Carol Award Winner for Historical Romance Michigan, 1880 Annalisa Werner's hope for a fairy tale love is over. Her husband failed her in every way and now his death has left her with few options to save the family farm. She needs a plentiful harvest. That, and a husband to help bring it in. Someone strong, dependable. That'll be enough. A marriage for love...that's something she's given up on. So her father sends a letter to his brother in the Old Country, asking him to find Annalisa a groom. Then a man appears: Carl Richards, from their home country of Germany and a former schoolteacher--or so he says. He's looking for work and will serve on the farm until her husband arrives. With time running out, she accepts his help, but there's more to this man than he's admitting. He's also gentle, kind, charming--unlike any man she's ever known. But even as Carl is shining light into the darkness of her heart, she knows her true groom may arrive any day.