Lauraine Snelling

"But Mother is always dying" is Gillian Ormsby's sarcastic response when her younger, favored sister tells her that she has to go take care of their hypochondriac mother. Much against her will, Gillian arrives in California to find the garden and yard dead, the blinds all drawn...

Though she has known hardships in her life, Ingeborg Bjorklund chooses to focus on all she has been given. Blessed with children and grandchildren, she enjoys the friendship and support of the entire Blessing, North Dakota, community. And after several years of widowhood, she has reached a place...

Eighteen-year-old Astrid Bjorklund has always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Will she have to give up love to pursue her dream....

From Norway to America, they must strive for resilience amid unpromising new beginnings. On the ship to America, Norwegian immigrant Amalia Gunderson makes a solemn promise to a dying mother, vowing to watch over her five-year-old daughter, Ruth. Together, Amalia and Ruth trek to Iowa to claim...

Thorliff's dream of becoming a writer is within reach. Working for a newspaper in Northfield, Minnesota, he is busy writing articles and stories to pay his way through college. But his idyllic world comes to a sudden halt when a catastrophe hits the town of Blessing, North Dakota. While...

Anji Baard Moen, a recent widow, returns from Norway with her children. She quickly settles back into life in Blessing, teaching Norwegian history in the high school and writing articles for the Blessing Gazette. When tragedy strikes, Anji steps in to run the newspaper and soon finds a kindred...

Award-winning historical novelist Lauraine Snelling delivers a compelling sequel to A Promise for Ellie. When 17-year-old Sophie abandons her North Dakota family in 1901, she never dreams tragedy will turn her again toward home. But she fears the loved ones she hurt will reject her - and that...

Will their dreams fall apart when confronted with all that is stacked against them? Delphinium Nielsen and her sisters have accomplished much in the past year, traveling west and settling in Nebraska. They are on their way to building a garden in dedication to their mother and working against...

Dinah Taylor has an orderly life that is just how she likes it. A perfectly furnished luxury apartment, a satisfying career as a scientist and CEO of her own company, and an uncomplicated personal life. But all of that changes when she meets seven-year-old Jonah. The boy shows up one day, a...

The dream of their own farmstead and a good life in America had brought Roald and Ingeborg Bjorklund across the Atlantic to pioneer the virgin prairie of Dakota Territory. But Roald's tragic disappearance in a winter storm turned Ingeborg's dreams into a living nightmare. Against nearly...

Lilac Nielsen's dream has come true: handsome young Reverend Ethan Pritchard has finally noticed her. Yet she must balance this new courtship with the pursuit of another dream—the publication of her artwork in a New York paper. She has secretly been submitting a series of drawings under a pen...

The Bjorklund family has received word that Augusta Bjorklund is on her way from Norway to join them in North Dakota. When the train arrives in the town of Blessing with no Augusta aboard, the worried family hopes that she will be on the train in the morning. However, only her trunk arrives, so...

Bestselling author Lauraine Snelling shares a heartfelt story of a couple who put their plans for a peaceful retirement on hold to assume guardianship of their young grandchildren. Mona and Ken Sorenson are approaching the best years of their lives. Mona's greatest concern is that Ken will learn...

Lauraine Snelling Launches New Red River Valley Series Trygve Knutson has been promoted from well drilling to heading a construction crew for the fast growing town of Blessing, North Dakota. Though devoted to the land and his family, he sometimes dreams of other horizons. But is he willing to...

Ever so slowly, Dakota Territory is being transformed from a vast prairie into rich farmland. With the coming of the railroad, the small town of Blessing begins to prosper, and the Bjorklund family is reaping the promised harvest that had lured them from their beloved home in Norway. But for...

In her new homeland of Iowa, she must risk heartbreak and uncertainty for her dreams to flourish. Maya Bredesen and her husband plan to journey from Norway to a new life at her cousin's boardinghouse in America, but on one last fateful fishing trip, a fierce winter storm steals away her husband...

A heartwarming story that celebrates how life-changing friendships can be found in all seasons of life. The sprawling lake home Lynn Lundberg built with her husband has been an epicenter of joyful family life, from summer holidays spent around the water, to cookies baked in the kitchen with...

In this series finale by Lauraine Snelling, Astrid Bjorklund is trying to stop the epidemic ravaging South Dakota’s Red Bud Indian Reservation. Tribal elders remain suspicious of her until some begin to recover. Although Joshua Landsverk longs to fix his broken relationship with Astrid, he...

In Minnesota in 1911, Nilda Carlson is torn between society life in the city of Blackduck and spending time with her family back home on the farm. Her employer, Mrs. Schoenleber, gives her more and more responsibility and experience, including recommending new opportunities for her philanthropy...

For as far back as he can remember, the dream of becoming a writer has burned brightly in Thorliff's heart. But when he arrives at college, things are not as he had imagined. Thorliff longs for the familiarity and nurture of his loved ones back home. The distance has created a rift between...