Melanie Lageschulte Books in Order

Laid off and nearing forty, Melinda Foster returns to rural Iowa to help at her family's hardware store. A faded farmhouse, headstrong animals, and a sprawling garden offer a fresh start, if she can hold on when trouble arrives.

Melinda's garden and farm work are finally paying off, but a surprise at Prosper Hardware sends her back to Minneapolis. As autumn approaches, she must decide whether the city’s security matters more than the rural life she has begun to love.

Melinda plans the perfect Prosper Christmas, from caring for the farm to improving the town festival. But a mysterious visitor changes her perspective, reminding her that home and holiday spirit cannot be measured by decorations alone.

Winter brings frozen pipes, heavy snow, and pregnant sheep to Melinda’s farmhouse. As she waits to learn whether she can buy the farm, a series of setbacks threatens both her heart and the future she has worked toward.

Spring fills Melinda with plans for her farm and a local cat rescue effort. Then an inspector, a family property dispute, and a troubling discovery about Prosper Hardware put her new life and closest relationships under strain.

A new romance and a box of old love letters complicate Melinda's summer in Prosper. While she traces a long-ago relationship, town rivalries and financial pressures force her to make hard choices about the life she is building.

During the Great Depression, two farm boys dream of the bright tin train in a catalog. As Christmas nears, Horace and Wilbur fear Santa will pass them by, until their family finds a gentler meaning of the holiday.

Early winter should be peaceful in Prosper, until publicity for a new business divides the town and officials threaten its post office. Melinda juggles family tension and a new crush while wondering what the changes will cost.

Melinda helps plan Prosper’s first fall festival as a windfall, a troubling discovery, and a heated mayoral race unsettle the town. Her own new relationship also faces pressure as personal priorities begin to shift.

Spring brings new plans to Prosper, along with secrets, old rumors, and questions about a vacant property. When her aunt and uncle leave town, Melinda must run the hardware store while keeping her own growing responsibilities afloat.

Melinda prepares her farmhouse and Prosper’s first Founders Day celebration when a wedding suddenly needs a venue. A dispute over expanding the co-op and uncertainty in her personal life force her to face what she wants next.

After a violent robbery and a failed marriage, Chicago mail carrier Kate Duncan returns to Eagle River, Iowa. When an elderly man on her route vanishes, Kate follows a trail of uneasy clues through the town she thought she knew.

Kate faces her first Christmas after divorce when an antique nativity set disappears from a historic country church. Folklore, family secrets, and reluctant witnesses complicate the search to recover the beloved artwork before Christmas.

Kate settles into her Eagle River farmhouse, works at the post office, and adopts a rescue dog. Then a neighbor’s barn burns in suspected arson, spreading fear through town and pulling Kate into a hunt for the person responsible.

Ten linked historical stories trace 150 years of Eagle River through the lives of determined women. Their choices, friendships, and private struggles reveal the people and places that shaped Kate Duncan’s hometown.

When Eagle River’s historic livestock auction barn faces possible closure, Kate notices ominous collection notices in local mailboxes. Missing cash, old grudges, and a threatened landmark send her and her friends searching for answers.

A home invasion leaves a beloved Eagle River resident injured, and Kate’s mail route may hold vital clues. As the police seek help from carriers, she uncovers betrayal and a case that is far more tangled than it first appears.

A local beekeeper dies after being stung by her own colony, but Kate doubts it was a simple accident. Rumors about the woman’s family lead her into a troubling case in remote Hartland County.