Romancing America: South Dakota Books in Order

Romancing America: South Dakota gathers Mary Connealy’s Black Hills–set contemporary romances into a single themed collection. Under the omnibus title Black Hills Blessing, these stories explore how love, faith, and forgiveness play out in the modern ranching communities that cluster around the famous hills.

Across the three novellas, you’ll meet a buffalo ranch manager whose passion for conservation clashes with a neighboring cattleman, a burned-out businessman hiding out in a run-down house he doesn’t quite have permission to occupy, and a divorced woman whose carefully rebuilt life is upended when her repentant ex-husband returns.

While each story has its own central couple, side characters weave in and out, giving the collection the feel of a small-town series where people keep bumping into each other in church pews, at branding time, and in the local café. The romances are warm and gently funny, but Connealy doesn’t dodge the real conflicts that come with environmental debates, financial strain, and broken trust.

The Black Hills themselves matter here: wide grasslands, tourist traffic, and the tension between preserving land and making a living from it all shape the choices characters have to make. The setting gives these contemporary tales the same sense of space and risk that readers love in her historical westerns.

If you’re curious how Connealy’s voice carries into a more modern world—with pickup trucks instead of wagons—this South Dakota slice of the Romancing America line is a good place to start.