Books in the Circle C Milestones series

When cattle rustlers working in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1880s switch to horses and target the Circle C ranch, fourteen-year-old Andi turns to Macy, a homeless, ill-bred new student whose mistakes have endangered Andi but who may hold the key to saving Taffy's foal.

The second in the Circle C Milestones series Andrea Carter can ride, rope, and cut out cattle with the best of her brothers' ranch hands. Yet, her mother has always held the family's youngest daughter back from fully participating in ranch activities. With the approach of her fifteenth birthday, even the ranch boss, big brother Chad, can't deny that his baby sister is better at ranch skills than some of his cowhands. When Andi announces that her quinceañera birthday wish is to join the upcoming cattle drive, her family is stunned. But after further discussion and multiple newspaper clippings about spirited women who balked at society's expectations, even Mother agrees that the only way to get this cattle-drive notion out of Andi's head is by letting her and her cousin Levi go along as Cook's helpers. Andi is elated. What can go wrong on a two-week drive to Los Angeles? Andi quickly discovers that a cattle drive is a dirty, dangerous business with little sleep and the same food day after day. Between late nights, dust, mosquitos, and an abrasive cowhand trying to win Andi's attention, it is definitely not a holiday. Andi grimly determines she will stick it out. When a river crossing goes wrong and Chad is shot in a gunfight with suspicious men who have been shadowing the herd, Mitch the trail boss finds himself dangerously shorthanded. Andi and Levi can no longer just give Cook a hand. It's time to pitch in and help Mitch get their cattle to market--any way they can.

Andi's newest adventure may be more than she can handle--even with her family's help Andrea Carter is turning sweet 16 and life could not be better. She's about to finish school, her sister Melinda is getting married, and her older brother Justin has a new baby to spoil. There will be plenty of time to work with the colt of her treasured palomino horse, Taffy, and best of all, Andi will finally get to work full-time for the ranch she loves. There's just one problem: a city-slicker cousin named Daniel. Left there by his father, with a cryptic warning that New York City life has done damage to the young man's character, Daniel wants nothing to do with the ranch. He ignores Andi's lessons, walks away from responsibility, wrecks valuable equipment, and even runs away to San Francisco. The Carter family is in a frenzy trying to keep Daniel under control. When Andi discovers a horrifying secret about him, he forces her to stay silent. But all that changes when Daniel's actions put lives in danger. Andi's anger over her loss threatens to destroy not only Andi but her entire Circle C world. Can anyone break through the wall around Andi's bitter heart and help her find healing? Loyal long-time readers of Susan Marlow's historical fiction will line up for an older Andi's newest adventure, and her discovery of how powerful love can be.

Andrea Carter is finally pulling her own weight on the Circle C Ranch she loves. The only thing she loves more than helping to run the ranch is spending time racing and stunt-riding on her horse Shasta, with the help of wrangler Riley Prescott. Little does she know that when she and Riley stumble onto a mysterious cut in the fence around her brother's prize calves, life is about to get far more exciting--and dangerous.A cryptic warning tied around a brick crashes through the window at a family party. Then cattle begin to die. When the horse barn catches fire, Andi knows this is more than just coincidence. But who is trying to hurt her family--and why? Evidence begins to point to criminals from her brother Justin's past who want revenge. But that discovery may be too late to keep Andi and her brother's family out of danger.Now Riley is her only hope of rescue. Can he find her before she disappears from the Circle C forever? Can she keep everyone else safe until then?The fourth volume in the Circle C Milestones quartet, Courageous Love is high on action, danger, and drama, and full of appealing characters readers love. Andi's final adventure, sparked with a little romance, is sure to please Marlow's legions of loyal readers who want a happy ending for this frontier heroine.