Fireflies in Paradise

Kansas, 1872. For Jane Hardcroft, the prairie has taken everything: her husband, her daughter, her future. Left with her faithful hinny, Molly, a hand-dug grave and a sagging sod homestead, she is a recent widow adrift in a harsh world with few choices. Her only hope is in Paradise, a dusty frontier town where she finds an unlikely ally and mentor in Nellie Cashman, a woman as resilient as the land itself.Together, they forge an iron-clad friendship, working to build a life of their own as they turn a humble diner into a haven of found family and community. But even in a place called Paradise, demons lurk beneath the surface. When a wave of pious hatred destroys everything they’ve built, Jane discovers that survival is not just about enduring loss. It’s about striving to create a new life on the ashes of the old.Developing themes of female resilience, grief, and the nature of community, Fireflies in Paradise is a powerful exploration of the lives of two widows who make their way in the patriarchal world of the 1870s amidst the backdrop of the unforgiving Kansas prairie and American expansion across the frontier West. Read more