Heartland Joy - Jessie Gussman

Bridgett Rawlings is known in her small town of Prairie Rose, Iowa as The Bad Luck Widow. She just lost her father. Before that it was her second husband, and before that, her first. Every man Bridgett has ever loved has been killed on her family farm, but it is all she owns and the basis of her livelihood. It seems there is no escaping the curse laid upon her.

So, when Shawn Barclay, the son of an old friend of her father's, shows up to help on the farm, Bridgett tries to deter him. She explains the curse and how the town has shunned her. She tells him to go back to Arkansas, where he came from.

But Shawn doesn't believe in curses. When he looks at Bridgett, he sees a kind and thoughtful woman forced to endure incredible grief alone in a community that should be showering her with support. The least he can do is stay on the farm to help her.

As they work alongside one another, Shawn begins to see Bridgett in a different light, as a woman of incredible strength with more capacity for love than anyone he has ever met, a woman he is falling in love with.

Bridgett is falling for him too, but what if the locals are right? What if she is bad luck? She is not willing to risk Shawn's life to prove them right.

But will she be giving up a heartland of joy by not daring to prove them wrong?