Cara Lynn James

Cara Lynn James writes inspirational historical romance set amid the wealth and social restrictions of turn-of-the-century Newport, Rhode Island. Love on a Dime opens her three-book Ladies of Summerhill sequence in 1899. Lilly Westbrook secretly publishes dime novels as Fannie Cole, then faces exposure when former love Jackson Grail acquires her publishing company. Love by the Book is the third volume and shifts attention to Melinda Hollingsworth and Nick Bryson, who enter a marriage of convenience to care for their orphaned young niece, Nell. The two novels use very different secrets, but both ask how duty, faith, money, and public reputation shape a woman's choices. Thomas Nelson issued Love on a Dime in 2010; Love by the Book followed in 2011 after Love on Assignment. James received recognition in contests associated with Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. Her Summerhill stories balance period detail with women seeking useful work and honest relationships inside a society designed to narrow both.