The Flint Hills are America's last tallgrass prairie, a green enclave set in the midst of the farmland of eastern Kansas. Known as the home of the Big Beef Steer, these rugged hills have produced exemplary cowboys-both the ranch and rodeo varieties-whose hard work has given them plenty of material for equally good stories. Jim Hoy grew up in the Flint Hills on a ranch at Cassoday that's been in his family for five generations and boasts roots "as deep as those of bluestem grass in black-soil bottomland." He now draws on this area's rich cowboy lore-as well as on his own experience working cattle, breaking horses, and rodeoing-to write a folk history of the Flint Hills spanning a century and a half. Hoy blends history, folklore, and memoir to conjure for readers the tallgrass prairies of his boyhood in a book that richly recalls the ranching life and the people who lived it. Here are cowboys and outlaws, rodeo stars and runaway horses, ordinary folks and the stuff of legends. Hoy introduces readers to the likes of Lou Hart, a top hand with the Crocker Brothers from 1906 to1910, whose poetic paean to ranch life circulated orally for fifty years before seeing print. And he tracks down the legend of Bud Gillette, considered by his neighbors the world's fastest man until he fell in with an unscrupulous promoter. He even unravels the mystery of a lone grave supposed to be that of the first cowboy in the Flint Hills. Hoy also explains why a good horse makes up for having to work with exasperating cattle-and why not all horses are created (or trained) equal. And he traces Flint Hills cattle culture from the days of the trail drive through the railroad years to today's trucking era, with most railroad stockyards torn down and only one section house left standing. Writes Hoy, "I feed on the stories of the Hills and the characters who tell them as the cattle feed on the grasses." His love of the land shines throughout a book so real that readers will swear they hear the click of horseshoes on flint rock with every turn of the page.

Will an Alpha cowboy find true love in the kitchen in this sexy, small town western? A captivating contemporary western romance series that will appeal to fans of Vivian Arend’s Six Pack Ranch, Cora Seton’s Chance Creek, and Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge. Out of the Frying Pan Brodie Sinclaire, the youngest and wildest of the Sinclaire brothers, has just been given an ultimatum. Settle down and run the hunting lodge his brothers have built, or find a new job- on another ranch. His first order of business is to find a cook who will last more than a week. He gets more than he bargained for when the cook he hires turns out to be his sister-in-law’s best friend, fiery redhead and Cordon Bleu trained chef, Jamey O’Neill. And Into the fire In the span of a week Jamey O’Neill has lost everything. Her boyfriend, her restaurant, and her career- thanks to a devastating health diagnosis. Broke, and desperate to make a fresh start, she agrees to help the Sinclaires get their hunting lodge off the ground. The last thing she needs is a deliciously handsome cowboy getting under her skin and bossing her in the kitchen. Can They Handle the Heat? They can’t deny their chemistry is explosive, and Brodie sets out to prove himself to the feisty chef. But can they handle the heat when Brodie is forced to face his past and Jamey wrestles with her future?

Will an Alpha cowboy find true love on the range in this sexy, small town western? “You won’t want to miss this fast-paced, sexy ride.” - NYT & USA Today Bestseller, Cora Seton A captivating contemporary western romance series that will appeal to fans of Vivian Arend’s Six Pack Ranch, Cora Seton’s Chance Creek, and Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge. The Rancher’s Son Cowboy Blake Sinclaire is determined not to repeat the sins of his father. That means choosing to love no one and save the settling down for his younger brothers. But one woman has thrown a wrench in those plans – Maddie Hansen, the sexy scientist who also happens to be the daughter of his family’s greatest enemy. The Woman He Shouldn’t Want Physicist Maddie Hansen vows she’ll never come back to the small town where she grew up - Prairie, Kansas. She’d rather stay in a dead-end job than stay trapped in a loveless marriage as a rancher’s wife. But she can’t stay away from Blake, especially after he saved her father’s life. Will their love take them SUPERNOVA, or collapse into a BLACK HOLE? Maddie’s father owns land that used to belong to the Sinclaires, and Blake will do anything to get it back - including talking Maddie into a fake engagement. But Blake’s got secrets. Big secrets. And when they come to light, will their love withstand the shockwaves?

"You won't want to miss this fast-paced, sexy ride." - NYT Bestseller, Cora Seton The complete Cowboys of the Flint Hills series bundled for your pleasure! Each novel ends with a guaranteed happily ever after. From fake engagements, to secret crushes, second chances and enemies to lovers - you'll fall in love with the sexy alpha males of the Flint Hills and the strong, sassy women that bring them to their knees. Including: Heart of a Cowboy Heart of a Rebel Heart of a Wrangler Heart of a Daredevil Heart of a Bachelor Cowboy, Family Feud, Opposites Attract, Family Secrets, Workplace, Enemies to Lovers, Second Chance, Star Crossed Lovers Friends to Lovers, PTSD, Military Veteran, Firefighter, Rodeo Cowboy, Fake Engagement, Doctor, Secret Baby, Doctor-Patient, Politics

Will an Alpha Cowboy earn a second chance at love in this sexy, small-town western? He’s a down-home rancher… Axel Hansen is Prairie’s fickle Casanova and resident prankster. Ten years ago, he wanted nothing more than to settle down on the family ranch with his college sweetheart. But his adrenaline junkie girlfriend, Haley, chose her profession over love. She’s the thrill seeker who broke his heart… Meteorologist Haley Cooper has devoted her career to facing down tornadoes and saving lives. She’s finally offered the promotion of a lifetime, but it means boarding at the last place on Earth she thought she’d see again and facing down her biggest regret. Will lightning strike twice for love? Axel jumps at the chance to help Haley with her research, and before they know it, they’re caught in the crosswinds of love and obligation. But as devastating tornadoes rip through the area, they’ll have to confront their feelings for each other and decide if their love can weather any storm.

Will an Alpha cowboy win the woman of his dreams in this sexy, small town western? A captivating contemporary western romance series that will appeal to fans of Vivian Arend’s Six Pack Ranch, Cora Seton’s Chance Creek, and Maisey Yates’ Copper Ridge. What’s a guy to do when the girl of his dreams makes a pass at him? Saying no to Hope Hansen was the hardest thing Ben Sinclaire has ever done. Despite the fact that he’s loved her since grade school, between their age difference and a family feud, a romance between them was forbidden. But now she’s back and the girl he loved has become all woman. He’s finally ready to make his move, but he’ll have to get around her brothers and a field of admirers to do it. What’s a girl to do when faced with the worst mistake from her past? Eight years ago, Hope took a chance on Ben and got shot down. Heart broken and mortified, she left town. A fiasco at veterinary school foils her plan to avoid him forever by forcing her to come home to Prairie. When her brothers meddle in her love life by placing a Cowboy Wanted ad for her in the back of Rancher’s Monthly, Ben becomes her unlikely ally. As all her feelings come crashing back, Hope isn’t sure if she can trust him… or herself. Cowboy Wanted: True Love Awaits Ben comes up with a daring plan to win Hope, but when ice storms, weddings, and babies interfere, will it backfire? Or will Hope realize that true love has been waiting right under her nose the whole time?

The Kansas Flint Hills stretch across a dozen counties in the eastern half of the Sunflower State. The region boasts rolling hills covered in native grasses, including the tallgrass varieties unique to the area. Dubbed the Great American Desert by pioneers facing the prairies vastness, the rich grassland became home to settlers pursuing ranching and farming enterprises. Images of America: Flint Hills presents over 200 historic images from a half-dozen counties in the region. Included are vintage photographs from the Native Stone Scenic Byway and the Flint Hills Scenic Byway that transverse the district. Also included are views of Council Grove, the last place that travelers could purchase supplies before leaving on the Santa Fe Trail. The Davis Ranch, which encompassed all of what is now the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, is seen in historic images never published before. The volume concludes with photographs of Flint Hills cowboys at work and at play.

Between the Nebraska border and Osage County, Oklahoma, are the Flint Hills of Kansas, and growing on those hills the last of the tallgrass prairie that once ranged from Canada to Texas, and on those fields of bluestem, cattle graze—and tending the cattle, someone like Jim Hoy, whose people have ranched there from, well, not quite time immemorial, but pretty darn close. Hoy has always called the Flint Hills home and over the decades he has made a study of them—their tough terrain and quiet beauty, their distinctive folk life and cattle culture—and marshaled his observations to bring the Flint Hills home to readers in a singular way. These essays are Hoy’s Flint Hills, combining family lore and anecdotes of ranching life with reflections on the region’s rich history and nature. Whether it’s weaning calves or shoeing horses, checking in on a local legend or a night of high school basketball in nearby Cassoday, encountering a coyote or a badger or surveying what’s happened to the tallgrass prairie over time, summoning cowboy traditions or parsing the place’s plant life or rock formations, he has something to say—and you can bet it’s well worth hearing. With his keen eye, understated wit, and store of knowledge, Hoy makes his Flint Hills come alive, and in the telling, live on.

The Flint Hills stretch across eighty-two thousand square miles of American history in a long, rocked-up, grassed-up finger pointing from the Oklahoma border all the way to Nebraska. This history winds though the mythos of the cowboy, climbing among families built on fierce independence, respect for the land and the water, and stubborn refusal to sacrifice a way of life to enforced economic change. These stories tell the hard truths of hard people whose traditional values have carried them, have helped them prosper for five generations. Ancestral land belongs these days only to those willing to fight for it. Heaven's own sunsets wait only for the strong and the certain. The world would do well to know these hills and those who live here.