Dakota Nights by Debbie Macomber *****

Dakota Nights by Debbie Macomber. Powerful women. Passionate kisses. This book is a G-rated romance with pregnancies, dangerous secrets, multi-generational families, and holidays. It celebrates small towns and small farmers. If you want love at first sight that lives happily ever after, this is your book.

Dakota Nights is a compendium of two novels, Always Dakota and Buffalo Valley. Buffalo Valley follows Always Dakota and is half its length. Since Buffalo Valley refers extensively to Always Dakota, it is best to read them together, with Always Dakota first.

Always Dakota is a story of four relationships.

Margaret Clemens was innocent and rich. Matt Eilers had a reputation and was dating a cocktail waitress, Sheryl Decker. Regardless, Margaret wanted to marry Matt. She was the opposite of seductive, feminine Sheryl. As far as [her father] knew, she’d only worn a dress twice in her entire life. He’d tried to get her into one when she was ten and the attempt had damn near killed him. But, as everyone said, “Margaret’s Margaret.” She got Matt, but Sheryl wouldn’t let him go.

Calla hated her mother, Sarah, for divorcing her father, Willie Stern, and marrying Dennis. To make matters worse, Sarah and Dennis were having a baby. Calla punished her mother by going to live with Willie in Minneapolis, who proved to be a worse parent than anything Calla had imagined.

Merrily kidnapped Axel from his abusive parents, who were preparing to sell him to pedophiles. She lived in fear that she would be discovered. Her husband, Buffalo Bob, convinced her to turn herself in. As a result, the authorities in California took custody of Axel, she faced the possibility of jail time, and they had to apply to adopt Axel against California parents who didn’t have criminal records like Bob and Merrily in North Dakota.

Rachel started a quilting business in Buffalo Valley with a bank loan. She would accept a marriage proposal from bank president Heath until she paid off her loan.

Buffalo Valley.

Vaughn Kyle’s girlfriend Natalie was an executive and mega-retailer, Value-X, and had her eye on Buffalo Valley for the next store. “Buffalo Valley doesn’t have enough retail choices.” When she learned Vaughn had relatives in the area, she sent him to collect intelligence. In Buffalo Valley, “he met Carrie, and the attraction between them was undeniable.” With Carrie, he learned about small towns…Christmas tree lighting, cookie exchanges, and neighbors working together to overcome adversity.

“So you want to give me your heart?” she said

“Don’t you know?” he asked her.

“Know what?”

“You already have it.”

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