Alaska Home. Debbie Macomber

      

      Lonely men in Hard Luck, Alaska, looking for women. Our town might be cold, but our hearts are warm!

      Location: north of the Arctic Circle. Population: 150 (mostly men!) But the three O’Halloran brothers, who run a bush-plane charter service called Midnight Sons, are heading a campaign to bring women to town.

      Falling for Him

      Christian, the youngest O’Halloran brother, has a problem, and her name is Mariah Douglas. The Midnight Sons secretary is always losing his messages, misplacing his files and generally creating chaos. Despite that, he can’t get her out of his mind...

      Ending in Marriage

      The clashes between pilot Duke Porter and Seattle attorney Tracy Santiago are legendary. Duke’s a tough, rugged individualist who delights in expressing outrageous opinions, particularly when Tracy’s around. But she gives as good as she gets...and not just when they’re arguing!

      Includes a special extra novella!

      Midnight Sons and Daughters

      Scott O’Halloran and Chrissie Harris are all grown up now. After years away from Alaska, Scott’s back in town, and everybody’s wondering if he’s here to stay. Especially Chrissie, the girl he left behind...

       Praise for the novels of #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

      “Ms. Macomber’s storytelling skills really shine as she creates appealing characters and a winning premise.”

      —RT Book Reviews on Falling for Him

      “Delightful characters and a sparkling conflict.”

      —RT Book Reviews on Ending in Marriage

      “Macomber is a skilled storyteller.”

      —Publishers Weekly

      “[Debbie Macomber] demonstrates her impressive skills with characterization and her flair for humor.”

      —RT Book Reviews

      “Whether [Debbie Macomber] is writing lighthearted romps or more serious relationship books, her novels are always engaging stories that accurately capture the foibles of real-life men and women with warmth and humor.”

      —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

      “Debbie Macomber tells women’s stories in a way no one else does.”

      —BookPage

      “Popular romance writer Debbie Macomber has a gift for evoking the emotions that are at the heart of the genre’s popularity.”

      —Publishers Weekly

      Dear Friend,

      Welcome back to Hard Luck, Alaska, and the last volume in the Midnight Sons series. If you read volumes one and two, you’ve become familiar with the families living in this rugged tundra town.

      My husband worked on the pipeline in Alaska back in 1982. In fact, Wayne was in Purdue Bay when I received word that my first book had sold. It was a phone call that changed our lives. Because Wayne had loved working in Alaska, we traveled north—many years later—in order to do the research for this series. If anyone from the IRS inquires, the entire trip was for research purposes! It was work, work, work!

      I remember we were in Fairbanks for the summer solstice. When they say Alaska is the land of the midnight sun, that’s no exaggeration. We ended up propping a chair against the drapes to keep the light from shining into our hotel-room window. See? It’s all research.

      Our trip was quite an adventurous one. Wayne and I were able to fly over the Arctic Circle on a “mail run” and visit a town called Bettles, which bears an astonishing resemblance to Hard Luck. In the name of research I interviewed bush pilots, panned for gold, dined on moose meat and talked with anyone and everyone willing to share their experiences. It ended up being a trip Wayne and I would long remember. Although it was strictly work (in case that IRS agent is lurking over your shoulder reading this).

      I hope you enjoy Falling for Him and Ending in Marriage, plus the bonus novella Midnight Sons and Daughters. It’s a follow-up story many readers had asked me to write. This is a great opportunity to find out how some of the children you met in these books turned out.

      Warmest regards,

      PS: I love hearing from readers. You can reach me at www.debbiemacomber.com or PO Box 1458, Port Orchard, Washington 98366.

       Alaska Home

       Falling for Him

       Ending in Marriage

       Midnight Sons and Daughters

       Debbie Macomber

       www.mirabooks.co.uk

       The History of Hard Luck, Alaska

      Hard Luck, situated fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle near the Brooks Range, was founded by Adam O’Halloran and his wife, Anna, in 1931. Adam came to Alaska to make his fortune, but never found the gold strike he sought. Nevertheless, the O’Hallorans and their two young sons, Charles and David, stayed on—in part because of a tragedy that befell the family a few years later.

      Other prospectors and adventurers began to move to Hard Luck, some of them bringing wives and children. The town became a stopping-off place for mail, equipment and supplies. The Harmon family arrived in 1938 to open a dry-goods store, and the Fletchers came soon after that.

      When World War II began, Hard Luck’s population was fifty or sixty people all told. Some of the young men, including the O’Halloran sons, joined the armed services; Charles left for Europe in 1942, David in 1944 at the age of eighteen. Charles died during the fighting. Only David came home—with a young English war bride, Ellen Sawyer, despite the fact that he’d become engaged to Catherine Harmon shortly before going overseas. Catherine married Willie Fletcher after David’s return.

      After the war, David qualified as a bush pilot. He then built some small cabins to attract the sport fishermen and hunters who were starting to come to Alaska; he also worked as a guide. Eventually he built a lodge to replace the cabins—a lodge that was later damaged by fire.

      David and Ellen had three sons, born fairly late in their marriage—Charles, named after David’s brother, was born in 1960, Sawyer in 1963 and Christian in 1965.

      Hard Luck had been growing slowly all this time, and by 1970 it was home to just over a hundred people. These were the years of the oil boom, when the school and community center were built by the state. After Vietnam, ex-serviceman Ben Hamilton joined the community and opened the Hard Luck Café, which became the social center of the town.

      In the late 1980s, the three O’Halloran brothers formed a partnership, creating Midnight Sons, a bush-pilot operation. They were awarded the mail contract, and they also deliver fuel and other necessities to the interior. In addition, they serve as a small commuter airline, flying passengers to and from Fairbanks and within the northern Arctic.

      In 1995, at the time these stories start, there are approximately one hundred and fifty