About the Book

Book: A Constant Love

Author: Tracie Peterson

Genre: Historical Romance

Release date: March 4, 2025

Heartache has left them emotionally desolate, but traces of love and healing could forge a future.

In the wake of a harsh winter, Micah Hamilton and Charlotte Aldrich are grappling with loss and guilt after the disaster that took the lives of their loved ones. Struggling to cope with his grief, Micah abandons his father’s dreams of a prosperous ranch and cuts himself off from the rest of the world.

Charlotte has loved Micah her entire life and is determined not to lose him as well. With her mother’s help, she begins coaxing Micah to live again. Despite their enduring heartache, the affection between them deepens, but just as Charlotte thinks her dreams may come true, a scorned suitor threatens everything she holds dear. Micah and Charlotte must embark on a journey of healing and renewal to build a life founded on faith, hope, and love.

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About the Author

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling author of more than 100 novels, both historical and contemporary, with more than 6 million copies sold. She has won the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Her avid research resonates in her many bestselling series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.

More from Tracie

A Constant Love is a book near and dear to my heart. The book deals with tragedy and loss that came about during and after the Great Die-Up—a hideous winter of blizzards and desperately cold temperatures that affected the prairie states and up into the Rockies. Many of the ranchers in the areas were completely wiped out and gave up their ranches when their cattle died off in record numbers.

Ranchers and farmers had dealt with the elements turning against them prior to this, but the winter of 1886–1887 was different. The summer of 1886 had brought about record droughts, and many of the crops had failed. The livestock suffered as the grass died off and feed wasn’t readily available. By November, early and heavy snows started and continued. Temperatures dropped to record lows. In eastern Montana the temperatures were said to drop to negative 63 degrees Fahrenheit.

In January, a Chinook wind warmed things considerably, melting a lot of the snow. This just made things worse, however, because when the plunging sub-zero temperatures returned, the water froze a thick layer on top of what little grass the animals had been able to dig down to eat. Mass starvation followed, and thousands upon thousands of animals were lost. In reading about the era and all that happened, I came across comments from people that showed the great despair that flooded the states involved. The hopelessness of it all was overwhelming.

During the same time I was researching and mapping out this book, a beloved family member committed suicide. The devastation we felt was overwhelming, and it all seemed to come together with what I had been reading. I felt that deep sadness and despair. I read that some people had taken their lives after that winter. People were at a loss as to what to do, and in that day and age, the church was not always very kind to the families of those who killed themselves. As I prayed about the book I planned to write, I felt compelled to write about suicide and the ripple effect it has on family, friends, and even total strangers. I wanted to share the hope that I found in God’s Word, and A Constant Love was born.

There are times in our lives when we are overwhelmed to the point of despair, when giving up seems far easier than going on. I pray if you ever feel that way, you’ll reach out to someone and talk it through. But I also challenge those who aren’t feeling that way to be observant . . . to care about those around you enough to get in their business when things just don’t seem right. You might very well save a life. As the Bible says, we need to bear one another’s burdens. I hope you’ll keep that in mind as you read A Constant Love.

My Impressions

“Someday, I believe we’ll understand, but for now we have two choices. We either give up on God and walk away, or we trust Him no matter what happens to us. For me, I’m going to trust Him, because life without Him seems too horrible to even think about.”

I’m not sure I’d ever read a novel by Tracie Peterson, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next novels in this new series. A Constant Love is a Christian historical western romance that deals very directly with many themes including shared grief, greed, suicide, lying, judgment, and faith.

The winter of 1886-87 in the Wyoming area has been brutally cold. The summer preceding it was ultra hot and dry, causing great draughts which means farmers didn’t have much food available for their cattle. When the extreme cold comes, the already malnourished and sickly cattle die off by the thousands. Many ranchers give up, sell out, and head for greener pastures. The winter of “the Great Die-Up,” is a great catastrophe to the animals of the land as well as the people. Gloom and hopelessness come to stay. Life on both the Aldrich ranch and the Hamilton ranch is forever altered.

Shortly before this memorable cold spell, we are introduced to Charlotte Aldrich, who lives with her family on a ranch outside of Cheyenne. Charlotte is secretly in love with her brother’s best friend and their rancher neighbor, Micah Hamilton. Charlotte’s father has been insistent that his daughter be well-provided for by marrying town lawyer Lewis Bradley. Charlotte protests to no avail and finally, proclaims angry threats to her father if she if forced to marry Bradley. These words will haunt and torment Charlotte unless she can find peace in God.

Dealing with her own grief, knowing the tendency of people to judge and ostracize others, Lucille (Charlotte’s mother) decides it is best if people just assume a little untruth about Micah’s father. Unfortunately, this carefully guarded secret becomes the fuel for a raging fire that almost devours Charlotte, Micah, and Lucille.

I especially loved the wisdom that Lucille has, both for the ranch life and for practical living. Lucille understands a lot about living out her faith, and is often able to encourage Charlotte or Micah.

As Micah despairs, “I thought God never gave us anything more than we could handle.” “The Bible doesn’t say that, Micah. There is a passage that talks about temptations and God always giving us a way out, but we face things every day that we can’t handle. Why would we need God if we could handle it all on our own?” Lucille replies.

I received a copy of the book from Celebrate Lit. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.

Notable Quotables:

“He might have a new haircut and shave, but he still had the same unkempt soul and broken heart.”

“We can assign blame or grace, Micah. I choose grace, and I’m not too proud to say, I especially assign it to myself.”

“…you have to put one foot in front of the other and make yourself go forward.”

“Never lose sight of how important people are in your life, Micah,” his father had stressed. “Do for others and be available when troubles come, and they’ll do likewise for you.”

“Holding a lot of expectations for someone might be the biggest mistake we can make.”

“Sometimes our human nature takes charge in that way, convincing and manipulating until sin seems reasonable, even desirable. And instead, it serves only to make the matter worse.”