About the Book

Book: The Songbird and the Surveyor

Author: Denise Farnsworth writing as Denise Weimer

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: November 3, 2025

A marriage of protection. A past full of pain. In Georgia’s wild gold country, love might strike when it’s least expected.

Genevieve Gillbard knows she’s no longer safe in the rough-and-tumble gold rush town when she overhears her controlling guardian’s plot to steal gold from a local mine owner. It takes every ounce of her courage to escape, and now she’ll do anything to keep herself safe, even accept a temporary marriage of convenience from a man who clearly wants nothing more than his independence.

After losing his first wife, surveyor Jesse Holden swore never to let anyone close enough to need him again. But when he discovers the woman he knows as the Songbird of Auraria injured and unconscious in the woods, he can’t abandon her, not with the memory of his failure to protect his wife hanging over him. He’ll keep this woman safe until she’s out of harm’s way, even if it means doing the one thing he swore he’d never do again.

As Genny recovers under Jesse’s care, she discovers he’s nothing like the manipulative men of her past. But can she trust him with her heart—knowing he plans to leave as soon as her guardian is brought to justice? And even then, she fears the sham marriage might not be enough to keep her safe from her guardian’s long reach.

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About the Author

North Georgia native Denise Farnsworth has authored around twenty traditionally published novels and a number of novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

More from Denise

A Gold Rush…in Georgia?

Did you know there was a gold rush in Georgia that began twenty years before gold was discovered in California? That Georgia gold was purer than any found in the country? Comment below if you did. And I tip my hat to you. I come across many native Georgians who are unaware of this major event in their state’s history.

My first series, The Georgia Gold Series, touched on the Georgia Gold Rush. In the ten years since its release, I’ve written novels set between the Revolutionary War and contemporary times. (I also recently got married. Thus, the name change from Denise Weimer to Denise Farnsworth. I hope you’ll look for my future novels under my new name!) The period of the 1830s is one largely untouched in American history by fiction writers. I always knew I might revisit that decade in more detail. Thus, The Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush was born.

Gold was first discovered by white men on Coker Creek in 1827, but it wasn’t until fall of 1828, when Benjamin Parks found a nugget as he returned from filling his cattle’s lick log west of the Chestatee River, that the mining industry exploded in North Georgia. The area was flooded by prospectors who clashed with the native Cherokee people. The land was soon taken from them and divvied up in a lottery of ninety-two districts, with farming plots set at a hundred and sixty acres and gold lots at forty acres. By June of 1832, almost six hundred surveyors from across Georgia were hard at work.

The gold belt stretched from Clarkesville to Canton (the setting of book two), with major concentrations near Dahlonega (the setting of book three). Auraria, located on the mountain ridge between the Etowah and Chestatee rivers, was one of the boom towns that lingered into the twentieth century, although now only a few abandoned buildings remain. Think Wild West before the west went wild. Into this setting I dropped the story of a guilt-haunted surveyor with a dangerous streak of wanderlust and an orphan who’s learned to sing for her life.

Genevieve Gillbard’s neglectful father has died and left her in the care of her guardian, a volatile saloon owner with unwholesome intentions. When she overhears a plot that implicates Charles Martin and one of his employees in a scheme to kidnap her and siphon off a local miner’s gold, Genevieve flees…right into the arms of another man she surely can’t trust.

Blaming himself for the death of his wife, Jesse Holden wants nothing less than being saddled with the wounded songbird he rescued from a drunken miner on his first trip to Auraria. But when he learns that Genny’s guardian is the same man responsible for his wife’s death, he agrees to shelter her to give his sheriff friend, also his former brother-in-law, time to entrap Charles. Neither of them expect to be forced into a marriage in name only—at least until Genny reaches her majority. Despite his efforts to hold his heart at bay, Jesse was raised by his minister-father to treat women right—something so new to Genny, it crumbles her walls. But will the emotional price of trusting Jesse prove higher than the risk to her physical safety?

Although set near raucous boom town of Auraria, The Songbird and the Surveyor is a story of quiet healing and second chances. Of rescues and God’s miraculous redirection. Of learning to spot the real among the counterfeit…and hold onto it for all you’re worth.

Interview with Denise

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

When I was around eleven years old. My parents took me to historical sites, and I started penning stories about the people who might have lived in those places.

How long does it take you to write a book?

It depends on the book. Contemporaries are quicker than historicals. For my first series of four books published around ten years ago, The Georgia Gold Series, I researched for a year before I ever started writing and continued research as I went. The whole thing took three or four years. Now, if my editing work is not too heavy, I can usually produce a historical in four to six weeks. I recently wrote a historical novella in two weeks. That was stressful!

What is your real-life work schedule like when writing? 

Usually, I’m editing for Wild Heart Books while I’m also writing. When that’s the case, I tend to write in the morning. I try to finish a chapter and edit it before lunch. In the afternoon, I edit for other authors. Or I will clear my schedule of most outside projects for a month so I can hunker down and produce a full novel.

What are your favorite books to read?

Historical romances! And I get to read a lot of them as editor at Wild Heart Books. We have so many amazingly talented authors.

How do you create your main characters? 

I often start with a historical event or setting and consider what type of person would most fit in that setting or find it most challenging. Then I do extensive research to create the character, from their name to their education, ethnicity, speech, occupation, religion, dark moment backstory or wounds, goals.

What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?

It can be challenging to fill in all the plot holes in a novel and ensure that the choices the main characters make are believable in advancing the plot. It can also be tricky to let the reader know what they need to just when it’s appropriate and not before. Often, writers can forget what they have or haven’t told readers at certain points in the story.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I enjoy mountain rambles, hiking, cute little towns, and historical sites and events.

Do you base your characters on real people?

My fictional characters are just that…fictional. However, it’s reasonable to suppose that my main characters have little parts and pieces of me and maybe some of the people I’ve known really well. And certainly, in my historical novels, real people sometimes make cameo appearances.

Have you experienced writer’s block, and how do you handle it?

I don’t tend toward full-fledged writer’s block. That said, there are days I have slated to write when I don’t feel the inspiration. To get myself going, I read back over what I had written most recently and study my research. If that doesn’t do the trick, a walk or a mindless task will often let my right brain engage.

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, writes historical and contemporary romance mostly set in Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A wife and mother, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

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Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about? 2026 will be another busy year for me with book releases.

• February 17 – Book Two of the Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush, The Maiden and the Mountie
• May 5 – Book Three of the Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush, The Schoolmarm and the Miner
• June 30 – Freed by the Frontier – a collection of three enemies-to-lovers/captive narrative novellas, including my story, Ofuskee Surrender
• August 18 – my novel, Bent Tree Bride, will be re-released as Book Six of The Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, A Contrary Betrothal

Also look for A Counterfeit Betrothal in large print on February 26 and my novels as part of other trope collections by Wild Heart Books.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 14

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, November 15

Blossoms and Blessings, November 15

Texas Book-aholic, November 16

lakesidelivingsite, November 17

For Him and My Family, November 18

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, November 19

Pause for Tales, November 19

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, November 20

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, November 21

Stories By Gina, November 22 (Author Interview)

Lyssa Loves Books, November 22

Devoted To Hope, November 23

Books You Can Feel Good About, November 24

Books Less Travelled, November 25

Holly’s Book Corner, November 26

The Mommies Reviews, November 26

Cover Lover Book Review, November 27

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Denise is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/3d5a4/the-songbird-and-the-surveyor-celebration-tour-giveaway