State of Romance: There's no place like home for lovers

On this day in 1950, Dwight D. Eisenhower became NATO's supreme allied commander. Two years later, he was elected president of the United States. Eisenhower ultimately retired to Abilene, Kansas — for this public servant, there is no place like home. Today we explore romance books set in the Sunflower State.

The state motto is Per aspera ad astra —Through hardships to the stars — setting the stage for historical prairie romance with Pamela Morsi's Heaven Sent, Connie Mason's Treasures of the Heart, Johanna Lindsey's A Heart So Wild, Rosanne Bittner's Caress, Teresa Bodwell's Loving Mercy, Lori Austin's Beauty and the Bounty Hunter and Cheryl St. John's The Preacher's Daughter. My favorite historical title is Linda Winstead Jones' Cinderfella.

Julianne MacLean propels her heroine from 2011 to 1881 in Taken by the Cowboy. Deborah Raney explores a snow-covered small town in 1971 with Silver Bells.

Debbie Macomber introduces readers to the KUTE radio station in One Night. Carla Cassidy continues the legacy of the Lawmen of Black Rock with Tool Belt Defender. Charlene Weir transplants her heroine from the big city to a small town in The Winter Widow.

Even paranormal romance rolls into the Kansas' prairies with Kitty's Big Trouble from Carrie Vaughn and Silver Zombie from Carole Nelson Douglas.

Hats off to the classics set in Kansas: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie and Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz.

Add to the list of romances set in Kansas by using #stateofromance on Twitter.

Next week we live free or die in New Hampshire, the Granite State.

Kim Lowe is an Air Force veteran, Air Force spouse and romance book blogger at SOS Aloha. You can reach her at sos.aloha@yahoo.com.