Historical Fiction California

Murder at the Expo is a BBNYA 2023 Indie Book Award semi-finalist. Sadie Brown is a strong female character, but she’s not your usual sleuth. Sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, she’ll take the reader on a fun romp to discover clues to the killer’s identity. Sadie’s no dummy, but she’ll be as surprised as you when she comes face to face with the killer. When the body of Dr. Asa Wolf is found impeccably laid out in the Botanical Building at San Diego's 1915 Panama-California Exposition, the curious death scene arouses questions of murder. Sure, Wolf was a well-respected ...

Kai Ting is the only American-born son of a Shanghai family that fled China during Mao’s revolution. Growing up in a San Francisco multicultural, low-income neighborhood, Kai is caught between two worlds - embracing neither the Chinese nor the American way of life. After his mother’s death, Kai is suddenly plunged into American culture by his stepmother, who tries to erase every vestige of China from the household.

Martina Swan's business and marriage is falling apart. She grabs up her child and seeks to find her husband as armed outlaws chase her looking for their stolen treasure. She's determined to bring her man home as she faces one shock after another. Can she forgive and love again? A full and satisfying read from a woman's point of view in the old west.

She was the last person to see him alive. Hannah Granville knew there would never be answers to her questions. How could Father commit suicide, leaving his wife and children destitute? Did he have any inkling of their fate? How did she fail to understand his intention? Could she have saved him? Was he a coward? Too busy making a living to spend time in the past, Hannah is virtually alone in the world. Her siblings have been taken in by relatives across the country; her mother, too frail and distraught to care for herself much less her children. The only thing getting Hannah through most ...

Christina Swan, the local schoolteacher, is fired when two overzealous suitors brawl at her school. Angry at the unfair treatment, she seizes the opportunity to manage a fledgling ranch for her uncle and runs into the obstinate Kern Yager, a neighboring landholder. As tempers flare between them, the two discover a common enemy in a land development plan that will swallow their ranches. They also discover the faith to meet their problems with God's support.

The first book in a new series by the author of the Heroines of the Golden West series. Alena is a confident entrepreneur in a man's world who meets a rancher with a tragic secret in his past. They're both about to find their inner peace, their calling, and romance in Old California.

Leitha Watson presents "Love and Loyalty", a captivating Western Romance Fiction novel that will transport you to a world filled with passion, danger, and unwavering devotion. Prepare to be swept away on a thrilling journey where love and loyalty are put to the ultimate test. Get ready to immerse yourself in a tale that will keep you turning the pages, eager to uncover the secrets that lie within. Set against the backdrop of the Untamed Wild West, "Love and Loyalty" takes place during a time of great turmoil and change. As the sun sets on the American frontier, an extraordinary love story ...

Her sister gone, her roommates soon to follow, Leora Mitchell must now face the fact that she, along with the others, are mail-order brides. For years, her life revolved around Brown’s Textile Mill, her sister Lottie, and their friends. Now, as mail-order brides, they’d be scattered across the country, ready to start a new life. The only problem was Leora had no idea what that life looked like, nor did she have any idea who she was without the familiar faces she loved so much.

The 1989 quake in Santa Cruz, California destroyed the picturesque downtown of the small coastal city. Lives were lost and lives were forever changed. For private investigator, Jeff Burke life would never be the same. Among the never-ending aftershocks, two murders would cause Burke to go on the run as the prime suspect. Amid the complex web of drug dealing, money laundering, and real estate fraud help would come from the most unexpected sources. But how high was the price to get out of this mess? And who was the killer who now had his sights set on Burke? Drawn from the rich and unique ...

Emmeline Amity Callahan is a feisty charmer with a needy heart. Emmeline's an ugly duckling. At least that's what she thinks, that is until she receives a gift that leads her to California's Big Valley where she makes a surprising discovery.

Juliet must bear the burden of caring for her younger sisters, but that doesn't thwart her desire to run away to be a star on the stage. Taking her sisters, she heads to New York, where her journey to stardom is swift, but the price of fame is dear.

Before the rails bound a nation, before love defied all barriers, there was a foundation laid in quiet longing and impossible dreams. Xiulan, the daughter of Chinese immigrants serving the Hastings family, has grown up in the shadow of wealth and privilege, her every day intertwined with the grandeur of the estate. But within her heart lies a secret: an unspoken affection for Robert Hastings, the heir who left for the Civil War when she was just a girl. Now, as the household eagerly anticipates his return, Xiulan’s quiet admiration blossoms into something deeper—something dangerous. ...

Calafia is a historical fiction about California’s colonization filled with mystery, suspense, and political saga. Listen to this untold story of the Spanish expedition to settle and civilize the frontier known as Alta California. This fascinating account chronicles the suspenseful clashes of the political architects who planned the expedition. The explorers' grueling journey to the unsettled land and the Indians' resistance to their arrival challenging their culture on the early American western frontier.

Rancho Santa Elena in 1987 seems like the ideal Southern California paradise—that is, until a series of strange crimes threatens to unravel the town’s social fabric: workers attacked with mysterious weapons; a wealthy real estate developer found dead in the pool of his beach house. The only clues are poison and red threads found at both crime scenes. As Detective Benjamin Wade and forensic expert Natasha Betencourt struggle to connect the incidents, they begin to wonder: Why Santa Elena? And why now?

She is all blond, beautiful motion; tanned and lithe, she represents freedom, youth, and a playful sexuality that is at once seductive and dangerous to a man's soul. The California girl became a national fantasy in the Sixties, a myth that embodied every daydream, set to the rhythm of a Beach Boys anthem. The story is told in the first person by David Levine, a Jewish New Yorker. In 1965, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, he moves with his family to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

On her 10th birthday, Leah receives a surprise gift from glamorous Aunt Olivia, Mama's only sister, who lives in Los Angeles. It is a red rose box. Not many people in 1958 Louisiana have seen such a beautiful traveling case, covered with red roses, filled with jewelry, silk bedclothes, expensive soaps...and train tickets to California.

A captivating historical fiction saga that traces the indomitable spirit of “Desert” Steve Ragsdale, a man who helped shape the American West. In 1921, after losing his Kansas cotton farm to an inability to pay the taxes, Steve ventures into California’s desert with a bold vision. Defying a harsh land and no roads except ruts in the sands, he founds the town of Desert Center—a beacon of resilience amid heat and hardship. From his early days in Coffeyville, Kansas, confronting outlaws, to navigating the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise of Eagle Mountain Mine, Steve’s ...

Beneath the California Sky is a historical romance set in the 1880s in the frontier town of Stone Ridge, California. The story follows Anna Prescott, a woman who flees her controlling family in Charleston, seeking independence and a new life in the West. Upon arriving in Stone Ridge, she quickly befriends Mary Harlow, a fellow teacher, and together, they work to build a school for the children of the growing town. Anna’s newfound peace is soon challenged when she meets Michael Hawthorne, a former outlaw trying to escape his past.

In the heart of 1920s London, Charlotte finds herself in a seemingly perfect but lonely marriage. When her mother’s best friend invites her boisterous family to the sun-soaked shores of Madison Creek, California, Charlotte jumps at the chance for a change of scenery—despite her husband’s absence back home. As she settles into the dreamy beach house, her lively sisters and the family dog try to fill the void, but nothing can prepare her for the magnetic pull of Jonathan Hollister, the handsome son of their hosts. With every stolen glance and shared laugh, Charlotte begins to awaken ...

For three-years, Jeb Benjamin and Zach Daughtry dreamed of traveling to California to gain their fortune, once released from Camp Douglas, an infamous Union POW hellhole. When the Confederate veterans reach Jeb’s sisters ranch in the Rio Grande valley, they find it in flames, his sister’s family dead and the ranch’s cattle stolen. Death and destruction haunt the veterans. A border war flares with General Juan Cortiña’s irregulars. Jeb learns Juan’s younger brother, Miguel, has raided their ranch, kidnapping his 14-year-old niece.