Historical Fiction 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 ...

1958. Kate Morgan is looking for an escape, and she gets her chance by honoring a cryptic plea from her grandfather: Find the beautiful stranger. The search takes her to Hotel del Coronado, the beachfront landmark on the Southern California coast where filming is underway on the movie Some Like It Hot. For a movie lover like Kate, it’s a fantasy come true. So is the offer of a position at the glamorous hotel. But as sure as she is that Coronado is her future, Kate discovers it’s also where the ghosts of the past have come to stay.

It is the Summer of Love as Cinnamon Kiss opens, and Easy Rawlins is contemplating robbing an armored car. It's farther outside the law than Easy has ever traveled, but his daughter, Feather, needs a medical treatment that costs far more than Easy can earn or borrow in time. And his friend Mouse tells him it's a cinch. Then another friend, Saul Lynx, offers a job that might solve Easy's problem without jail time.

In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… Until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost sixty years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior television producer in Manhattan, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles.

Can Alex’s faith rekindle Penny’s trust? The Civil War drove Penny and Alex apart for a third time. Alex disappeared near Santa Fe in the South’s fatal drive north. With no word from Alex and no money to care for their baby daughter, Penny falls back on the only life she knows, singing in a saloon. She’s a grand success and gathers a ragtag family of misfits around her as she builds her business. But she loses faith in love and humanity, especially after a local businessman sets out to destroy her best friend and her business. Released from a prisoner of war camp, Alex searches for ...

Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early 20th century, Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland. While carving out a home for themselves, they also allow neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house and live on their land.

1688. The desolate, sun-scorched coast of Baja California—the edge of the known world. Seeking refuge from relentless Spanish patrols and the brutal realities of buccaneering, the weary crew of the French pirate ship Sea Serpent drops anchor in the hidden sanctuary of Pichilingue Bay. Among them is Jean-Luc de Lisle, a young Frenchman haunted by a life left behind, increasingly disillusioned by the cycle of violence and greed that defines the brotherhood of the coast. Under the pragmatic Captain Ravenneau and his dangerously sadistic first mate, Le Corbeau, Jean-Luc yearns for something ...

Like the tentacles of an octopus, the railroad in California reached out across the state, grasping everything of value in the state. Based on the bloody Mussel Slough Tragedy - a conflict between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad - The Octopus is a stunning novel chronicling the twilight of the frontier West. A depiction of the tensions between the railroad, the ranchers, and the ranchers’ League. The book emphasizes the control of “forces” - such as the power of railroad monopolies - over individuals.

Investigative apprentice Lyra Brazier, the newest resident of Burning Cove, is unsettled when her boss suddenly goes on a health retreat at an exclusive spa and disappears without another word. Lyra knows something has happened to Raina Kirk, and she is the only one who can track her down. The health spa is known for its luxurious offerings and prestigious clientele, and the wealthy, socialite background Lyra desperately wanted to leave behind is perfect for this undercover job.

Termed the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the southwestern Indians and the first protest novel of California, Ramona is the story of 3 cultures - Indian, Mexican, and Anglo - locked in combat. The upheaval and injustice are humanized through the romance of a beautiful half-Indian orphan who grow up as the ward of Señora Moreno in privileged surroundings, then falls in love with an Indian and joins him in a life of poverty and tragedy. The Ramona Pageant in Hemet, California, based on this romance, has played each year since 1923, reenacting the transition period between Mexican traditions and the new U.S. and state governments.

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client, but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

1800's Spanish California meets modern-day crime tale leading to the Monterey Peninsula. For James Michener, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Clive Cussler fans. The Monterey Peninsula's rich past and present are tied together through a two century old secret and the legacy of Robert Louis Stevenson in this complex mystery/thriller. The Stevenson Plan delves beyond the well-known images into the history and culture of this unique corner of the world. FBI Agent John Gibson finds himself re-assigned to investigate a mesmerizing heist from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank that leads him to ...

On the ship from Ireland, Eliza O’Connor loses her mother and husband to cholera. After training under the local physician, she longs to become a doctor, but few schools accept women. Now the doctor has passed away, and she works at her father's boarding house. When a handsome physician arrives, beaten and stripped of his jacket and boots, she believes he's another gold-crazy miner heading for the hills where her brother has ventured. At his mother's desperate request, Dr. Levi Dumont travels from Boston to find his younger brother and bring him home. After Levi is robbed, his trustworthy...

Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky A-Go-Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donelly is breaking the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport—and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of her unconventional lifestyle.

De la escritora de romance histórico Constanza Chesnott, llega una novela fascinante de traición y lealtad, de amistad y heroísmo, una historia inolvidable, tributo a todo lo que nos une y al poder indómito y sanador del amor. La joven reportera americana Jane Sunbright abandona su Boston natal los meses previos al estallido de la guerra entre Estados Unidos y México. Huyendo de una pasión tormentosa, pretende forjar su propio destino como periodista. Estar en la primera línea del conflicto y convertir el periódico familiar en un referente informativo es cuanto desea. Pero lo que no...

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys, Amir and Hassan, growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Mexican American War has ended, but in a California divided between two nations, Anglo squatters continue to antagonize citizens of Mexican descent by making claims on their land. Against this charged backdrop, the lives of the Alamar family - the rightful owners of a San Diego ranch - become politically, economically, and romantically entwined with a family of New England settlers, the Darrells. Inspired by experiences in her own life, Ruiz de Burton insightfully captured a troubling time in American history - a period of intense corruption, greed, racism, and classism.

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.

A historical fiction book set in California during the Gold Rush of 1848. Embark on a thrilling adventure in "Gold and Grit," where dreams of fortune meet the harsh realities of the untamed West. Follow a young man's desperate search for meaning as he joins his friend Malcolm on an exhilarating journey from Oregon to California, responding to the euphoric whispers of gold discovered in the fertile Sacramento Valley. As excitement grows and the stakes rise, the duo quickly learns that the path to striking it rich is fraught with peril and unpredictable twists at every turn. As they navigate ...

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. ...