Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her.

"Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff's homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters--as well as the upscale all-girls' school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act--or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed...

"Civil War veteran L.D. Cade arrives in 1870s San Francisco, seeking his fortune and a place to end his restless wandering. A job as bodyguard to a flashy real estate speculator seems like just the opportunity he's been looking for. But beneath the glitter and glamour of Gilded Age San Francisco lie festering greed, corruption, and intolerance. It's a dangerous place for an honest man, even one who's as good with a gun as Cade. As he makes his way...

"A heartfelt and exciting debut...a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself."--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Timesbestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugoand Malibu Rising The Bookish Life of Nina Hillmeets Youngerin a heartfelt debut following a young woman who discovers she'll have to ditch the "dream job" and write her own story to find her happy ending. Meet Nora Hughes--the overworked, underpaid,...

Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rockstar family in one of the city's storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas's live-in governess and quickly finds her place in the girl's tight-knit household, which operates on a free-love philosophy and easy warmth...

Lorna Mott Dumas, small, pretty, high-strung, the epitome of a successful woman--lovely offspring, grandchildren, health, a French husband, a delightful house and an independent career as an admired art lecturer involving travel and public appearances, expensive clothes. She's a woman with an uncomplicated, sociable nature and an intellectual life. But in an impulsive and planned decision, Lorna has decided to leave her husband, a notorious tombeur,...

While studying for her private investigator license, Natalie investigates the apparent suicide of a self-help guru who was about to go bankrupt and enlists the help of her obsessive compulsive partner, Monk, when she suspects foul play.

Hardy and Glitsky are embroiled in a murder that begins in the upper echelons of San Francisco society, where money and political influence collide. . . . It starts with a double homicide. Because of the high profiles of the victims; a politically connected socialite and his glamorous fiance. The mayor of San Francisco herself demands that a high-ranking detective be put on the case. And so Abe Glitsky is thrust into the controversial investigation....

Sensitive, big-hearted, and achingly self-conscious, forty-year-old Aaron Englund long ago escaped the confines of his Midwestern hometown, but he still feels like an outcast. After twenty years under the Pygmalion-like direction of his older partner Walter, Aaron at last decides it is time to stop letting life happen to him and to take control of his own fate. But soon after establishing himself in San Francisco-where he alternates between a shoddy...