For Emily Ann Carr, life has been a series of obligations. Putting aside hopes for love and a family of her own, Emily raised her niece and nephew after the death of her brother. Now, with the children grown and gone, she has time to revisit some of her own dreams. More than twenty years her senior, Emily Carrs spinster aunt Carolyn Sheffield is terminally single and proud of it. Sure, shes pleased to know that her favorite niece has found love, but...

"Her childhood is shattered when she is kidnapped and then abandoned. Never knowing her true identity, Joyous grows up amid the California Gold Rush as the adopted daughter of lovable prospector Angus mcFarlane. Brit O'Donnell escapes the potato famine in Ireland to find a better life in Monterey, California, where the Silver Rush will test his mettle. Fifteen-year-old Carlos Montoya, son of a Castilian patrician, also ventures to California with...