To Gain What's Lost

Victoria Torrez is on the run. Fleeing Santa Anna's army, which is invading Texas. But Victoria is a lady, of aristocratic descent. And this is no place for a lady.

Jake Dumont is a rebel. A loner. And a crack shot. He's never stayed in one place for long. Never let anyone close enough to break through his guarded heart. Until now...

When Jake lays eyes on stunning Victoria, he's rocked to the core. Here is a woman who will lay her life on the line for what she believes. Finally he's found something worth fighting for. The lady has stolen his heart. But can a rebel gunslinger claim an aristocrat as his bride?

Endlessly restless and endlessly curious, Isabella Bird (1831-1904) travelled the world looking for new experiences, but never more delightfully than in her pony-bound adventures in the Colorado Territory at a time when it was only notionally under the control of the American authorities. A vanished world of grizzly hunters, cowboys, isolated cabins and plagues of rattlesnakes is here beautifully brought back to life.

Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries � but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.

This edition features
• illustrations
• a linked Table of Contents

CONTENTS (abridged list)
CHAPTER I
    A River Entrapped — Acquaintance not Desired — Ives Explores the Lower Reaches — Powell the Conqueror — Reason for a Second Descent — Congressional Appropriation — Preparation — The Three Boats — The Mighty Wilderness — Ready for the Start
...
CHAPTER XV
    A New Departure — Farewell to the Boats — Out to the World Through Kanab Canyon — A Midnight Ride — At the Innupin Picavu — Prof. Reconnoitres the Shewits Country — Winter Quarters in Kanab — Making the Preliminary Map — Another New Year — Across a High Divide in a Snow-storm — Down the Sevier in Winter — The Last Summons

Young widow Darcy Branson owns a shop full of fashionable ladies' attire, but continues to wear mourning black so she won't forget her role in her husband's death. Austin stirs a passion inside her that has long been dormant, but can Darcy learn to believe in Austin-and love-enough to let go of her tragic past?

Time is rapidly running out... As a cousin to Jesse James, Darcy has attracted unwanted attention, thanks to her rumored association with the gang. Soon Austin and Darcy are faced with confronting not only their growing desire, but danger in the form of a deadly bounty hunter...

5 Star Review-READERS FAVORITE BOOK REVIEWS
Book Review
Rose Donahue was only seventeen when her life was turned upside down. Rose was a young child when her family came from Ireland in hopes of a better life. Things seemed to be going well. They had acquired a tiny homestead in Texas, and her father enjoyed working on the land. Rose being an only child, was close to her parents. A band of Apache Indians attacked the homestead. Rose's mother sent her into a hidEy hole under the floor where they kept their potatoes and onions. When Rose came out of the cellar, the house had been burned to the ground, and her parents were dead.

Travis Caldwell has been trapping since he was a young boy, he had always been a loner. When he saw smoke he went to investigate. Seeing Rose rise out of the ashes alarmed him at first. He took her with him. Neither of them realized that one of the Indians that attacked the homestead was watching, and is determined to have Rose for his squaw. Rose convinced Travis to take her to California, where her only remaining family was. Was Travis able to reunite Rose with her family, and was he able to protect her from the Indian, who was obsessed with her?

Gold Rush Dream was a short novel, consisting of 115 pages, but each page is chock full of action. Rose was a very tough young lady, the tenacity she showed by overcoming such tragedy, was amazing. With Rose's red hair and blue eyes, the Indian who pursued her believed she had the spirit of fire and water and thought by taking her to his tribe, they would respect him. While the author didn't give a great description of Travis, his kind, caring, compassionate acts toward Rose, allowed the reader to see how beautiful he was on the inside.

I found the writing style of Ms. Mosiman very descriptive, capturing the essence of the time-period. The story also flowed very well, never having down time. She paints such splendid pictures with her writing, making me feel like I was right in the midst of the story; the sights and smells she described were vivid.

If you enjoy reading historical fiction with a wonderful love story that takes you across the west when it was still wild then you definitely will enjoy reading this one!
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Gold Rush Dream is the story of a young girl coming of age and overcoming personal tragedy as she makes a long, turbulent journey across the American territories. East Texas in 1849 is no place for the weak, as Rose finds out when marauding Indians destroy her family’s homestead. Rescued by Travis, a man who makes his living by trapping in the wild, together they will set out to find her only remaining family in California. As their travels turn into a quest to find not only family, but the wealth available to a few lucky souls during the Gold Rush, Rose and Travis will find that it takes all of their endurance and obsession to achieve their dreams. Ultimately, they will find that it is the love that grows between two people whose shared values of freedom, independence and honor are worth more than any nuggets of gold they might find when faced with the difficulties and dangers of life in the American West.

About the Author
Billie Sue Mosiman is the author of several award-nominated suspense novels. This is her first Western, which came about through her abiding interest in the California Gold Rush period of American history. The author lives in Texas near Old San Antonio Road, an historic road once used by Native Americans, that crosses Texas from east to west.