Lights Along the Shore — Diane Austell

The Gentrys. They had left the comforts of the Old South and come to California, a sunlit Eden where ranchers put down roots and grew wealthy, while beautiful young women such as Marin Gentry danced until dawn and dreamed of undying love. But ahead was turmoil no man or woman could foresee: the discovery of gold, with its lure of easy money and easier death, the dizzying growth of bawdy San Francisco, the gathering stormclouds of Civil War....

Vibrant, headstrong, and far too lovely for her own good, Marin Gentry flirted with danger and escaped unscathed -- until the night she tangled with notorious Vail Severance... until the family disaster that left her to run the Gentry's' ranch alone. Marriage to a handsome neighbor brought Marin safety; bur marriage could not still the desire that grew; year after year, for a man forbidden to her -- a man who knew her better than she knew herself. And marriage could not quench in Marin the fiery independence that led her to seek her own successes. Marin Gentry would become a woman to be reckoned with -- but a woman who must finally admit how she longs to be loved.