The Curse of Time

Maleea James has built her life on control. As one of the most sought-after models in the world, she commands runways, headlines, and the kind of contracts most people only dream about. Love? Love is a liability-messy, unpredictable, and bad for branding. Boone Tucker wants an educated wife to share his life and dreams. Well-known in gold rush San Francisco, he is a practical businessman man, who's done the practical thing: arranged for a mail-order bride. She arrives a day late, and the wedding takes place quickly. Boone comes to bed, ready to be a husband, but finds Maleea, a sharp-tongued beauty who is everything Boone didn't order-and everything he can't ignore. Married to a stranger and waking up stranded in 1852 San Francisco, a city of fortune hunters, fire, and forbidden dreams, where corsets replace couture and survival matters more than looking good, Maleea must trade stilettos for sturdy shoes and learn the greatest lesson of her life. In a land built on second chances, the greatest risk isn't losing gold-it's losing your heart.