Showing results by narrator "Katherine Fenton" in Historical Fiction

It is the 1970s in LA, and Jacaranda Leven - child of sun and surf - is swept into the dazzling cultural milieu of the beautiful people. Floating on a cloud of drink, drugs and men, she finds herself adrift before her talent for writing, and a determined literary agent, set her on a course for New York and a new life. Sex & Rage is a recently rediscovered classic from author Eve Babitz, herself a muse to many an artist, writer and musician in the 1970s.

The dazzling, powerful story of a gutsy showgirl who tries to conquer her past amongst the glamour of 1960s Las Vegas - finding unexpected fortune, friendship and love. In the summer of 1968, Ruby Wilde is the toast of Las Vegas. Showgirl of the Year, in her feathers and rhinestones, five-inch heels and sky-high headdresses, she mesmerises audiences from the Tropicana to the Stardust. Ratpackers and movie stars, gamblers and astronauts vie for her attention and shower her with gifts.

1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, good night and leaves with a heavy heart to work the night-shift at a local hotel. The next morning she emerges to discover an unseasonable snowfall has blanketed the city, and her son has vanished. Outside their home, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.    

While serving in the USO during WWII, Mumma meets Pops. She's got many suitors, but it's Pops who wins her heart. Their road is rocky, though: His family sees his marriage to an orphan as beneath him, and her own dreams of being more than just a wife and mother are jeopardized. But while Mumma never counted on there being challenges at every turn, those turns also never anticipated a force of nature like Mumma.

New Year's Day, 1888: It is the first day of Marantha Waters' new life on San Miguel. She has come with her husband, a Civil War veteran who has taken over the operation of the sheep ranch on the island. But this promised paradise proves to be a damp, wind-ravaged wasteland. As her husband grows increasingly distant from her and their adopted daughter Edith, Marantha's blighted lungs grow weaker.