When the severe economic depression of the 1800s destroys the Haydens' fortune, 22-year-old Jori Hayden and her family venture west along the Santa Fe Trail in search of a new livelihood, but despite the dangers they encounter at every turn, romance, faith, and family prove to be their biggest fortunes.

Refusing the Favor tells the little-known story of the Spanish-Mexican women who saw their homeland become part of New Mexico. A corrective to traditional narratives of the period, it carefully and lucidly documents the effects of colonization, looking closely at how the women lived both before and after the United States took control of the region. Focusing on Santa Fe, which was long one of the largest cities west of the Mississippi, Deena González demonstrates that women's responses to the conquest were remarkably diverse and that their efforts to preserve their culture were complex and long-lasting. Drawing on a range of sources, from newspapers to wills, deeds, and court records, González shows that the change to U.S. territorial status did little to enrich or empower the Spanish-Mexican inhabitants. The vast majority, in fact, found themselves quickly impoverished, and this trend toward low-paid labor, particularly for women, continues even today. González both examines the long-term consequences of colonization and draws illuminating parallels with the experiences of other minorities. Refusing the Favor also describes how and why Spanish-Mexican women have remained invisible in the histories of the region for so long. It avoids casting the story as simply "bad" Euro-American migrants and "good" local people by emphasizing the concrete details of how women lived. It covers every aspect of their experience, from their roles as businesswomen to the effects of intermarriage, and it provides an essential key to the history of New Mexico. Anyone with an interest in Western history, gender studies, Chicano/a studies, or the history of borderlands and colonization will find the book an invaluable resource and guide.

A beautiful Spanish captive finds love in a remote Apache stronghold in the arms of her handsome captor.

In this sequel to "Girl of the Manzanos," Mardee Spencer has grown up and is married to a lawyer, Carter McMahon, who is serving his country on the battle fields of France in World War I. Mardee helps keep his law office going while he is away and is earning her own law degree even though the legal profession is reserved for only men in that era. But Mardee is ahead of her time as she fights for her chosen profession while actively championing the rights of women. "Do something, even if it's wrong," her father, Ben Spencer, had always advised. "Don't be a coward about making decisions." Facing anxiety and possible heartbreak, she draws on all the strength of an independent and principled woman to meet life's complications and contradictions.

Cook takes a new look at this notorious woman of 1840s Santa Fe.

When Agnes Morley Cleaveland was born on a New Mexico cattle ranch in 1874, the term "Wild West" was a reality, not a cliché. In those days cowboys didn't know they were picturesque, horse rustlers were to be handled as seemed best on the occasion, and young ladies thought nothing of punching cows and hunting grizzlies in between school terms.