A spicy and heartwarming Christmas romance short story collection from contemporary romance author Talya Blaine. Spend Christmas in the California sun with these feel-good, later-in-life contemporary romance short stories. Five standalone short stories. Five sultry dreams. Five hot, sweet Santas whose gifts can't be wrapped and put under a tree. The California Dreams Christmas Romance Collection includes: Santa & Anna When a divorced baker-to-the-stars bumps into Santa, their meet is anything but cute. Crumbs and icing fly--until Santa makes a deal and delivers not one but two sweet gifts. Santa & Clara When a workaholic Silicon Valley IT consultant reluctantly takes on the role of Mrs. Claus at her client's corporate Christmas bash, a B-list celebrity Santa coaxes her to reveal her fantasy holiday wish. Santa Cru Sofia practically pops a cork when the Santa she hires for her winery's big party cancels last-minute--until his stand-in's earnest plea restores her Christmas spirit. Santa & Monica Stuck together in a luxury beachfront vacation rental, Santa and Monica's slow-burn connection and dark humor transform loss into found. Santa & Barbara When ex-pat Barb returns home to spend Christmas with her ailing grandfather, Santa helps her reconnect in ways she will always remember. Full of twists on your favorite tropes--enemies to lovers, forced proximity, second chance, slow burn, fake relationship, mistaken identity--with touching, happy endings. At Christmastime, these five California dreams just might come true. Standalone short stories. Mature language, themes, and situations. M/F romances. Heroine POVs. No cheating between characters. No cliffhangers.

California Dreaming… Former child star Meredith Alcott knows life isn't like the movies. But now she has a chance to realize her own Hollywood dream by restoring a run-down amusement park to its former glory before Christmas. Clashing with the owner's arrogant, all-business son wasn't in the job description…even as Jake Walters sweeps her into a romance she never wants to end. As financial adviser to the stars, Jake always has his eye on the bottom line. He doesn't want an outsider anywhere near the legendary institution that's been in his family for generations. Yet Meredith gets top billing when she's hired to revamp his family's park. The bewitching designer challenges him at every turn while arousing a desire that fulfills Jake's wildest fantasies. But sabotage threatens to turn all their passionate hopes to dust. Unless Jake can come up with a loving plan that keeps the magic going past the holidays—and Meredith in his arms forever….

When the "Gold Fever" epidemic sweeps the nation in 1849, people drop everything to chase the dream of striking it rich. Follow one family's itch for adventure from California to the Rockies to the Yukon - and discover a Christmas gift more valuable than gold. When Jeb Monroe succumbs to the fever, it's "California or bust." Will the rich banker's daughter, Aggie Wells, accept the spiritual riches Jeb has to offer before he must leave, penniless? The first time Jarrod McLeod dips his pan in the river, he strikes gold- in the form of a wedding band! Though he finds the woman to whom it belongs, she refuses to take the ring back. Will Angel Taylor also refuse Jarrod's proffered Christmas gift? Promised in marriage to a stranger, Charlotte Vance is headed to the Klondike - and struggling to control her feelings for Gabe Monroe, the brother of her betrothed. What will become of Charlotte when both men refuse to marry her? Traveling to Alaska to claim an inheritance from her father's business partner, Alexandra Peters receives a less-than-cordial welcome from Philip Monroe. What will it take for Alexandra to thaw the ice encasing Philip's heart. Four Christmases in gold country prove life's most priceless gifts come not in the form of polished gold - but from the vast riches of a loving heart.

What happens when you have two widows, two men, one precocious four-year-old, and a life-threatening disease? Dreams come true. After Jane's husband was killed in action, she let her dreams of becoming a famous chef, living by the ocean, and having a family of her own, die with him. Now that she is given a second chance, will she realize all her dreams, or play it safe? When Grace's husband was killed in action, she got the surprise of her life - a baby girl, Daniella. With her daughter's life hanging in the balance, will she take a leap of faith and realize the resurrection of her dreams, or play it safe? Follow Jane and Grace as they realize that true love can come around twice, you just must be willing to take a chance on your lost dreams.

Spend the holidays in Silver Springs, where the greatest gift of all is the love you never expected. Up-and-coming TV anchor Emery Bliss can’t imagine anything more humiliating than the sex tape her ex revenge-posted online. That is, until it causes her to lose her job on top of her self-esteem. Seeking solace—and anonymity—in Silver Springs, Emery isn’t looking to get involved with another man any time soon. But when she’s thrown back into contact with Dallas Turner, she sees something that his many detractors have missed. Being home for the holidays and his adoptive mother’s wedding isn’t where mountain climber Dallas feels most comfortable. Thanks to his troubled childhood, he’d rather be on a rock face alone than trying to connect with people. Emery, however, makes him want to overcome his past…somehow. Both Emery and Dallas had been planning on a quiet, solitary Christmas, but the sparks between them are lighting a fire strong enough to last—possibly forever. Don’t miss Brenda Novak’s latest book, When I Found You!

"The first comprehensive compendium of works by one of the groundbreaking pioneers of psychedelic poster art in the late '60s, California Dreams is a career-spanning collection of 240 pieces pages created over more than five decades of nonstop artistic inspiration. Stanley Mouse is, of course, best known for the eye-popping and iconic posters, album covers and T-shirt designs he - often in collaboration with Alton Kelley - made during the hey-day of San Francisco's counterculture renaissance and well into the 1970s. His influential work during that era captured the color, fun, mystery, passion and creatively liberating experimentalism of those tumultuous times. But this book also explores other sides of Mouse's art, as well. Before taking Haight-Ashbury by storm, Mouse enjoyed tremendous success in his native Detroit detailing hot rods and airbrushing shirts and posters with whimsical drawings and paintings of crazy monsters and extreme cars. And more recently, in addition to satisfying ongoing demand for music-related commissions, Mouse has delved deeply into fine art, painting vivid landscapes and wonderfully evocative figurative pieces"--Publisher's description.

Series statement from author's Material dreams. Bibliography: p. 460-479.

Christmas is a time for second chances--as two couples in the mountain small town of Strong, California learn. A special Christmas boxed set of two novellas from NYT bestselling author Anne Marsh! Yours for Christmas When Navy SEAL Zack Medina comes home to Strong, California for Christmas, he's got more than a firefight on his hands. He needs to convince his estranged wife that 'tis the season to forgive--and that will take a Christmas miracle. Bree lost her heart five years ago to the sexy SEAL and letting him back into her heart would be a mistake. A really hot, impossibly sweet mistake! Her Christmas SEAL Dear Santa: For Christmas this year, no men. Love, Holly. I may be newly divorced, stranded in a small mountain town, and working as an elf at a cut-your-own-Christmas-tree farm, but I'm finally rid of my ex and putting food on the table. Independence rocks, and I've got zero interest in the former-SEAL-turned-firefighter who literally falls out of the sky and lands at my feet. Okay. Not zero interest. Jacks Benson is the foul-mouthed, irritating, way-too-sexy bad boy who tormented me through high school. He's a player who got any girl he wanted--and now he claims he wants a second chance. A chance at me. If Jacks is my Christmas present, he'd better come with a gift receipt because he's on my naughty list and this is definitely not a case of finders-keepers.

They both have plans and dreams, and long distance romance plays no part in them. Or does it? After creating the perfect wedding for her brother, Caroline Young wonders if her promise to stay in Boulder, Colorado, through Christmas was a mistake. After all, her award-winning float-design business is in California, and being idle isn't in her vocabulary. Then her brother convinces her to help his friend during her stay. Maximillian Henderson III is in a bind. His law office is opening in its new location in two weeks and his designer has come down with the flu. In desperation he enlists Caro's help, and then is more than a little leery when she totally revamps the design plans. As they work together to beat the deadline, Max not only admires her innovative design, he can't ignore the vibrancy Caro brings into his black and white world of law. If only she didn't have one foot out the door. Dream Of Me This Christmas Eve is the fourth book in the Star Light Star Bright series set in the charming town of Boulder, Colorado. If you enjoy holiday romances with characters who face seemingly impossible obstacles, in a series where characters you've grown to love make reappearances, then this book will have you believing in the magic of a Christmas star and smiling at the evidence that dreams do come true. Buy Dream Of Me This Christmas Eve for a cozy read, filled with the joy of the holiday and the magic of first love.

2020 Miriam Matthews Ethnic History Award from the Los Angeles City Historical Society As Southern California was reimagining leisure and positioning it at the center of the American Dream, African American Californians were working to make that leisure an open, inclusive reality. By occupying recreational sites and public spaces, African Americans challenged racial hierarchies and marked a space of Black identity on the regional landscape and social space. In Living the California Dream Alison Rose Jefferson examines how African Americans pioneered America’s “frontier of leisure” by creating communities and business projects in conjunction with their growing population in Southern California during the nation’s Jim Crow era. By presenting stories of Southern California African American oceanfront and inland leisure destinations that flourished from 1910 to the 1960s, Jefferson illustrates how these places helped create leisure production, purposes, and societal encounters. Black communal practices and economic development around leisure helped define the practice and meaning of leisure for the region and the nation, confronted the emergent power politics of recreational space, and set the stage for the sites as places for remembrance of invention and public contest. Living the California Dream presents the overlooked local stories that are foundational to the national narrative of mass movement to open recreational accommodations to all Americans and to the long freedom rights struggle.