Books in River of Time: California series

Zara Ruiz is a normal California girl on the verge of graduating from high school and thinking about her dawning future. But when dusk brings a shattering loss—and she discovers a priceless object in the shallows of a tide pool—she is thrust a hundred-and-eighty years into the past. There she meets handsome ranchero Javier de la Ventura—who has big dreams and bigger secrets—along with his enchanting family, in a land that is at once familiar, and yet utterly foreign. Between cattle rustlers, pirates and a growing call for statehood, it is not a peaceful time to be a Mexican settler in young Alta California. But Zara must decide if she’s discovered what she longs for in the past…or if her heart’s THREE WISHES can only be found in the present.

Zara Ruiz has never been so happy to have failed at something in her life---trying to return to her own time. In Javier de la Ventura's arms, she knows that 1840 is where she belongs...where she's found true love and family. But when the ranch is viciously attacked, and she and Javier's little brother are kidnapped, she is no longer certain where her journey might end. Javier de la Ventura is plagued by a sense of responsibility for praying that God would leave Zara in his own Alta California. But when she suffers because of her association with him, he commits to finding a way for her to return to her own time, if she wishes it. His heart longs for her to stay, but his mind tells him she’d be safer in her own era. Battered by the FOUR WINDS, can Zara and Javier find a way to remain together…forever?