“Brown delivers this novel at the exact right historical moment: Readers are likely eager to sink their teeth into a story that features industrious, ahead-of-their-time women who manage to stand up to patriarchal profit. A historical saga rich in setting and character with a knowing nod to the trials facing today’s readers.”

—Kirkus Review

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“A vivid, deeply human novel that depicts the birth of modern California and brings the 1870s roaring to life. Marisol Griffin is fierce, principled, and unforgettable, and the alliance of women she forges across class and culture feels both historically resonant and urgently relevant. What emerges in this gripping tale of fraud, ambition, and survival, is a captivating exploration of real history. The author shines a spotlight on women's rights, the tension between conservation and progress, and the immigrant experience, all while telling an emotionally resonant story. The ending feels perfectly earned and completely satisfying. A truly impressive achievement.”

—Jacqueline Friedland, USA Today best-selling author of Counting Backwards and Breathing Under Water

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“In her vivid new novel Bay Lands, Theresa Donovan Brown transports readers to the unforgettable world of nineteenth century California. Her beautiful prose takes readers from teeming San Francisco streets to the silent majesty of redwood groves, from shocking acts of corruption to moments of great moral courage. Mari, the young protagonist who navigates a world of ruthless men with ingenuity and grit, is  a compelling and lovable heroine.  Epic, ambitious, and touchingly human, Bay Lands is a rich and complex novel about a richly complex place....”

—Ginny Kubitz Moyer, author of The World at Home and A Golden Life

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"...puts human drama at the center of the processes that turned the bucolic Bay Area into the industrial urban landscape it became."

—Chris Carlsson, author of Hidden San Francisco

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“Bay Lands is a marvelous window into this young [Californio] woman’s journey and provides the reader with a much deeper understanding of the issues that families such as Marisol’s had to confront.”

—Rose Marie Beebe, Professor Emerita of Spanish Literature, Univ. of Santa Clara

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Theresa Donovan Brown captures the heartbreaking beauty of early California and the strength of its women in the light between the redwoods, the salt spray of treacherous tides, and the stink of slavery on the slippery wharves of San Francisco. Bay Lands is a historical tour de force.

—Elizabeth Cobbs, New York Times Best-selling author of The Hamilton Affair