Beautiful but Poor

Hattie Butler is beautiful. In another life, that might have been her fortune. In this one, it's just another exposure in a world that preys on pretty girls with empty pockets. She works twelve-hour days at a bindery, her fingers worn rough, her youth slowly traded for rent. The boarding house where she lives is run by Miss Scrimp, a woman who rules her poor tenants with cantankerous suspicion, and among the other working girls, Hattie has found small mercies - especially the kind-hearted Little Jess. Then the letters arrive. California. Someone who knows Hattie's secret past, someone writing with intent, pulling her toward a life she barely dares imagine. Miss Scrimp smells intrigue and clings tighter to control. The other boarders grow curious. And Hattie must decide whether to reach for this mysterious lifeline or trust the fragile community she's built among those who have nothing but each other.