Publisher's Weekly
Holland's 18th novel (after The Bear Flag ) creates a vivid montage of San Francisco in its wild beginnings. The aptly named Frances Hardheart, an escaped slave with a quick wit, a sharp tongue and a knack for using people, has founded the Shining Light, a haven for non-whites. With her protegee, the beautiful and white Daisy Duncan, she sets up a stage show and bar, enlisting the aid of such likable characters as good-natured, white Gil Marcus and taciturn, Indian Mitya. Frances, aka Mammy, soon extends her influence to the city's rising political and social elite. Daisy, Gil and Mitya battle corrupt politicians and struggle to assert their independence from Mammy in one-on-one scenes that reveal the intricacies of their personalities and relationships. Crowd scenes, meanwhile, mirror the tumultuous growth of the city. Holland's grasp of history is neatly matched by her skills as a storyteller.

Library Journal
Holland chooses historical San Franciso as the setting for her 18th novel. Like the heroine in her last novel, The Bear Flag ( LJ 6/15/90), the heroine here is a competent, ambitious woman who arrives in California with nothing. Setting out to raise herself and those around her to new levels of wealth and power, Frances Hardheart epitomizes the dream of California, where the past is forgotten and life begins anew. What makes this book more interesting than others of the genre is that the principal characters are drawn from the lowest rungs of 19th-century American society--Africans and Native Americans. The plot's credibility runs a little thin at times, but Holland captures the lawlessness of early San Francisco with style and imagination and tells a story both engaging and romantic. This will be popular with Holland's fans and other historical fiction lovers.-- C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research As socs . Lib., Washington, D . C.

School Library Journal
YA-- Holland paints vivid word pictures of a tumultuous, violent, and unique time and place in U. S. history--San Francisco at the beginning of the 1849 Gold Rush. All types of people converge here, by the overland route or the Isthmus of Panama, both of which were arduous. Cutthroats, army deserters, preachers, miners, Mormons, con men and women, prostitutes, and Native Americans--are all ready to start over. Among them are Frances Hardhardt, an escaped slave whose goal is to control white men as she has been controlled; Daisy, a voluptuous singer who is Frances's protegee and tool; and Mitya, an Aleut Indian with a troubled past whose talent as a builder creates the central locale of the book, the Shining Light Saloon. That arena becomes the glue that binds people and story together. Holland's characters are finely drawn and develop slowly, which will urge readers on. This novel is an excellent choice for those seeking multicultural material; the historical facts give food for thought and insight into motives relating to that particular time, and that particular place.-- Debbie Hyman, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA