Lydia Collins and her Aunt May run a successful boarding house in New York City. One fateful August morning, Lydia reads about the discovery of gold in California. Her aunt believes that this is the perfect business opportunity for an enterprising young woman to take advantage of gold miners to the area and open up a new boarding house, but Lydia's not so sure. They have a thriving business already and what's more, her beau, Jake Bennett, has just proposed. Her life is perfect as it is - why would she throw everything away to risk traveling to the other end of the country? However, Lydia's world is blown apart by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, Silas Jones. Who is he and what does he want with Lydia's fiance? Fortune Out West is a series of romantic novels set in the Californian Gold Rush of the mid-19th century. A Rush of Gold to the Head, the first in the set of five, follows the life of Lydia Collins as a chain of events leads her to question what it is she really wants - and with whom."