Books like The Lily and the Cross by Melissa De La Cruz

In wartime Rockaway, Lily befriends Hungarian refugee Albert as they share secrets and care for a lost kitten, illuminating courage and friendship amid World War II uncertainty.

Fliss, an amateur actress, is cast as Juliet opposite her dream Romeo in a school production. The bright but shy girl must gain confidence to convey her feelings and keep both her part and her budding romance.

Zac Randolph owns and runs the Little Corner of Heaven Saloon in San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast. He's a gambler by trade and by nature. He takes care of the girls who work for him, but no woman is as exciting as gambling, no woman means as much to him as his saloon. His life is perfect until a distant cousin, Lily Sterling, arrives from Virginia and upsets everything. Taking Zac up on a casually extended invitation, this fresh-faced beauty has fled her father and a prospective husband. She insists she doesn't want Zac to take care of her, but Zac is as good-hearted as he is selfish. He knows Lily is too innocent for San Francisco. When he can't convince her to go back to Virginia, he tries to find her a safe job. But Lily's good-heartedness continually gets her into trouble from which Zac has to rescue her. When she is caught in his bed, compromised (she wasn't, but nobody's going to believe two nearly naked people), an immediate wedding was the only solution. Lily was more than happy to believe Zac loves her, but Zac is determined to stay away from Lily so he can leave her with a clean conscience. Lily sees only the good in Zac and believes she's been sent to San Francisco to save him from himself, but Zac is determined to get Lily away from the saloon and out of his system. He should have known by now that where there's a "flower woman", there's a Randolph about to lose his heart.