Emma Cross

Emma Cross is the fiercely independent society reporter and distant cousin of the Vanderbilt family in a historical fiction series set during the Gilded Age — a woman whose unique position between the hyper-wealthy world she is related to and the journalistic world she has chosen gives her access and credibility that neither pure insider nor pure outsider could claim. Her reporting career and her family connections pull in different directions, and the tensions that creates are both professional and personal.

The Gilded Age setting provides the social dynamics that make Emma's position particularly complex — the rigid class structures of the period, the specific role of women in journalism at the time, and the gap between the public performance of wealth and the private reality behind it are all given attention in the series.

Historical fiction set in New York's Gilded Age has found renewed readership interest, with readers drawn to both the atmosphere of the period and the proto-feminist appeal of women navigating professional ambitions in environments that did not welcome them. Begin with the first book in the series and read in order.