Ruby Calhoun has worked hard to outrun her past. Unfortunately, her past runs faster.

In 1905 Kansas, Ruby Calhoun has worked very hard to become a respectable woman. Or at least a woman who isn’t actively being chased.

The dancehall days are behind her. The gunfire, the narrow escapes, the upstairs girls at the Paradise Saloon who once formed her first fragile family — all of that belongs to another lifetime.

Until Pip Quinn bursts back into town with terrible news and an even worse plan.

An old enemy has resurfaced, and he is not inclined toward forgiveness. The safest course of action would be to leave quietly. Naturally, Ruby and Pip choose the opposite.

What follows is a wildly ill-advised journey across the Kansas plains filled with botched disguises, questionable alliances, con artists, missed trains, accidental heroics, and a growing realization that running from the past is far easier than facing it.

But beneath the blunders lies something stronger: loyalty. The women of the Paradise once kept each other alive in a world with little interest in their survival. And when danger circles again, Ruby must decide whether she will keep running — or finally claim the fierce, complicated strength that has always bound the Good Time Girls together.

The Good Time Girls is a lively, sharp, and heartfelt historical novel about friendship, second chances, and the remarkable resilience of women who make terrible decisions — and somehow survive them.