A sweeping Jazz Age tale of regret, ambition, and redemption inspired by true events, including the Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 and Josephine Baker's 1925 Paris debut in Le Revue Nègre . 1924. May Marshall is determined to spend the dog days of summer in self-imposed exile at her father's farm in Keswick, Virginia. Following a naive dalliance that led to heartbreak and her expulsion from Mary Baldwin College, May returns home with a shameful secret only to find her father's orchard is now the site of a lucrative moonshining enterprise. Despite warnings from the one man she trusts -- her childhood friend Byrd -- she joins her father's illegal business. When authorities close in and her father, Henry, is arrested, May goes on the run. May arrives in New York City, determined to reinvent herself as May Valentine and succeed on her own terms, following in her mother's footsteps as a costume designer. The Jazz Age city glitters with both opportunity and the darker temptations of cocaine and nightlife. From a start mending sheets at the famed Biltmore Hotel, May falls into a position designing costumes for a newly formed troupe of African American entertainers bound for Paris. Reveling in her good fortune, May will do anything for the chance to go abroad, and the lines between right and wrong begin to blur. When Byrd shows up in New York, intent upon taking May back home, she pushes him, and her past, away. In Paris, May's run of luck comes to a screeching halt, spiraling her into darkness as she unravels a painful secret about her past. May must make a choice: surrender to failure and addiction, or face the truth and make amends to those she has wronged. But first, she must find self-forgiveness before she can try to reclaim what her heart craves most. ''This is a great coming-of-age novel about life lessons, loyalty, and forgiveness in a fast-spinning, glittering world full of temptation and opportunity. Beautifully done!'' -- Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything ''An utterly absorbing tale of the trials of being a young woman of independent spirit during the glamorous but harsh years of post-WWI America, when the yearning for personal freedoms clashed with the heavy hand of prohibition, politics, and social mores. I could almost taste the smoky, moonshine-laced air of the speakeasies, and feel flashes of fringed tassels on my skin as I read. Beautiful and immersive writing!'' -- Natasha Boyd, USA Today bestselling author of The Indigo Girl ''Exquisitely written, Liza Nash Taylor's Etiquette for Runaways is a powerful tale of seeking absolution and pursuing dreams. It's a magnificent, special novel that I didn't want to end.'' -- Alan Hlad, international bestselling author of The Long Flight Home ''After women won the right to vote in 1920, the decade ahead stretched before them as a glittering path to new opportunity. It was the jazz age. But in her debut novel, Etiquette for Runways , Liza Nash Taylor reveals a darker side of those famously dazzling years as a woman alone fights to carve her niche in the world of fashion design. Ambition. Greed. Betrayal. Redemption. From rural Virginia to New York city to Paris, through beautiful prose and vivid historical details I felt the pain and the joy of one woman's struggle to succeed against the odds. I did not want this book to end.'' -- Pamela Binnings Ewen, author of The Queen of Paris ''With deeply compelling characters intertwined in a story steeped in history, international travel, jazz, secrets, passion, addiction, heartbreaks, temptations, and more, Liza Nash Taylor delivers a page-turning book that will captivate readers from beginning to end. This is an exceptional debut novel from a very capable storyteller who has perfected her craft. Hopefully, this is a first book of many in the historical fiction genre by this author.'' -- Dian Griesel, a.k.a. @SilverDisobedience, author of The Silver Disobedience Playbook ''[A] delightful beach read with an edge ... Etiquette for Runaways marks a debut for Liza Nash Taylor that shows a remarkable ability to weave together multiple sources of inspiration into an entertaining whole ... Readers will find themselves swept along with May as easily as if her adventures were all about diamonds and fur coats.'' -- Shelf Awareness ''A veritable saga of an original novel by an author with a genuine flair for the kind of riveting, narrative-driven storytelling that holds the reader's rapt attention from first page to last ... Recommended.'' -- Midwest Book Review '' Etiquette for Runaways is a complex, fascinating novel full of wonderful characters and more than a little heartbreak. May Marshall is a heroine to cheer for, a girl who dares all to confront her own demons and achieve her dreams in New York and Paris. The writing is glorious, the story is completely engaging. This is a must-read.'' -- Jeanne Mackin, aut