‘I’m going to live in that house, Dad. One day I’ll be mistress of Thornsby Manor . . .’ It is 1910 in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Young Rosie Waterhouse lives with her father, Sam, well known as the local poacher, in a cottage on the Thornsby estate. The land is owned by William Ramsey, a harsh and heartless man who is determined his only son, Byron, should marry well and produce an heir. Rosie is quick to learn the tricks of her father’s trade and it’s when she’s poaching fish from the estate’s stream that she meets Byron. They continue to meet in secret over the coming months and, as their friendship blossoms, they recognize that, despite their vastly different backgrounds, they are destined to be together. When William learns of their bond, he stops at nothing to ensure that they never meet again. As the years pass and the threat of war becomes a reality, Sam is involved in a tragic incident that will affect both his and Rosie’s lives more than they could ever have imagined. Life will never be the same in Thornsby, but will Rosie find the happiness she yearns for?
The Poacher’s Daughter is an extraordinary story of betrayal and redemption, set within an uncompromising landscape of raw brutality and unimaginable beauty. It is a novel you won’t soon forget. In 1885 young Rose Edwards is widowed by Montana vigilantes who hang her husband for an alleged theft, then burn her Yellowstone Valley cabin to the ground as a warning for her and others of her kind to quit the territory. Penniless and illiterate, yet fiercely independent, Rose begins a two-year odyssey to revisit the land of her childhood, a land she once traveled with her father, an itinerant robe trader among the Assiniboines and Blackfeet. But the old ways of the hunter and trapper are disappearing as Europeans flood the ranges with vast herds of cattle. With an aging roan gelding named Albert as her closest friend, Rose becomes a reluctant hero of an indigenous population, both native and white, as she stubbornly pushes back against the invading aristocracy.
An Edgar Award winner, Tom Franklin’s Poachers collects ten stunning, bleak tales set in the woodlands, swamps and chemical plants along the Alabama River. Staking his claim as a fresh, original Southern voice, Tom Frankin’s lyric, deceptively simple prose conjures a world where the default setting is violence, a world of hunting and fishing, gambling and losing, drinking and poaching—a world most of us have never seen. In the chilling title novella, three wild boys confront a mythic game warden as mysterious and deadly as the river they haunt. And, as a weathered, hand-painted sign reads: “Jesus is not coming.” This terrain isn’t pretty, isn’t for the weak of heart, but in these deperate, lost people, Franklin somehow finds the moments of grace that make them what they so abundantly are: human. “While he may occasionally wax sentimental about life in the impoverished South, Franklin’s style is often as laconic and simply spoken as his characters’ dialogue, sometimes close to Hemingway, but more often akin to Denis Johnson or Raymond Carver in its resonant ordinariness.” —Publishers Weekly
The Instant New York Times Bestseller! Kim Liggett's The Grace Year is a speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power. Survive the year. No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other. With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between. “A visceral, darkly haunting fever dream of a novel and an absolute page-turner.” – Libba Bray, New York Times bestselling author
It's 1585 at Gosford's End in the Scottish Highlands where 17-year-old Sorcha Fraser is impatient for life to begin. Graced with beauty and spirit, she doesn't have long to wait. While out riding, Sorcha meets a young man in priestly robes. From henceforth, as they negotiate the intrigues of the Scottish court, their lives will be intrinsically linked, though fate continues to tear them apart.
Desperate and alone, game warden Mike Bowditch strikes up an uneasy alliance with a retired warden pilot, and together the two men journey deep into the Maine wilderness in search of a runaway fugitive--Mike's father. But the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer--which could mean putting everyone he loves in the line of fire.
In this tale of ancient China, Persimmon, daughter of a Jewish mold-maker and a Chinese woman, becomes a famous panda painter. Living in the forest of Chengdu Province, she adopts Bampo an orphaned panda bear, but what she has done is illegal, as only members of the royal family can own panda bears. But she has treated Prince Ting Ling with a secret potion when he was gored by a wild boar in the forest of Chengdu. The prince recovered in his palace. His soldiers are sent far and wide to find the girl who saved his life but to no avail. The poacher Che Tu Wa knows that she is living in a little cottage in the forest with her amah and alerts the authorities that the girl has a pet panda bear. Persimmon is arrested and her sentence is to be beheaded. Just then Prince Ting Ling arrives at the court house. He recognizes Persimmon as the young lady who saved his life with the secret potion. He requests a reprieve for the forest girl and offers to marry her. She agrees, providing she can keep Bampo and the story ends happily. A charming fairy tale set in ancient China with a Jewish twist. Gathered amid other children, Ping Ling listens as her grandmother tells the story of their famous ancestor Persimmon. It’s a genuinely charming opening, and as Ping Ling’s grandmother narrates, the authors make the reader aware of the importance of the very act of storytelling. Persimmon was the daughter of a Jewish mold-maker and a Han Chinese woman in the third century B.C. She inherits her father’s aesthetic prowess and becomes an excellent panda portraitist. She lives in the forest for inspiration and takes care of a panda named Bampo—a pet reserved only for royalty. Persimmon, no royal herself, happens to save Prince Tin Ling’s life one day in the forest, and after he recovers in his palace he searches for the girl that came to his rescue. Meanwhile, Persimmon is in dire legal straits for having taken a panda as her pet and must stand trial for her crime, facing a possible death sentence. The resolution is fairy tale perfect, and Ping Ling and her playmates are gratified by the tale; the reader will be too, as the prose and Kanowick’s simple, black-and-white illustrations are equally charming. But for readers unaware of Judaism’s surprisingly long (if limited) history in China, some integrated background or a simple preface would have enhanced the book’s broader appeal. A brief sketch of a famous example such as the Kaifeng community or a relevant history of the Silk Road would’ve sufficed. There is a playful historical reference when Persimmon’s father is commissioned by the emperor to build his terra cotta army, and these touches enhance the historical reality while still engaging in the story’s allegorical elements that promote love and loyalty. There’s not a word too many in this slim, enjoyable volume, which is great for children not afraid of a little history. A pleasing children’s story featuring characters with a unique, intriguing cultural background. - Kirkus Discoveries Review
Can Danny and his father outsmart the villainous Mr. Hazell? Danny has a life any boy would love—his home is a gypsy caravan, he's the youngest master car mechanic around, and his best friend is his dad, who never runs out of wonderful stories to tell. But one night Danny discovers a shocking secret that his father has kept hidden for years. Soon Danny finds himself the mastermind behind the most incredible plot ever attempted against nasty Victor Hazell, a wealthy landowner with a bad attitude. Can they pull it off? If so, Danny will truly be the champion of the world.
