Sarah Lark, author of The Fire Blossom, continues her epic family
saga as a defiant new generation of women comes of age amid social
unrest and precarious love in colonial New Zealand.
It's 1863, nearly twenty years since Ida Lange came to New Zealand to
change her life and realize a dream. With her best friend, Cat, she
established a thriving sheep farm on the continental plains where their
combined families settled--and succeeded. But the idyll of Rata Station
could be reaching an end. The fires of change are coming again, and this
time it's Ida's and Cat's daughters--Mara, Carol, and Linda--who will
get swept up in the ensuing chaos.
The spirited Mara is in the first blush of romantic awakening with a
half-Maori boy torn between two heritages. Mara's love for him is a
greater risk than either of them can imagine. Carol, engaged to the son
of a local sheep baron, has a prospect that seems safe--yet fate has
other plans. And Linda, Carol's sweet-natured "twin," who holds the
family secret of her heritage close to her heart, can't imagine a life
outside Rata Station. Then a sudden tragedy throws the families into
peril and desperation.
As tensions escalate between the warring Maori tribes and English
settlers, Mara, Carol, and Linda struggle to overcome increasing
hardships for themselves and for each other. Drawing on their strong
will, resilience, and unbreakable bond, they'll do anything to secure
their future at Rata Station before it slips away forever.
