In 1874, Ivy Steele's deafness is more than a handicap. It's a disease. Surrounded by a family that doesn't understand her, she's learned to cope and find solace where she can. Then, the unexpected happens. Her aunt dies, and her uncle sends her away to rejoin her father's family in Montana. Left to fend for herself, after the companion hired to escort her abandons her, Ivy faces continual hardship and danger. Several men see an unaccompanied Ivy as a flower ripe for the picking, and things only get worse when masked men hold up their stagecoach. Barely scraping through, Ivy makes it to Montana with her nerves shaken and what little money she has in her boot. Expecting a peaceful if not affectionate welcome, Ivy finds herself in greater hardship than she's ever known. Surrounded by a stepfamily that hates her, and flung into a life where hearing is vital, Ivy finds solace in a handsome cowboy named Remy. But things with her new family are not what they seem. And Ivy is about to find out that the danger she faced on the journey west, has followed her to Montana... Bethany Swafford dazzles with her stunning young adult debut, introducing a strong heroine, the hardships of frontier life, shocking twists, and a slow-burning romance that will leave you wanting more. Third place winner of the 2018 Rosemary Award

(Currently Editing) Poland, 1942. When Celina Rudaski took the evening train to Warsaw, she did not expect to return responsible for the lives of two Jews. Then again, she did not expect her father to be whisked away in the middle of the night by soldiers, nor did she expect her house to become swallowed by flames of fiery hatred. Yet it all happened in the matter of twenty-four hours. A stubborn, introverted fifteen year old girl, Celina refuses to believe the many stories of the horrific genocide against the Jews, often turning a blind eye to anything that reminds her of the war. But when she unwittingly promises to hide two Jews in a home she does not have, Celina must journey across Europe with these strangers in search of lady who might be able to rescue them. They are filthy, they are broken, and Celina cannot seem to control the hatred burning inside her. Together they travel town to town, witnessing each cities own branch of horrors, even hiding in basements of strangers. In ways painfully unimaginable to Celina, these two Jews affect her life in the deepest of ways. As they dodge bullets, stumble upon an injured enemy pilot, and attempt to escape the hands of the Germans naming them fugitives, Celina must learn to face what she has been too terrified of her entire life. ***Edited by the lovely @jgfairytales

For Kerza Freiborne, the war began with fire and ended in ice. But Ally bombs and a march through frozen fields did not come first: the war had a precursor that brought it to her doorstep in the shape of hunched shoulders, dirt-smudged cheeks and a gold star sewn to the breast of a sweater. A fugitive Jew in the heart of Nazi Germany is not a thing that can be simply swept beneath a rug, and thusly, it is the attic of Kerza's family in which the traumatized, stammering boy must take shelter. With the battlefield drawing closer and a country's old prejudice reaching a boiling point, the line between us and them is blurred and the duplicity of human nature becomes clearer every day. But for better or worse, this Jew and German are the most important people in each others lives, and everything they thought they understood of their world will soon change forever.