American Wilderness

Weaving a tapestry of history, romance, and adventure, this epic novel sweeps us into an awe-inspiring, heart-stopping story of love and survival in an emerging America. It is spring 1797. Dreaming of building a better life, Stephen and Jane Wyllie set out across the American frontier in search of a place to call home in a land of savage beauty. With undaunted courage and boundless daring, Stephen, along with his five brothers, bravely plunges toward a wilderness full of terror.

The Revolutionary War left Captain Sam Wyllie battle-hardened. His courageous but cold heart defies danger - and love. He is determined to make a fresh start in the far west, the new state of Kentucky. Newly widowed, Catherine Adams knows she should return to her wealthy father in Boston but fears he will once again force her to marry for prestige and wealth, not love. Drawn to Sam's keen intelligence, harsh masculinity, and rugged warrior facade, she decides the west holds a chance for real love.

Kelly McGuffin - an innocent victim of violence and neglect - is haunted by shame. At age 18, loneliness and danger compel her to leave her remote cabin in the Virginia mountains to travel west with the Wyllie brothers to Boonesborough, Kentucky. Kelly's feelings for her heroic rescuer, Sheriff William Wyllie, remain confused and obscured beneath her worsening veil of fear. Caught in the untamed world of the frontier - both breathtakingly beautiful and shockingly cruel - Kelly is unable to control her uncertain future.

Strathnaver, Scotland, summer 1792. The Highland Clearances abruptly destroy Artis MacKay's idyllic world. Patrick Steller, the Countess of Sutherland's estate manager, murders Artis' family and burns her village. Forced into indentured servitude in the colonies, she becomes a Virginia plantation servant. After seven long years, Artis receives her freedom dues - land in Kentucky. Bear MacKee grew up in the Highlands too, but disease claims his parents on his family's voyage to the colonies.

It's December 1799, and Sam and Catherine are expecting, but their unborn babe is in grave danger, and Catherine might not live through the child's birth. Sam is desperate to find a way to save them both. Sam's courageous heart is sorely tested. He frantically searches for a solution to the impending crisis as their winter in the beautiful Kentucky wilderness grows even more troubled. Heavily armed, cold-blooded men arrive to buy Wyllie Mountain in Sam's home state of New Hampshire. The land is sentimental to Sam, and he refuses to sell.

In an unlikely place for new beginnings, a cemetery, Edward and Dora meet for the first time. But in that forlorn place, the beauty of love blossoms. Edward is still struggling with guilt over the death of his family more than a year ago - a guilt so great he's unable to even look at his children's gravestones. As their friendship grows, Dora forces Edward to confront the truth - their deaths were not his fault. And Edward gives Dora, a young Boston widow, a chance to seize love and learn the meaning of passion.