The bestselling author of the Sea of Freedom Trilogy returns with a sweeping family saga of two women in nineteenth-century New Zealand and their epic journey to survive in a world of their own making. It’s 1837, and immigrating to a small New Zealand fishing village is an opportunity for Ida Lange’s family to build a better future. Yet for Ida, raised in a strict, religious, tight-knit German community, so much is still forbidden to a woman. Yearning for the poor day laborer she shared books with as a child, Ida is now trapped in a dire marriage to a man of her father’s choosing. For Cat, who came of age in New Zealand under brutal conditions, life in the colonies hasn’t been easy. Through a strange turn of events, she is adopted by a native Maori tribe, and she begins to thrive. But when she challenges the traditions of her tribe, she’s banished, and left once again to rely on the only person she can trust with her future: herself. When fate brings Ida and Cat together, they recognize in each other a kindred spirit. Out of common ground grows an enduring friendship that will not be broken by the hardships of the plains, threats from the past, or the trials of family and heartache. What they’ll discover is the depth of their own strength and resilience as they get nearer to the freedom they desire and demand. And their journey is just beginning.

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.

Bold new paths in life and love are forged in nineteenth-century New Zealand in the stirring final chapter of bestselling author Sarah Lark’s multigenerational Fire Blossom Saga. It’s 1880 in the North Island town of Otaki, where Aroha lives contentedly with her mother, Linda—until a fateful tragedy leaves Aroha traumatized and plagued by a cursed guilt. For the long recovery ahead, Aroha is sent to Rata Station, a thriving sheep farm that Aroha’s mother and grandmother once called home. Linda knows it’s the perfect place for her daughter to heal, find hope, and start a life she can call her own. On South Island, Aroha soon develops a bond with her relatives, who are looking toward the future, too. Aroha’s cousin March is a vivacious, business-minded beauty who wants to take advantage of New Zealand’s burgeoning industrial age. Robin is a delicate young man and an aspiring actor as fearful of his father’s disapproval as he is desperate to run from it. And then there’s Aroha, who sees unexpected opportunity in the growing tourism trade beyond the continental plains. Through personal trials, professional compromises, great love, profound loss, and a struggle to survive, Aroha, March, and Robin will discover their true destinies. A country is in flux, and a generation of ambitious and resilient young dreamers is changing with it in this exhilarating conclusion to an epic saga.