Fleeing persecution and low on fuel, religious refugees from Old Earth find themselves stranded on a planet with a dark history. The promise of a future is shadowed by a dreadful past. Twelve-year-old Rejoice Holly is expected to someday become a farmer's wife, and set aside her dreams of astronomy. But the discovery that their Promised Land is already inhabited isn't helping her struggle between duty and dreams. Peace seems precarious, and the voice of reason is being silenced by one of fear. As a new danger looms, the friendship or enmity forged could save or doom them all. Will the colonists and natives be able to set aside their differences for the sake of survival?

Redemptive Fiction Award of Excellence winner When sixteen-year-old Rejoice returns from her mission in space, she discovers her boyfriend is only a friend. She flees the pain by volunteering to join her family in a year-long sea voyage around New Earth. Too bad the creepiest boy in the colony also volunteers. In their search for surviving native species, they encounter storms, monsters big and small, and a new threat to the fragile peace between human and alien.