by Anna North
First published 2022
Ada is seventeen and ready for marriage in 1890. She loves her fiancé and dreams of working as a midwife in their frontier town. But after a year of marriage, she remains childless. In her community, barren women face suspicion of witchcraft and execution by hanging. Ada abandons everything she knows to survive. She finds refuge with a notorious gang of female outlaws led by Kid, a former preacher turned charismatic bandit. Kid speaks of grand visions and promises to build a safe haven for women cast out by society. His ambitious dream requires a dangerous scheme that will test every member of the gang. Ada must choose how much she will risk for this new sisterhood and whether Kid's vision is worth gambling their lives. The decision forces her to confront what freedom truly costs when society brands you an outcast.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, outcasts
Setting: Frontier Town
Period: 1890
297 pages · Alba editorial
Content warnings: abuse