First published 2011
Willa Alden refuses to speak to the man who saved her life. She lost her leg climbing Kilimanjaro with polar explorer Seamus Finnegan, and she blames him for rescuing her when she would rather have died on the mountain. Now it's 1914 London, and war threatens Europe while women march for voting rights. Seamus tries to forget Willa by marrying a young English woman, but their shared trauma binds them together. Meanwhile, the sophisticated Max von Brandt moves through high society parties, charming wealthy women while secretly gathering intelligence for Germany. As global explorers push into the world's most dangerous places and political tensions explode into violence, these characters navigate personal betrayals and impossible choices. The story brings Jennifer Donnelly's multi-generational saga to its climax, following the descendants and connections from The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose as they face a world transforming through war, social upheaval, and the price of survival.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, second-chance
Setting: Kilimanjaro, London
Period: 1914
623 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion