Christiane Gohl Boeken

"Author of In the Land of the Long White Cloud"--Cover.

"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." -- Amazon.com

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.

From the author of Toward the Sea of Freedom comes a novel of the triumphs, tragedies, and courage of two women bravely changing the tide of history... As the nineteenth century draws to a close, the struggle for women's suffrage has finally reached New Zealand. But when the tide of change rolls in, it threatens to engulf two young women from very different backgrounds, who are coming of age amid the tumult. Torn between the two worlds that make up her heritage, Matariki Drury is the daughter of a successful white businesswoman and a descendant of Maori royalty. Scarred by poverty and hoping to make a new life for herself in this strange and forbidding land, Violet Paisley is the middle child of a poor Welsh coal-mining family. Drawn together by their shared commitment to social change, and tested by traumas that neither of them could foresee, these two independent-minded women will find themselves thrust onto the front lines of the fight for equal rights and racial justice. To win their place in this world, they must learn to rise above their personal pain and choose a path of reconciliation rather than retribution.

"Lark recounts...the sometimes peaceful, sometimes uneasy relationship between the Maori natives and the pakeha--the colonists. And the land, which can be rocky and formidable and also breathtakingly beautiful, is as much a character as anyone else." --Historical Novel Society New Zealand, 1893: William Martyn is better educated and more cultivated than the other men breaking their backs searching for gold near Queenstown. William is the son of landed Irish nobility, and he comes to town ready to invest in the best equipment. On his search for supplies, he encounters spirited and beautiful young Elaine O'Keefe, who promptly falls in love with him. He is captivated by her charms until Kura, Elaine's half-Maori cousin, comes to visit. William succumbs at once to Kura's exotic beauty and free-spiritedness, and tension develops not only between the two cousins but also between the colonial settlers and their Maori neighbors.

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.

"In mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, charming Kathleen and dashing Michael harbor secrets and dreams. Imagining a life beyond the kitchen and fields of the wealthy family they both work for, they plot to leave their homeland, marry, and raise the child Kathleen is secretly carrying. The luck of the Irish, however, is not on their side. Soon, they find themselves swept up in circumstances they never could have fathomed. Kathleen is forced to marry against her will and immigrate to New Zealand. Michael is imprisoned for rebellion and exiled to Australia. As time passes and their new lives march on, they long for those stolen moments in the lush green fields of their native land. And they both still dream of escape, with no idea of how close fate will eventually bring them."--Provided by publisher.

Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, spots an advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand's honorable bachelors and begins correspondence with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels under an unusual arrangement, she jumps at the opportunity. On the ship, she meets Gwyneira Silkham, traveling to meet a New Zealand baron who won her in a game of blackjack. When their new husbands turn out to be very different than expected, the women must help one another find the life they'd hoped for.

In the conclusion to the In the Land of the Long White Cloud trilogy, the spirited Warden and McKenzie clan continues its trials--and triumphs--in New Zealand and beyond.

In the chaos of World War II, Polish teenagers Helena and Luzyna Grabowski have lost everything. Without parents or a home, they are shipped to a refugee camp in Persia, where the days ahead hold only darkness. When they hear that orphans are being selected for relocation to New Zealand, Helena is filled with hope--until the officials say they have a place only for her younger sister. On the morning she is to be transported, Luzyna fails to join the chosen group, and Helena takes her place. But the horrors of war--and her guilt at abandoning her sister--follow Helena on the journey across the sea, as a man from her past preys on her fear and remorse. Though the people in New Zealand embrace her, the traumas Helena has suffered threaten her peace and blind her to the devotion of James, a charming, heroic young Allied pilot. If Helena can let go and dare to hope again, she may finally step out of the long shadow of her past to find a future made whole--a new community, a new family, a new love.