Julia Drosten – författare

Independent-minded Sibylla Spencer feels trapped in nineteenth-century London, where her strong will and progressive views have rendered her unmarriageable. Still single at twenty-three, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father''s house.

When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father''s trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape. As Benjamin''s rising career whisks them both away to exotic Morocco, Sibylla is at last a citizen of the world, reveling in her newfound freedom by striking her first business deals, befriending locals…and falling in love for the first time with a charismatic and handsome Frenchman.

But Benjamin''s lust for money and influence draws him into dark dealings, pulling him ever further from Sibylla and their two young sons. When he''s arrested on horrible charges, the fate of Sibylla''s family rests on her shoulders, as she must decide whether she''ll leave him to his fate or help him fight for his life.

From the bestselling author of The Lioness of Morocco comes the beguiling novel of a young woman trapped between the expectations of her family and the desire to live free.

Ceylon, 1803. In the royal city of Kandy, a daughter is born to the king’s elephant keeper—an esteemed position in the court reserved only for males. To ensure the line of succession, Phera’s parents raise her as a boy.

As she bonds with her elephant companion, Siddhi, Phera grows into a confident, fiercely independent woman torn between the expectations of her family and her desire to live life on her own terms. Only when British colonists invade is she allowed to live her true identity, but when the conquerors commit unspeakable violence against her people, Phera must add survival to the list of freedoms for which she’s willing to fight.

Possessed by thoughts of revenge yet drawn into an unexpected romance with a kindly British physician, the elephant keeper’s daughter faces a choice: Love or hatred? Forgiveness or retribution?