They lusted for life… and found it.
Emily Ashburn lost her husband and children to cholera on the brutal journey west on the Oregon trail. In her grief and loneliness, she marries strong, silent Jim Riley, a man with a murderous secret. Now the couple are making a life for themselves in the wilderness. But they aren’t alone. There’s also frontiersman Zack Trimble and Mariposa, his hot-blooded, half-Indian, teenage lover. The lives of these two couples become intertwined as they struggle for survival against native Americans, warring settlers, the ravages of nature, and their own, uncontrollable passions.
“It has the unmistakable dignity of art. Very few historical novels can make that statement.” New York Times
“Teachers of psychoanalysis could profitably recommend to their pupils the story of Emily Ashburn. That estimable lady, with the mind of a Puritan and the desires of a nymphomaniac, is pictured as the most inhibited and frustrated female ever to ride the Oregon Trail and perhaps the most completely Freudian character ever to settle in the Pacific Northwest.” Oakland Tribune
“Gathers momentum and sweeps on with a racing climax. The author writes vividly and colorfully of the country. There’s a lusty ring of realism to what she writes.” Birmingham News
“Above all, it’s stimulating reading, an exciting tale.” Anniston Star
“The violent emotions of men and women thrown together in a pagan wilderness.” San Antonio Express
“A story that will haunt the memory.” Long Beach Press Telegram
“Lusty vigor glows like the brilliant sun in the pages of this superb romance.” Pacific Coast Review
