Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover on her shifts, and she has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits tables, but Emaleen never goes hungry. It’s a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by.

And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie’s fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks Birdie and Emaleen to leave the lodge and make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie’s answer, in a heartbeat, is yes.

Out in the Alaskan wilderness, Birdie’s days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.

I’m a city girl at heart, but even I have to admit that there’s something about the wilderness that pulls you in. Several times in my life, I have come face to face with the edge of the wild—the ocean touching the shore, the rolling sand dunes, the borders of a dark forest—and felt the perilous compulsion to wander farther into the unknown. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, I’m also terrible at navigation and can barely step outside my own door without a compass, a map, and several backup phone batteries.

Black Woods, Blue Sky chases that pursuit of wildness to the most dizzying, dangerous heights. Set in rural Alaska, it follows the journey of a young mother, Birdie, and her daughter, Emaleen, as they venture out from a dull roadside lodge into the remote Alaskan backcountry, joined by a mysterious man named Arthur. Freed from society’s rules, they live in harmony with each other and with nature. But there is a dark side to nature—and the longer their little family remains in the wild, the more Emaleen suspects that Arthur may have a dark side of his own.

Magical and haunting in equal measure, Black Woods, Blue Sky offers readers the chance to get lost in the wilderness of its pages, no map or compass required. Whether you’re an accomplished explorer or a navigationally challenged city-dweller like me, this book will take you on a breathtaking journey into the mysteries of the wild and the mysteries of human hearts.