Publisher Description

Five years ago the Evil Wizard Henig destroyed Taridawil, turning the prosperous province into a Black Desert.
One year ago Karana's merchant parents were slain by Henig's foul minions as they took her to be betrothed to a lord's son.
Now, seventeen-year-old Karana has emerged from struggling to survive a brutal winter in the Forest of Ryylyn - a full year on her own with no human contact - only to discover that the foul wizard has demanded that the King turn her over or the rest of the Realm will follow Taridawil's fate.Compounding the problem is that Karana is now the head of her powerful merchant House and has responsibilities that reach far beyond one small Realm.Saving the Realm without ending up as a Sacrificial Maiden is... going to be a challenge...
Follow Karana's adventures as she discovers that facing her parents' murderer is just the beginning of how her life - and that of pretty much everyone in Dawil, but most especially her Bound Knight-Companions - will turn upside down. Because when all the power of 'creative destruction' is embodied in one young woman, whom even her loving family calls 'Hurricane Karana'... surely nothing can stay the same...

Author Biography

Kerridwen Mangala McNamara is an Indian-American with a Master's degree in Bacterial Genetics who lives in Flyover Country (the far northern end of the US South) with her husband, The Professor, four of her six children, and three goats. The goats eat, The Professor plays chess, and the children largely unschool while Mangala writes. (The remaining children are in college - you can blame the oldest for the excessive amounts of math showing up in Mangala's fantasy novels, the second one for better attention to staging of scenes, the third for all the economics, and the fourth for great attention to history - and all of them for a focus on political science!) Mangala is a former professional bellydance instructor, currently coaches FIRST Lego League and model government teams, runs homeschool parent support groups, and used to enjoy knitting, crotchet and embroidering Temari balls but now is much more boring as she rarely does anything but write, argue economic theory with her 17 and 14 year olds, and wonder loudly if her 12 and 10 year olds do anything other than watch Minecraft videos. She owes her love of books and reading to her mother, who was a professional folklorist and could recite - from memory - stories from every nation in the United Nations.

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