REBECCA'S REVIEW:
"Dear Mama, You always said I'd be the death of you. How did you know?"
Wild, reckless, and free-spirited, Rosanna Waters bucks her genteel mother's every attempt to transform her into a mannered young woman, until one tragic afternoon changes the trajectory of her entire family. Assuming many of the responsibilities for her large family, Rosanna still has time to catch the attention of a young Scottish indenture after boldly defending Callum Stewart in the face of a notorious bully. But as time and circumstances often do, growing up does not change the fact that life is not always fair.
Two wars punctuate this story. Rosanna marries, bears eight living children and moves from Virginia to South Carolina, her three oldest sons join the militia while the one who put his signature upon her young heart only appears in an occasional accidental memory. As you might suspect, this is not the end of the story.
There are so few authors who can write a story spanning decades of early American history and manage to seam together the most important details without overloading the reader with extraneous material. Like the flow of a river, Rosanna's story (inspired by the courageous life of the author's sixth great-grandmother) moves at a constant pace with natural bends, curves, and overflows that every great river carves along its landscape. With characters who spring to life on the page, and plot twists that are both heartwarming and heartbreaking, readers will be mesmerized from beginning to end with the constancy of love and loss, tragedy and triumph, and endless reasons to hope.
"Come live with me and be my love . . . "
From bestselling author Emerson Ford comes an unforgettable true story of a spirited woman caught between freedom and duty, set against the sweeping backdrop of the American Revolution. Perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Four Winds,and A Girl Called Samson.
Virginia, 1749. Rosanna Waters is more comfortable catching grasshoppers for fishing bait than helping her Mama with the washing. After one defiance too many ends in terrible tragedy, Rosanna learns that her rebellious nature carries a price too steep to pay. She must tame the fire within—for her family’s sake, if not her own.
Then she meets Callum Stewart, a Scottish indentured servant with secrets as deep as the river she loves, Rosanna discovers someone who sees her for exactly who she is. But revolution changes everything. War sends Callum to battle and Rosanna into the unknowns of the South Carolina frontier, where she carves out a life from the unforgiving backcountry—eight children, a working farm, and a hard-won independence.
When the war finally arrives at her doorstep, it brings not just soldiers threatening everything she’s built, but the boy who stole her heart all those years ago—now a man with his own scars. As violence engulfs the frontier, Rosanna must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her family, and whether the woman she’s become can make peace with the girl she used to be.
Based on a true story, this is an epic tale of a woman who refuses to surrender—not to grief, not to the wilderness, and never to a fate trying to break the spirit she’s finally learned to love.
"Dear Mama, You always said I'd be the death of you. How did you know?"
Wild, reckless, and free-spirited, Rosanna Waters bucks her genteel mother's every attempt to transform her into a mannered young woman, until one tragic afternoon changes the trajectory of her entire family. Assuming many of the responsibilities for her large family, Rosanna still has time to catch the attention of a young Scottish indenture after boldly defending Callum Stewart in the face of a notorious bully. But as time and circumstances often do, growing up does not change the fact that life is not always fair.
Two wars punctuate this story. Rosanna marries, bears eight living children and moves from Virginia to South Carolina, her three oldest sons join the militia while the one who put his signature upon her young heart only appears in an occasional accidental memory. As you might suspect, this is not the end of the story.
There are so few authors who can write a story spanning decades of early American history and manage to seam together the most important details without overloading the reader with extraneous material. Like the flow of a river, Rosanna's story (inspired by the courageous life of the author's sixth great-grandmother) moves at a constant pace with natural bends, curves, and overflows that every great river carves along its landscape. With characters who spring to life on the page, and plot twists that are both heartwarming and heartbreaking, readers will be mesmerized from beginning to end with the constancy of love and loss, tragedy and triumph, and endless reasons to hope.
"Come live with me and be my love . . . "
*I purchased a copy and was under no obligation to provide a positive review.
BackCover Blurb:From bestselling author Emerson Ford comes an unforgettable true story of a spirited woman caught between freedom and duty, set against the sweeping backdrop of the American Revolution. Perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Four Winds,and A Girl Called Samson.
Virginia, 1749. Rosanna Waters is more comfortable catching grasshoppers for fishing bait than helping her Mama with the washing. After one defiance too many ends in terrible tragedy, Rosanna learns that her rebellious nature carries a price too steep to pay. She must tame the fire within—for her family’s sake, if not her own.
Then she meets Callum Stewart, a Scottish indentured servant with secrets as deep as the river she loves, Rosanna discovers someone who sees her for exactly who she is. But revolution changes everything. War sends Callum to battle and Rosanna into the unknowns of the South Carolina frontier, where she carves out a life from the unforgiving backcountry—eight children, a working farm, and a hard-won independence.
When the war finally arrives at her doorstep, it brings not just soldiers threatening everything she’s built, but the boy who stole her heart all those years ago—now a man with his own scars. As violence engulfs the frontier, Rosanna must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her family, and whether the woman she’s become can make peace with the girl she used to be.
Based on a true story, this is an epic tale of a woman who refuses to surrender—not to grief, not to the wilderness, and never to a fate trying to break the spirit she’s finally learned to love.
Storm Publishing, November, 2025
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