About the Book The Los Angeles Times called Swerlings City of Dreams a near-perfect historical novel. With her new book about the years before the American Revolution, Swerling more than makes good on her initial promise, delivering a gripping, multilayered story of passion and intrigue, faith and devotion. Book Synopsis From the author of the acclaimed novel City of Dreams, the passionate story of Quentin Hale and Nicole Crane, set against the bloody and turbulent backdrop of the French and Indian War.1754. In a low-lying glen in Ohio Country, where both the French and English claim dominion, the first musket ball fired signals the start of a savage seven-year conflict destined to dismantle Frances overreaching empire and pave the way for the American Revolution. In a world on the brink of astonishing change are Quentin Hale, the fearless gentleman-turned-scout, fighting to preserve his beloved family plantation, Shadowbrook; Cormac Shea, the part-Irish, part-Indian woodsman with a foot in both worlds; and the beautiful Nicole Crane, who, struggling to reconcile her love for Hale and her calling to the convent, becomes a pawn in the British quest for territory. Moving between the longhouses of the Iroquois and Shadowbrooks elegant rooms, the frontiers virgin forests and the cobbled streets of Qubec, Swerling weaves a tale of passion and intrigue, faith and devotion, courage and betrayal. Peopled with a cast of unforgettable characters and historical figures, including a young George Washington, this richly textured novel vividly captures the conflict that opened the eighteenth century and ignited our nations quest for independence. A classic in the making, Shadowbrook is a page-turning tale of ambition, war, and the transforming power of both love and duty. Review Quotes SWEEPING...MASTERFUL. -- Publishers Weekly