Emily Hayse is the award-winning author of seven books, a lover of log cabins, strong coffee, NASCAR, and the smell of old books. Her writing is fueled by good characters and a lifelong passion for storytelling. When she is not busy turning words into worlds, she can often be found baking, singing, or caring for one of the many dogs and horses in her life. She lives with her family in Michigan.
Set in a wild northern world of wolf-hunts and Viking warfare, Kill the Dawn is a breathtaking new retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, full of heart, beauty, and bittersweet sacrifice.
"The folk of Faerie are not all kind...."
In the days of yore, it is said, Faerie-beasts walked in the world of men, waiting to carry away the innocent and unprotected. And no one is more innocent than Ella Whittington, sixteen years old and suddenly possessed of a dazzling fortune.
Ella's dizzying rise to fame is watched by the skeptical Miss Constance Hanover, who soon suspects that society's darling is in danger. What she doesn't suspect is that her efforts to uncover the truth will drag her into a world of spies, magicians, and secrets more astonishing than she ever dreamed possible.
“They say this land is bound, cursed since the beginning of the world. And it’ll be freed one day by a man with war-torn hands.” Rosamund Lacey has crossed a continent to marry Archer Scott because she believes he is a man set apart—a man with a destiny. But Alexander Mortimer, Outlaw King of the western territory, believes in only one kind of destiny: winner takes all. Determined to reign supreme, Mortimer kidnaps the governor’s bride and wreaks havoc on the land around Glory Mesa. But when Archer refuses to choose between the woman he loves and the land he has sworn to protect, he is forced into a showdown that may cost more than his life.
"It’s not until you tame the wild places that the monsters come out.”
New hope brings new challenges and new blood from the East. With Archer and Rosamund Scott presiding over the land they love and Raymond Lacey serving as marshal, Glory Mesa is poised to enter a new golden age. But the hard-won peace is marred by rumblings of trouble on the horizon and the shadow of the ancient curse.
From Jesse Thatcher’s run-in with a grizzled mountain man to Kate Carnegie’s quest to bring justice to a pair of hapless brothers, the Western Territory becomes a stage for desperate deeds and unlikely heroes. Yet, unknown to all but a few, this season of range wars, breakneck rides, lone gunslingers, and gentle romances is building to a deadly day that will alter the territory and its people forever.
"When we are gone, these darkened fields that have held so much sorrow—they will be remembered as glorious."
With Maria Pike unmasked at last and an ancient terror awakened to ravage the land, Archer's heroes set out on a quest that will ask more of them than they know. Strength, sacrifice, and unheard-of feats of courage are required if they are to break the curse that threatens the land they love.
Yet as friendships are broken and allies topple one by one, the men and women of the Western Territory begin to realize that the greatest threat of all lies not in the curse, but in themselves.
“Let me tell you a story that happened so long ago that only the hills and rivers can remember the time . . . .”
All her life, thirteen-year-old Maki has heard tales of the legendary city of gold, buried deep in the northern frontier. But when her village is burned and her brother captured by cruel invaders, the legend becomes desperately real.
Armed with a wolf-dog and a heart of courage, Maki sets out on a journey that will demand all her strength and cunning. She is determined to bring her brother home at all costs. Yet as her quest leads her deep into a wilderness of ancient dangers, Maki realizes that even for her, some prices are too high to pay.
“You see, Maki, that’s the thing about the rivers. They’re like the blood-lines in your hands…. If you lose your way, follow the river downstream and you’ll always find your way back.”
In The Rivers Lead Home, Emily Hayse explores new frontiers, digging deeper into the land and the characters first introduced in her award-winning novel Seventh City. This collection of twelve short stories features beloved characters like Maki, Tsanu, Willow, Ransom, Laramie, Rutter, and Jeremiah, as well as introducing new characters like Spruce Norman, Mollie at Heart’s End, and the mysteriously lucky dog-driver Epirvikk Heft. From lazy nights at the Pick and Collarbone to dog-races on the frozen tundra to the adventures of a young mapmaker in the jungles of Havast, these stories are full of laughter, surprises, brushes with glory, and heartwarmingly ordinary humanity.
"Watch, ye sons of the sea, your doom is at hand. With soundless storm rises the fate of Atlantis."
As a lighthouse keeper’s daughter, Hattie has always been able to handle anything the Atlantic throws at her. But when a stranger washes ashore in a storm, she finds herself unraveling a mystery that will change her life.
Caught up in a high-stakes game of intrigue and hidden loyalties, Hattie watches legends take shape before her eyes. But as kings and pawns prepare for a showdown that will determine the fate of an ancient world, she wonders whether she has thrown in her lot with the hero or the villain.
Heaven Cassidy has only ever wanted one thing: a family. But when she opens a letter from her long-lost mother, she finds herself running for her life. Swept into a world of proud queens and ancient feuds, Heaven must decide whether her dream is worth taking on the responsibility of two kingdoms, one of which wants to crown her and the other to kill her.