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On a harsh frontier where good and evil contend for people’s minds, a young woman must fight for her true identity in this scintillating YA fantasy from the author of the award-winning Age of the Seventh Sun trilogy.
Once, Catriona Macgregor led a charmed life. Daughter of a wealthy rancher, pretty and educated, she looked forward to all the world had to offer-until fate took a turn. Now family, home, and even her name have been stripped away. As “Black Cat Whitfield,” adopted daughter of an outlaw, she’s wanted by the authorities. It certainly wasn’t the destiny she imagined-especially as one of the Blessed.
The Blessed, rare people like Cat, are supposed to use their gifts to carry out missions for the Patron Saints, but she can only imagine that Saint Prudentia made a terrible mistake in choosing her. Still, her gift has never deserted her. Whenever danger threatens, Cat receives a vision-just in time to save her life. And when she meets a renegade priest, Father Ignatius, he helps her understand how her ability may be part of a much bigger picture. A picture that involves facing up to the monstrous Baron Caldwell-the one who ordered her parents killed-and his son, Adrian, who betrayed them all.
Cat is torn between guilt over her parents’ deaths, a longing for vengeance against their killers, and a dismaying new interest in Adrian. It would be easiest to flee the whole situation and never look back. But as someone once told her, you can’t outrun the darkness on your heels. There’s only one way to break through to sunrise-by turning to face the night.
Tropes
Kicking the dog Baron Caldwell. Abuses everyone around him, often for no particular reason.
Living MacGuffin Edith Caldwell. Any time the characters show signs they might return to their normal lives, this resourceful but difficult child jumps in and saves the plot.
Guilt complex Catriona MacGregor. Believing herself responsible for her parents’ deaths, a dispute rising within her band of outlaws, a train derailment, and other such events, she spends most of the novel running from her guilt. And then it becomes contagious, with several other characters coming down with similar symptoms.
Secret heiress Catriona MacGregor. She was living a privileged life as the daughter of a ranching baron, but then her parents were killed and she escaped and had been believed dead. Her status as an heiress would allow her to throw Baron Caldwell’s evil plans into disarray, but she also has a history of being an outlaw.
Secret agent priest Father Iggy. The missions in this frontier-like world have an important role to play, but Baron Caldwell would like to get rid of them all. The priests have some abilities to move about society, hide people, and plan stuff, and Father Iggy would very much like to see Baron Caldwell brought down.
Blunt religious allegory The religion that people follow seems to be an awful lot like Catholicism. But some people have superpowers. Other people can briefly gain magical powers, but only through the use of cursed gold.
Dark and troubled past Catriona saw her parents killed, a trauma that fills her with a Guilt complex. Also she’s been an outlaw and has killed a sheriff and other people.
Found family Catriona MacGregor’s family is killed but she finds a new family, first amongst a band of outlaws led by Brody, a big-hearted guy who also happens to be very religious, then with a quirky bootlegger priest, and then with people who are supposed to be her enemies, which kind of puts a damper on her plans to destroy them.
Robin Hood Brody, the leader of Catriona’s band of outlaws, steals from the rich and gives to the missions, clergy-run organizations that amount to the territory’s only social services.
Revenge quest Catriona, upon hearing that the evil Baron Caldwell is going to take her family’s land and mine the dangerous precious elements in the soil, vows that she’ll put a stop to it. And that seems to be her only intent for most of the book, but eventually she has a Self-confidence epiphany and wants her family’s land for herself.
Second chance Catriona and Adrian. Ten years earlier, they had had crushes on one another, and now they’re getting another chance. Although, this makes the first crush occur when they’re 8, which seems like an odd thing to consider an on-going thing when you’re 18.
Slow Burn Catriona and Adrian. Cat has to keep her identity secret when she’s hired on as governess at the Caldwell ranch, and begins to like Adrian and his sister, Edith. And it takes Adrian an unusually long time to figure out who Cat is, so they flirt a little bit at a time, and Adrian shows his virtuous character multiple times and then finally they get together in the end.
Fake identity baggage Cat spends the first quarter of the book as an outlaw with one name and then turns into a governess with another fake name, and finally reveals herself as a baroness, leaving little breadcrumbs as she goes that the other not-too-bright characters could use to understand her true identity.
Ten-minute retirement Catriona, after a jail break has gone awry and she believes she’s been betrayed, buys passage on a ship out of the country and is intending to go back to being an outlaw. While waiting for the ship to depart, she’s in a bar getting drunk until she hears Edith is in danger.
Stealth Villain If Catriona’s revenge plot is successful in taking down Baron William Caldwell, that would set up some complications for the romantic plot, in which her love interest is Caldwell’s son, Adrian. But as it turns out, William Caldwell has more enemies than you think…