• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12

It is 1896 and nineteen-year-old Pearl Owens wants adventure just like her idols Anna Leonowens and Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky. In the 1860s, Anna Leonowens taught the wives, concubines, and children of the King of Siam, while during the years 1894-1895, Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky became the first woman to travel around the world on a bicycle. She was testing a woman’s ability to look after herself. To fulfill her dream Pearl is on her to the Yukon River area with her cousin, Emma, to write articles and do illustrations about the woman and men who are looking for gold in the far north. Sam Owens, Pearl’s cousin and Emma’s brother, has been searching for gold with two friends, Gordon and Donald, for five years without success. Gordon and Donald have decided their quest is futile and it is time to return home. But Sam wants to stay a while longer. Then they hear word of a new gold find on Rabbit Creek. Over the next ten months, the lives of all five are changed due to love, gold, and tragedy.

Stuart R. West is a lifelong resident of Kansas, which he considers both a curse and a blessing. It's a curse because...well, it's Kansas. But it's great because…well, it’s Kansas. Lots of cool, strange and creepy things happen in the Midwest, and Stuart takes advantage of them in his work. Call it “Kansas Noir”.  Stuart writes thrillers tinged with horror and horror tinged with thriller, both for adult and young adult audiences.  Ghosts of Gannaway is the first of his novels to be published by Books We Love.  Stuart spent 25 years in the corporate sector and now writes full time. He’s married to a professor of pharmacy (who greatly appreciates the fact being a full-time writer allows him to cook dinner for her every night) and has a 22 year old daughter who’s still deciding what to do with her life. But that's okay. It took him twenty-five years to figure that out.

Joan Donadlson-Yarmey's profile page

Lovely written story about the rough and ready days of the Klondike Gold Rush. A tribute to the courageous young women who made the dangerous journey and persevered in the harsh climate.

Marie Rafter