It's 1855, and 17-year-old Camille Rowen is no ordinary San Francisco society girl. Her mother died in childbirth, so she's spent her whole life sailing the ocean with her merchant father. But, after a childhood of independence, she's engaged to be married to her father's new business partner, Randall Jackson. Young and handsome, Randall adores Camille, but he's also very proper, which means no more sea voyages.When her father surprises Camille with one last voyage to Australia before her wedding, she's thrilled. Even better, Oscar will be joining them. An orphan her father picked up off the streets and trained in the art of sailing, Oscar is now a young man and first mate aboard Camille's father's ship. Childhood friends, Camille can't wait to spend more time with Oscar on the ocean - maybe he'll take her mind off how reluctant she is to give up her freedom and marry Randall.
But when Camille discovers that the voyage to Australia isn't just a regular trading trip, but instead has something to do with her mother and a quest to find a long-lost, magical stone rumored to have the ability to bring a person back from the dead, she doesn't know what to think. It seems that her beloved father has been lying to her about her mother her entire life, and Oscar was in on it too. Who can she trust when the two people she loves most have betrayed her?
The same night Camille discovers her father's secrets, a terrible storm hits, sinking the ship and all aboard. Camille, Oscar, and Lucius Drake, a passenger working for her father's business rival, are the only survivors. Devastated by grief and stuck in Australia with only the tattered clothes on their backs, Camille must make a choice - continue her father's quest for the stone with Oscar, perhaps bringing her father back, and discover the truth about her mother? Or return to San Francisco and marry Randall?
Angie Frazier's first novel is a love story wrapped in an epic adventure of a lifetime, with a strong, brave heroine. Camille's not afraid to step outside the boundaries of her world no matter what other people think. Also, I'm a total sucker for sea voyages, shipwrecks, quests, magical objects, true love, and journeys into the interior of historical Australia, and Everlasting's got it all!
Megan
(who just finished the fabulous Sorta Like A Rock Star by Matthew Quick, starring the amazing Amber Appleton!)
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