Showing results by narrator "Aoife McMahon" in All Categories

Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish.

Cailleach, goddess of winter, was not born to be a blight on humanity, but she became one. She would say with scorn that it was their own fault: mortals were selfish, thoughtless, and destructive, bringing harm to each other and the earth without cause or qualms. One day, Cailleach goes too far. Thousands die, lost to her brutal winter. In punishment, her mother Danu, queen of the gods, strips the goddess of her powers and sends Cailleach to earth, to live and die as the mortals she so despises, until she understands what it is to be one of them.

For centuries, the people of remote Ballybrine have kept the peace with their gods by sacrificing a Red Maiden to ferry souls from the Mother’s realm of the living, through the Dark Wood, to the Wolf’s realm of the dead. Soon it will be Rowan’s turn. Ripped from her family as a young girl, Rowan Cleary has been forced into a cloistered life learning to please the wolf and wield her spirit-enchanting voice. Though none of the previous maidens have survived their five-year term, Rowan is determined to beat the odds and protect the women who have become family to her.