A Rebel West

"Mama told me I had to be ready, prepared, and strong for when things were not looking good."

Families torn apart amid the American Civil War must fight to stay together in Jan Spann's epic new novel, "A Rebel West." This young adult adventure has all the romance, action, and danger to turn it into an instant classic.

Claire "Belle" Pettifaux is a typical nineteenth-century teenager when the Civil War begins. Her world torn apart, she witnesses both her father and her budding love interest, Samuel, shipped off for battle. When her mother dies, Belle must go live with her aunt in Kansas and await her loved ones' return.

Meanwhile, a Kansas boy named Austin "Earle" Johnson Jr. recounts his own story of his father's enlistment in the Union Army. His heartbreaking tale, told in alternating chapters with Belle's story, forms a picture of two young people thrust into a world wholly unknown to them.

Reuniting with her father and Samuel after the war, Belle and her loved ones travel to California in hopes of starting life anew. But Indians, robbers, flash floods, and more threaten to keep them from finding a place to call home.