Imagine if Rapunzel’s parents were Edwardian preppers.
Hazel’s parents saw the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as a portent of doom and locked their daughter away. Isolated and alone, each birthday she wishes to be free, whatever the risk. If only her childhood friend Henry would return and breach the high walls.
On the front lines of the Great War, Henry kept a token of happier times—a worn photograph of a young girl with long blonde plaits. He returns from war damaged and vowing to do one brave thing to make up for his cowardice: release Hazel from her prison. But could Henry keep her safe in a world ravaged by the pandemic?
How can Henry reconcile protecting Hazel with setting her free? Or perhaps the sheltered young woman will teach the soldier a lesson about life, liberating him from a tower of his own construction.
A. W. Exley survived school by hiding out in the library with several thousand fictional characters for company. Today she writes twisted historical novels. She lives in rural New Zealand surrounded by an assortment of weird and wonderful horses, cats, a mad boxer, and chickens who think they are mini velociraptors.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.