
Cora boards the ship with her mother and father, the newspaper man who’s documenting the peace treaty with those dastardly Ariminthians and its evil royal family.
Vivienne boards the ship as lady-in-waiting to the princess, whose father will sign the peace treaty with those dreadful Durans who train from childhood to wage war.
Every person, parcel, package, and pocket inspected by the other nation’s guards before being allowed onto the Burying Ground, and yet it blasts apart in neutral waters!
The two young women are its lone survivors, stranded on an island far from shipping lanes – Vivienne unwilling to outlive her princess, Cora determined to leave and get revenge.
Pirates come to their island! The girls work together to outwit them and escape, only to find that their rescue may enflame the war that the treaty was meant to stop!
How can Vivienne get her vital secret to the Royal Mother?
How can Cora avoid being scapegoated for the ship’s sinking?
Will the anti-war underground network help them?
This story of resourcefulness is told in alternating chapters by Cora and Vivienne, as each struggles against lifelong prejudices poured into them by propaganda and the powerful.
By the author of historical fiction set in pasts not always our own, like The Night Ride (recommended here https://booksyalove.com/?p=13684) and R For Rebel (https://booksyalove.com/?p=9958), who offered advance copies of this book on BlueSky – of course, I said yes!
What “everyone knows this about those people” have you learned was actually untrue?
**kmm
Book info: The Loss of the Burying Ground / J. Anderson Coats. Candlewick Press, 2024. [author site https://www.jandersoncoats.com/the-loss-of-the-burying-ground] [publisher site https://www.candlewick.com/9781536244434/the-loss-of-the-burying-ground/] Review copy via author and publisher; cover image courtesy of the publisher.