In the Land of the Long White Cloud

Hardworking London governess Helen Davenport longs for a family of her own but knows the prospect of finding a suitable husband grows dimmer each year. Then she spots an advertisement seeking wives for the churchgoing bachelors of colonial New Zealand and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer.Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, society life bores Gwyneira Silkham, beautiful, daring daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder. She finds an unexpected escape when her father loses a blackjack hand to a mysterious New Zealand baron ΓÇö and GwynΓÇÖs hand in marriage goes to the baronΓÇÖs son.The women cross paths on the ship to Christchurch ΓÇö Helen traveling steerage, Gwyn first class ΓÇö and form an unlikely friendship, one theyΓÇÖll rely on when the husbands awaiting them turn out very different than theyΓÇÖd imagined.This nineteenth-century saga of two unforgettable young women ΓÇö navigating a new world and finding friendship, romance, and adventure at every turn ΓÇö is as lush and sweeping as the hills of New Zealand themselves.