Condemned to a penal colony in Australia for stealing a woman's bonnet, young Mary Bryant braves every danger in Britain's newest colony, Australia -- disease, famine, rape, and the cruelty of the penal system. As the first convict married in Australia, Mary and her husband Will learn from aboriginal friends how to survive. In time they also learn how to escape. Traveling three months and three thousand miles, Mary's courageous feat is yet unequaled by a woman with two young children traversing rough seas for so many miles in an open boat without training or navigational equipment. Mary's capture, return to England and the curious trial that determines if she lives or dies is filled with drama, and all the more interesting for the portrait of her real-life attorney, James Boswell.

Josephine grows up on the island of Martinique longing for a glorious life in Paris. A West Indian seer has told her she is destined to be "more than a queen." An arranged marriage to a French nobleman brings her to the city of lights. But instead of the grand life, she experiences the French Revolution. Her husband is executed, she is imprisoned and all of her dreams of diamonds turn to dirt. But then she meets the greatest love of her life, Napoleon Bonaparte. Their ups and downs, joys and sorrows, set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars ensure that this dramatic novel is one of the most turbulent romances of the time.

Andy and his best friend George, a Blue-fronted Amazonian parrot, live on an island off the Gulf coast of Florida. When Andy's fathergets hurt on a Fish and Game mission to catch a poacher, Andy and his almost-human, chip-on-the-shoulder, opinionated parrot go deep into the backwaters to uncover a vine-covered, lethal secret....