1900: Twenty-eight-year-old Anna Bradley is spending the summer on a rugged island off the coast of Haven Point, Maine, supervising her niece, Julia Demarest, and two other spirited girls. As the children race through the woods playing pirates, treasure hunters, and Roughriders, Anna-an ambitious college graduate determined to chart her own path-finds unexpected inspiration. She secretly pens Liberty Island, a bold, imaginative novel celebrating girls unbound by the expectations of marriage and motherhood. The book becomes a runaway hit with young readers, but draws scorn from the social elite, who see it as dangerous and unbecoming. As the book's popularity grows and Anna's carefully kept secret teeters on the edge of exposure, she must also navigate a burgeoning romance-and reconsider everything she thought she wanted for her future. 1922: Julia Demarest, now twenty-nine, was once enchanted by her aunt's bestselling books. But times have changed-and so has she. Disillusioned by the restrictions of her privileged upbringing and disenchanted by a failed romance with a bohemian intellectual, Julia finds herself adrift and estranged from her family. When a sudden call brings her back to Haven Point, she must reckon with the ghosts of her past, the ideals she once dismissed, and what freedom truly means to her. Rich with heart and history, Liberty Island is an unforgettable story of love, legacy, and belonging.
