warm, sensitive novel about two women unexpectedly loving and growing in remote southwestern Australia in the 1870s.

Jessica White has created an unusual story of two women who meet and begin “a curious intimacy.” Ingrid is a strong, independent woman, comfortable with her own unconventionality. She is an accomplished botanist, traveling in the bush looking for flowers to collect, catalog, and draw. Physically hurt and exhausted, she takes refuge in the home of Ellyn, a woman distraught by her husband’s long absence and by the death of her young child. As her wounded foot heals, Ingrid helps Ellyn regain her interest in life and in the world around her. She helps her learn about the Australian bush and together they interact with people in the small local community. Ingrid has loved a woman before and been hurt when their closeness ended. She is quick to recognize how attracted she is to Ellyn, who returns her love but somewhat naively remains slow to recognize its sexual component. The two become lovers, and Ingrid finds reasons to remain in Ellyn’s home where she moves into the role of Ellyn’s guide and protector. Then Ellyn’s husband returns. Both women must decide what happens next.

At the core of the novel is a well-told lesbian love story, but more than that, it is a story of women growing, accepting, and taking charge of their own lives.

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