Riley follows her critically acclaimed historical novel Island Queen (2021) with a gripping tale celebrating the strength and resilience of exceptional Black women. Gran Toya is a West African warrior and leader of the minos (Dahomey Amazonians to the Europeans) until she is betrayed and sold into slavery in the French colony of Saint Domingue, the future Haiti. Equipped with exceptional fortitude and healing powers, she soon becomes a mother figure to the enslaved, especially the young revolutionary, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Marie-Claire Bonheur is the granddaughter of a wealthy white man and the woman he enslaved. Now her love for Jean-Jacques threatens to undo even the small protections her grandfather's position affords her family. As tensions reach a breaking point on the island, Gran Toya and Marie-Claire work together to play pivotal roles in the battle for winning and securing the independence of Haiti and its people. Riley's women-focused and illuminating retelling of the Haitian Revolution, one of the most successful uprisings of enslaved people in the world, is emotionally rich, deeply detailed, and unforgettable.

Riley follows up Island Queen with another sweeping, powerful historical novel based on two remarkable real women. Adbaraya Toya grows up in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey and becomes one of their feared women warriors. In 1758, a betrayal leads to her being sold into slavery and sent to the French colony of Saint-Domingue on Hispaniola (part of present-day Haiti). There she uses her healing and medicinal knowledge to survive and takes a maternal interest in young enslaved orphan Janjak, training him as a warrior in hopes of a better future. As Janjak grows up on Hispaniola, so too does Marie-Claire Bonheur, further south on the island. Marie-Claire, a free Black woman, has complicated relationships with her mother, aunt, and grandmother--all of whom have different experiences as women of color in late 18th-century Saint-Domingue. When Marie-Claire meets Janjak (who will later take the surname Dessalines and become the first ruler of an independent Haiti), their instant and strong bond forms the basis for a lifelong relationship that will be tested by time, distance, and the Haitian Revolution led by Janjak. VERDICT Riley has written a well-researched gripping novel about an enslaved people gaining freedom, with the emotional connections among the main players as its beating heart.--Jane Jorgenson