Literary Titan Book Award
(January 2025)
Zephyr Trails - Ellis River Trilogy 2
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback
Ages: 12-15, 16-18, 18+
The fine line between friends and enemies blurs as sixteen-year-old Ellis Cady sets out to reach the new frontier of post-Civil War America.
After waiting out the winter at the Cady ranch in southern Missouri, hope blooms in the Spring of 1866. Ellis receives news of a mysterious man arriving in St. Louis. Will she find her father alive and well, or finally put his memory to rest?
Grasping at the illusive promise of her father’s whereabouts, Ellis is distracted by the intrepid trick rider, Jimmie, a woman who rides with Levi Jack’s Wild West Exhibition. Then, talk of reinstating a messenger service akin to the Pony Express rekindles a faded dream. Since the war’s devastation, important letters and messages still need to get through a Western landscape governed by Indians and outlaws. When an untimely epidemic threatens, Ellis finds herself back in the saddle, a young woman and her horse on a perilous trail.
Reviews
Zephyr Trails, by Nicki Ehrlich, weaves a stirring narrative of frontier life, blending a vivid historical backdrop with the inner turmoil of a compelling protagonist.
Ehrlich's novel movingly depicts a family and country devastated by war...The sensory details...add color to the storytelling, and the author succeeds in integrating issues of identity...into a timeless work. ...a nuanced depiction of a unique protagonist's growth from girlhood to adulthood. A roving, authentic bildungsroman with a unique lead.
...More than just a story of a young woman's search for her father, Ehrlich's richly woven tale is an homage to Ellis's search for herself. Her quest for answers leads her to an array of intriguing characters—both friends and foes—who play crucial roles in her future...Ellis's story transforms into an exhilarating, high-risk crusade.
