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Shagoon, a Quest for Heritage
Victoria Ventris Shea
September 2025 978-1-7356316-9-1DESCRIPTION:
Revised edition. A quest for heritage. Ana is the first-born of parents in Sitka, Alaska, who think she’s dead. They fight against the Tlingit tradition of killing newborn twins as they try to protect her twin brother.
As a newborn, Ana is secretly purchased by a Spanish friar and raised in a California mission where she longs for a mother. Hoping to find her family, she sails with British Captain Vancouver, along with his crew of Puget, Whidbey and Baker during their regular surveying and mapping tour of the Northwest coast. When they winter in Hawaii, she falls in love and must decide whether to stay or continue to Alaska where she might find her mother.
She is unaware of the danger she would bring her family as a twin, especially when they are facing the expansion of Baranov's Russian America.
REVIEWS
Rarely (very) do I come across a book that makes me feel like I’m a part of a major discovery. –A. J. Wells, Reader for Writer’s Digest
One of the strongest pieces of historical fiction I’ve ever encountered. –Judge, 29th Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
A wonderfully complete, beautiful picture of a society that was uncompromising and tough. A powerful tale told through the eyes of the indigenous people. Highly recommended. –Readers Favorite
An exceptional read. The heartfelt plotline is dramatic and moving, involving struggle, loss, braveness, love, determination, and hope; everything to make the story superb. Definitely recommended. –Schmuel Yaccoby, author of Kumaz
A wonderful discovery . . . I loved the characters. It reminded me how important it is for everyone to try to be a hero in life. –Mrs. Bea Ticked, UK (on Amazon)
EXCERPTS:
She grips the rail in a tight fist, standing exactly where Captain Vancouver had directed her to stand. Amid the harried activity and shouts of officers and crew and the flurry of gulls, she keeps her eyes attached to the shoreline and tells herself to breathe. In her mind, she relives Miguel and the soldier coaxing her onto the ship. She had frozen into stone, and they’d had to load her like a new calf, swinging her in a net over the water!