My Evangeline

A YA novel that helps young women find their voice and set their own destiny, when family expectations feels oppressive. Small town Acadian girl, Eve Leblanc, 18, is faced with choosing between living out her late-mother's unfinished dreams at her father's insistence or follow her own charted path as an artist headed to America, that by chance includes her summer boyfriend, the American Max headed to Brown University. The magnitude of her decision weighs heavily as she sees her path charted without choice if she folds.

When she gives in to her father's pressure and moves to Montreal to dutifully fulfill what he sees as the path for her, she not only finds herself embroiled in political protests and losing Max, but begins to unravel a family secret her parents was desperate to hide.

My Evangeline, set in retro 1995, tells the story of a willful heroine, who with all her irreverent and rebellious undertones, is stopped in her tracks by duty. With a nod to Longfellow's epic Evangeline who was faced with the same choice, we meet a contemporary heroine who begins her journey naïve and dutiful. And like the fabled heroine of old, she finds her inner strength once she realizes the casualty of her choices. Elements of magic realism permeate the story as she unravels the secret. She meets an owl, a panther and a raven that challenge her ability to reason as she sets out in search of her true spirit.