Inspired by her own family’s roots in the Wild Horse Desert, the story follows a fearless young woman, Sarita, determined to seek justice for her brother’s murder when no one else will — not even the Texas Rangers. As Sarita sets off alone across the Rio Grande to confront his killer, she faces everything from tequila smugglers to snakes to revolutionaries. With Sarita, Natalie brings a powerful, female-led voice to a setting and era often romanticized but rarely shown from the perspectiv... [Read More...]

It’s 1957, and tobacco is king. Wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge enjoys the lavish lifestyle he inherited but doesn’t like getting his hands dirty; he leaves that to the two sharecroppers – one white, one Black – who farm his tobacco but have bigger dreams for their own children. While Gordon takes no interest in the lives of his tenant farmers, a brutal attack between his son and the sharecropper children sets off a chain of events that leaves no one unscathed. Over the span of a deca... [Read More...]