To be released, 2026, by Perpetua Press.
Exciting News! A new YA novel from the author of Escape from the Wildfire will be released either June or September, 2026. It is currently undergoing editing and cover development.
Here is the draft back cover content.
A war took her father. A new country took her mother.
When fifteen‑year‑old Juliet is forced to flee Ukraine after her father is killed in the war, she carries little with her—her father’s leather jacket, her faith, and a promise to keep singing. What begins as an escape to freedom quickly becomes a journey of loss, abandonment, and survival.
It was Juliet’s father’s dream to move his family to safety and freedom, and for Juliet to pursue her dream to be a singer. To honour him, Juliet and her mother make their way to Canada and get separated from the aunt Juliet loves. Then in Canada, her mother abandons her. Amid heartbreak, Juliet is bounced to numerous foster homes and faces painful situations with boys and friends while she longs for family, a permanent home, and grapples with the meaning of freedom. Through it all, singing keeps her grounded and ultimately helps her find her way home.
The Good Girls’ Guide to Love and War is a powerful coming‑of‑age novel about displacement, resilience, and the fierce hope it takes to claim your voice when everything else has been taken. It is a story of growing up in the shadow of war—and learning that survival itself can be an act of courage.
YA FICTION
The first draft of this novel was written over a year, during 2023. In 2024, an agent agreed to represent the book, but first, it underwent ten– TEN — rounds of edits to develop it from a high-low novel of about 35,000 words to a full-blown YA novel of about 75,000 words. In 2025, it was ready for submission and went out to several publishers. While the manuscript garnered several rejections, some big publishers have never rejected the novel– they sat on it for over a year. After that time, Dorothy pulled the novel from the agent and decided to self-publish it. In a last-ditched effort to find a publisher, she sent it to Perpetua Press where the publisher read it, loved it, and decided to publish it.
Elements of the book may be described as ‘auto-fiction.’ This means it is partly autobiographical. Back matter in the book will describe which parts are true and based on Dorothy’s own experiences versus which parts have been changed, embellished, or imagined.
Stay tuned for updates.
