The Chamomile, a Revolutionary War historical romantic suspense

THE CHAMOMILE CHOSEN BY THE SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS ALLIANCE AS A FALL 2011 OKRA PICK -- ONE OF TOP 12 NOVELS OF THE SEASON

Author Susan F. Craft, takes her readers on a thrilling journey from Charleston, SC, through the South Carolina backcountry, to the North Carolina mountains in her latest Revolutionary War romantic suspense, THE CHAMOMILE (Ingalls Publishing Group, released November 2011; $15.95; ISBN 978-1-932158-94-6.

Lilyan Cameron joins Patriot spies in British-occupied Charlestown, SC, to rescue her brother from a notorious prison ship. She’ll lie, steal, kill or be killed she promises Nicholas Xanthakos, a scout with Francis Marion’s partisans, who leads the mission. In Nicholas’ arms she discovers enduring love…a home. But that home is a long time coming. Her journey requires she save the life of one British officer and kill another to protect her Cherokee friend, Elizabeth. In escaping bounty hunters, she treks 200 miles of wilderness and very nearly loses everything before finally reuniting with her true love.

Delicious and difficult to put down...Craft’s style respects the eighteenth-century speech flavors and rhythms without confusing her readers with relentless “period” jargon.

... characters are memorable, and her story brims with romance, danger and hairsbreadth escapes.

—schuyler kaufman, Carolina Mountain Life

“Craft takes her charming heroine through a richly detailed journey to courage, love, and strength.  Filled with intriguing characters and all the drama of war, this is one of those books that help us remember history is anything but dull,” says Allie Pleiter, best-selling author of Masked by Moonlight and Mission of Hope, Harlequin Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historicals

“Ranging from Charlestown to the Cherokee Country, the story involves the many characters that made up the South Carolina mosaic in 1780. From African-American slaves, English soldiers, Catawba, as well as Loyalists, and Patriot militia that populated the state in 1780-1781, Susan Craft has created a great story and adventure,” says Marion Chandler, retired Archivist with the SC Department of Archives and History and author of 1973 South Carolina Archives.

“In this age of equestrian literary amnesia, Susan Craft led an international team of authors, researchers, scientists, cavalrymen and Long Riders who created the Equestrian Writer's Guide. Armed with this treasure trove of vital mounted wisdom, Craft has now penned THE CHAMOMILE. Though it is a fictional novel, set during the American Revolutionary War, Craft's tale of intrepid equestrian travelers rings true, thanks to the horse history and lore she helped preserve for future generations,” says CuChullaine O’Reilly, who is the founder of the Long Riders’ Guild, the world’s international association of equestrian explorers, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers’ Club, and author of Khyber Knights.

Craft, who has lived in Columbia, SC, since she was five, has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from USC.  Her 40-year career includes working for SC Educational Television, the SC Department of Mental Health, the SC College of Pharmacy, and currently for the SC Senate. This is the fourth book she has authored. The first two were S.C. State Library award-winning professional works in the field of mental health, and the third, published in 2006, was A Perfect Tempest, a historical fiction set in Columbia during the Civil War.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the American Christian Fiction Writers, The Historical Novel Society, the S.C. Writers Workshop, the SC Historical Society, the Robert Burns Society, the Colonial American Christian Writers, and the Inkplots, a writers’ critique group. Her short stories have been published in four of the group’s collections.