Wicked Company — Ciji Ware

Scotland, 1761: Red-haired, hotheaded Sophie McGann flees her native Edinburgh by hiding in a traveler's trunk when her bookseller father dies in prison, the victim of a corrupt nobleman's scheming. Near penniless and looking for a fresh start in London, Sophie joins the glorious, bawdy world of the theater and becomes a favorite of David Garrick, the legendary actor-manager of Drury Lane.

Garrick encourages Sophie's skill as a playwright in a time when women writers are considered scandalous, but Sophie also attracts the eyes of dangerous men: a rigid censor who can destroy her career with a stroke of his pen; a charming rogue who wants to maneuver her into marriage; an enigmatic aristocrat with a fierce desire to possess her -- and her talent.

For Sophie, there is only one man. Hunter Robertson is the handsome and beguiling Scotsman who wins applause on the London stage but, like Sophie herself, cannot curb the defiant spirit that enrages powerful and unscrupulous forces. Through all the turmoil surrounding them, Sophie remains true to the writer's fire within her -- and to the day when prison walls and a mighty ocean can no longer keep two lovers apart.