The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist

Aspiring young naturalist Celeste Rossan has a plan. Come the spring of 1867 she'll travel to the Exposition Universelle in Paris and find a mentor, then spend the rest of her life discovering the unknown and breaking barriers in the male-dominated scientific community. But when her shipping-merchant father loses everything in a terrible storm, Celeste's hopes of ever leaving the suffocating society of La Baie Dorée are dashed. Or are they? Faced with a life of servitude, Celeste makes the only decision that makes any sense to her: to stage her death and run away to Paris disguised as a boy. But the elements overwhelm her before she can make it five miles from home. In desperation, Celeste seeks refuge in an abandoned chateau, only to find that she's trapped herself inside the den of an unknown species - a deadly predator with an intelligence that rivals any human Celeste has ever met. It's a discovery sure to win her a mentor and a reputation to match Charles Darwin's... if she can earn the beast's trust and unravel the mysteries of her origin. But the more Celeste learns about the beast and her chateau, the less she understands. Could there be more to the world than even science can explain? The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is a queer historical fantasy sure to ignite your imagination and steal your heart.