Home-brewed medicines, a mysterious family of women making them, and a threat to the local funding of the Abolition movement: 15-year-old Almyra Alexander struggles with all of these, as well as adapting to the rough, unpolished life in a northern Vermont village. She’s determined to become a minister, like her politically involved but very absent father. Moving in with her aunt and uncle in Vermont seems the quickest way toward the higher education she craves, and a pulpit of her own.

"This ambitious addition to the Winds of Freedom series brings the 1850s to vivid life through captivating details and a compelling story. The Bitter and the Sweet looks unflinchingly at serious topics, including class differences, women’s health and rights, and efforts to abolish—and extend—slavery in our nation. The crisp writing and fully developed characters will enthrall young and older listeners alike."—Charles Fergus, author of A Stranger Here Below and Lay This Body Down.

"When most listeners think of the American frontier, they imagine the western United States. But in the early nineteenth century, there was another, equally colorful frontier between Vermont and Canada that attracted a colorful cast of lawbreakers: horse thieves, smugglers, and above all, counterfeiters. Beth Kanell's entertaining novel brings to life a world that flourished nearly two centuries ago."—Stephen A. Mihm, author of A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, and Professor, University of Georgia