Beyond the Mangroves

Book excerpt: Elena Maria Covingtons story begins when she is taken to Miami in 1992 as Hurricane Andrew approaches. She informs her caretaker, I am an heiress. With these words and through journals, she introduces the endearing and dangerous characters who shared her life and her world. In 1906, Elena is born into a wealthy, but dysfunctional, Philadelphia family. After years of her mothers mental abuse, her distant father takes an interest in his child. Through him, she meets and marries Cal, his handsome business associate. Elena knows nothing of Cals very active, secret life, which he funds by dipping into the company inventory. As her fathers health fails, Cal anticipates the exposure of his double life. To conceal his unraveling schemes and steal Elenas fortune, he fakes his young wifes deathwhile actually abandoning her on an isolated island deep within the Florida Everglades. At first, Elena fears Cals return as well as her wild surroundings. Eventually, she gains strength and resolve through memories of family tenacity and courage. When Sam discovers her island years later, she finally has a choiceleave the Everglades, or stay where she is. Beyond the Mangroves tells a tale of trust and betrayal, of love lost and found. It is a story of survival, faith, and understanding in the face overwhelming treachery and deceit within the most unlikely of placesan island hidden deep within the watery expanse of the Everglades.