Winterkill (Winterkill, #1)

A young woman escapes her settlement community to seek her destiny on an unforgiving and mysterious frontier in this suspenseful YA series debut.Emmeline knows she's not supposed to explore the woods outside her settlement. The enemy that wiped out half her people lurks there, attacking at night and keeping them isolated in an unfamiliar land with merciless winters. Living with the shame of her grandmother's insubordination, Emmeline has learned to keep her head down and her quick tongue silent.When the settlement leader asks for her hand in marriage, it's an opportunity for Emmeline to wash the family slate clean—even if she has eyes for another. But before she's forced into an impossible decision, her dreams urge her into the woods, where she uncovers a path she can't help but follow. The trail leads to a secret that someone in the village will kill to protect. Her grandmother followed the same path and paid the price. If Emmeline isn't careful, she will be next. Where Emmeline lives, you cannot love and you cannot leave... The Council's rules are strict, but they're for the good of the settlement in which Emmeline lives. Everyone knows there is nothing but danger the other side of the Wall, and the community must prepare for the freezing winterkill that comes every year. But Emmeline struggles to be obedient under the Council's suffocating embrace - especially when she discovers that a Council leader intends to snatch her hand in marriage. Then Emmeline begins to hear the call of the trees beyond the Wall... When the revered leader of her settlement, a dark, isolated land with merciless winters and puritanical rulers, asks Emmeline for her hand it is a rare opportunity, but not only does she love another man, she cannot ignore dreams that urge her into the dangerous and forbidden woods that took her grandmother's life and her family's reputation