Smoke That Thunders

Sixteen-year-old Naborhi dreams of sailing the seas, but her future seems already decided. After her rite of passage she is expected to spend her life bound to a house, a husband, and children, and she feels suffocated by the prospect.

Then she begins having strange dreams and finds a mysterious animal that bonds with her at once. She meets Atai, the son of an Oracle from a rival kingdom, and learns from him that the gods are guiding her. Together they set out to find the boy from her dreams, who turns out to be a kidnapped prince. Naborhi realizes that far more than her own freedom is at stake, because a war has already been set in motion and she must stop it.

The Smoke That Thunders is a young adult fantasy and a debut novel, woven through with Urhobo and West African folklore and mythology.