Once her childhood friend. Now the most wanted man in the colony.

Hunter Valley, Australia, 1876.

As a maid at Belletrees estate, Ruth Scanlon knows her place. She has a respectable position, a measure of security and a friendship with the Edgeworth family’s only daughter, Clara, that makes her life more bearable, even as she recognises they can never be equals.

Then James Flynn rides back into her life.

Now a notorious bushranger known as Captain Moonshadow, he is hunted by the authorities yet hailed throughout the colony as a champion of the poor. His daring exploits and rakish charm have made him irresistible to women. As Ruth is drawn into his world, she struggles to accept that the boy she once knew should hang for his crimes.

Flynn’s return forces Ruth to question everything she has been taught to believe and awakens a longing she never expected to feel. But it also threatens her bond with Clara, whose own infatuation with the bushranger fuels Ruth’s smouldering resentment.

When their connection is discovered, Ruth flees Belletrees, finding sanctuary with an unusual man who forces her to confront her deeply held fears and prejudices.

But her respite with him is fleeting.

With her pursuers closing in and those dearest to her in grave danger, can Ruth find the courage to defy convention and trust her own conscience and heart?

Moonshadow is a story about love, loyalty, self-determination and the enduring friendship between two women from opposite ends of colonial society.