A Fire in Their Hearts: Claiming their freedom was their only crime

'A gripping story' - The Scotsman
'A poignant love story suffused with a deep, moving humanity' - The Herald
'A memorable novel' - The Sunday Times

SCOTLAND, 1662.
Hunted, held prisoner and banished for a belief...

As civil war rages and King Charles II tightens his grip on the Church of Scotland, childhood sweethearts Violet and Samuel are swept into a violent struggle for religious freedom. They pledge their hearts to each other - and to a cause that will test their faith, courage and love beyond measure.

Hunted as rebels, imprisoned behind the walls of the infamous Greyfriars Kirkyard and torn from their homeland, Violet and Samuel are sentenced to a life of indentured servitude on the brutal sugar plantations of Barbados. But when their ship wrecks off the coast of Orkney, they become separated.

Alone and captive in a foreign land, Violet must summon every ounce of strength to survive the horrors she faces - and to cling to the hope that Samuel is still alive. Can love endure across oceans, through wars and captivity?

A Fire in Their Hearts is a powerful, epic tale of love, faith and survival, inspired by the extraordinary true events of the seventeenth-century Killing Times, by the bestselling author of The Last Witch of Scotland, Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2024.

'Heartfelt and devastating . . . Philip Paris's remarkable story-telling brings some of the darkest episodes in Scottish history memorably to light.'
S.G. MacLEAN, bestselling author of The Bookseller of Inverness

'An utterly heart-wrenching novel.'
FIONA VALPY, author of The Sky Beneath Us

'Touching and dramatic . . . A beautifully written page-turner. Highly recommended.'
ELISABETH GIFFORD, author of The Lost Lights of St Kilda