YA literature has been exploding in recent years, but in all its eccentric fecundity, it’s never seen this before: post-apocalyptic all-girl cattle drive.

In 2058, the Juniper—that part of North America that used to be Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado—is a rough place to be. The nuking we received in the Sino-American War (the “Yellowstone Knockout”) left the Juniper without electricity, the Sterility Epidemic left all of North America with few children and almost no males, and the New Morality movement threatens to leave everybody without joy.

Cavatica Weller is a fighter who believes in love. She fights for the love of her friend Anju when Anju’s boyfriend Billy turns out to be fertile, and therefore a precious commodity targeted for purchase and sale by the wealthy. And she fights for her family when her mother dies, joining her sisters Wren and Sharlotte—domineering, trigger-happy, and maybe insane—to carry out their dead mother’s plan: to drive their cattle herd to market off the regular trails, west, across the Juniper, to Nevada.

Dandelion Iron is one part Lonesome Dove, one part Little House on the Prairie, and one part Mad Max. You’re going to love it.

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