Appalachian Alchemy

"Marshall Merrick, called Book, is just another poor kid living on the unforgiving shores of the Kentucky River, born to a legacy of violence and raised to sacrifice his ambitions on the altar of his Appalachian pride. But his lust for knowledge and a dangerous love fuel his hope for something more, a life far from the river and its poison. It's this hope, slim as a shadow and unrelenting as the summer sun, that leads him into waters more treacherous than he has ever braved, and a choice that threatens to drown everything he loves."