After a health scare, Lou is forced to consider that the time to have a family is running out. The problem is: even though her eggs are viable, she and her partner don't have enough money for the necessary fertility treatment. Meanwhile, up in Yorkshire, Cath, a little older than Lou, is longing to start her own family with her husband, Rich. But she's recovering from cancer, and as a result of chemotherapy is infertile. Lou and Cath, brought together by a fertility clinic, end up egg-sharing - a process where a woman who has good eggs can donate them to another who needs them, in return for free IVF. As both women simultaneously try to conceive, with the same woman's eggs, the novel follows their parallel journeys to create a family - and as the foetuses grow, so does the novel.
"I was nineteen years old, still soft at the edges, but with a confident belief in good fortune. I carried a small rolled-up tent, a violin in a blanket, a change of clothes, a tin of treacle biscuits, and some cheese. I was excited, vain-glorious, knowing I had far to go; but not, as yet, how far." Despite this romantic and optimistic opening, what Lee finds is the most primitive and feudal country in Europe, a peninsula untouched by the modern world, a land of labor without dignity, a church devoid of compassion, and a country ripe for revolutionary change.
When a mysterious man arrives one day on Orange Street, the children who live on the block try to find out who he is and why he’s there. Little do they know that his story—and the story of a very old orange tree—connects to each of their personal worries in ways they never could have imagined. From impressing friends to dealing with an expanding family to understanding a younger sibling’s illness, the characters’ storylines come together around that orange tree. Taking place over the course of a day and a half, Joanne Rocklin’s masterful novel deftly builds a story about family, childhood anxieties, and the importance of connection. In the end the fate of the tree (and the kids who care for it) reminds us of the magic of the everyday and of the rich history all around us. Praise for One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street STARRED REVIEWS “Unfolding in one day’s time, the story recounts how secrets are revealed, curiosity is satisfied and wishing becomes hope because the spirit and ties of friendship and community are resilient and strong. Fully realized characters and setting definitely make this one morning on Orange Street amazing.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Fascinating and thought-provoking, the writing has a gentle cadence, richness in detail, and is charged with emotion. The book, like the oranges on the Orange Street tree, presents segments of life that are both sweet and tart and sure to satisfy." –School Library Journal, starred review “A touching story, beautifully told in multiple viewpoints.” –Booklist “Each chapter focalizes the third-person narration through a particular child, and the book weaves the singular tales into a larger story about a community that is pleasingly quirky but still believable. Readers and parents looking for some wholesome sweetness will want to make a visit to Orange Street.” –The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books AWARD: Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) Young Adult Top Forty list
The moment Abby Fitzgerald sees two soldiers approach her front door, she knows her husband is dead. John Stanton, who gave up his career as a star NFL running back to serve after 9/11, has been killed in Iraq. Suddenly Abby's kitchen is overflowing with casseroles brought by the army wives' club to which she has never really belonged. And her in-laws arrange a lavish funeral at Arlington National Cemetery in spite of Abby's misgivings. John had grown to hate the war even though he loved his country, and Abby can't reconcile the complex man she knew with the version being portrayed by self-serving politicians, military, and the media. Shell-shocked, Abby strives to cope with her own heartache while comforting John's loved ones, including his mother Sharice, his staunchly anti-war sister Madison, and his bitter younger brother Noah. But amidst her loss is a growing conviction that the truth about John's death is far from over. Gripping, thoughtful, and emotionally powerful, One September Morning is a story of loyalty and betrayal, of a shattered family's journey toward healing, and of the courage it takes to confront the truth not just about our enemies, but about those we love best.
Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.
In the internationally bestselling author Sarah Rayner's The Other Half, Chloe, bright, hip and single, is a feature writer with ambitions to launch a magazine of her own. When she meets James, her potential new boss, she knows she shouldn't mix business with pleasure, but finds it impossible to resist... Maggie appears to have it all. She's beautiful, a talented writer, and has a gorgeous husband. But something's not quite right: his job as a magazine publisher is keeping him in the city until late most evenings, and some nights he doesn't come home at all... Told in the alternating voices of the mistress and the wife, this story of an affair is a sharp, seductive take on modern love. Who, if anyone, comes out unscathed? In writing that is lively, sexy and sharp, the international bestselling author Sarah Rayner explores modern-day relationships and age-old moral dilemmas.
'As gripping as any thriller' Daily Mail A grey dawn in 1943: on a street in Rome, two young women, complete strangers to each other, lock eyes for a single moment. One of the women, Chiara Ravello, is about to flee the occupied city for the safety of her grandparents' house in the hills. The other has been herded on to a truck with her husband and their young children, and will shortly be driven off into the darkness. In that endless-seeming moment, before she has time to think about what she is doing, Chiara makes a decision that changes her life for ever. Loudly claiming the woman's son as her own nephew, she demands his immediate return; only as the trucks depart does she begin to realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, single, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead of her, and now a child in her charge - a child with no papers who refuses to speak and gives every indication that he will bolt at the first opportunity. Three decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained, self-possessed woman working as a translator and to all appearances quite content with a life which revolves around work, friends, music and the theatre. But always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, the boy from the truck, whose absence haunts her every moment. Gradually we learn of the havoc wrought on Chiara, her family and her friends by the boy she rescued, and how he eventually broke her heart. And when she receives a phone call from a teenage girl named Maria, claiming to be Daniele's daughter, Chiara knows that it is time for her to face up to the past. This epic novel is an unforgettably powerful, suspenseful, heartbreaking and inspiring tale of love, loss and war's reverberations down the years.
Jake is a New York City fireman and devoted family man. Eric is climbing the corporate ladder at the expense of his wife and children. On a fateful Tuesday in September, two strangers meet for a startling moment in a smoke-filled stairway. Only one will leave the Twin Towers alive. Will he find his way home? The last thing Jake Bryan knew was the roar of the World Trade Center collapsing on top of him and his fellow firefighters. The man in the hospital bed remembers nothing. Not rushing with his teammates up the stairway of the south tower to help trapped victims. Not being blasted from the building. And not the woman sitting by his bedside who says she is his wife. Jamie Bryan will do anything to help her beloved husband regain his memory, and with it their storybook family life with their small daughter, Sierra. But that means helping Jake rediscover the one thing Jamie has never shared with him: his deep faith in God. Jake’s fondest prayer for his wife is about to have an impact beyond anything he could possibly have conceived. One Tuesday Morning is a love story like none you have ever read: tender, moving, commemorating the tragedy and heroism of September 11 and portraying the far-reaching power of God’s faithfulness and a good man’s love. Poignant contemporary Christian romance The first installment of the bestselling 9/11 Series Book 1: One Tuesday Morning Book 2: Beyond Tuesday Morning Book 3: Remember Tuesday Morning Includes discussion questions for book clubs
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M
