Summer was mine once. Leaving her behind to go to war was unforgivable. I survived... barely. Though my body is broken. I never expected to see her at the veteran’s support office. There are a million reasons I don't deserve her. I fell in with a bad crowd when I got back home. Worse than she can imagine. They’re still out to get me. My love is dangerous. And my secrets are deadly.

Freya is torn between her two mothers. Liv, her adoptive mother who nurtured and raised her, is earthy, no-nonsense. The total opposite to Melody: with her vibrant, explosive personality and extensive, brightly coloured wardrobe, Freya's birth mother is still apt to find herself thrown out of Top Shop for bad behaviour. Hard as it has been for Freya to try to reconcile her two families, it has been harder for her mothers. Proud of her mature and sensible adoptive daughter, Liv fears Melody's restless influence. Meanwhile, forced to give up her baby when she was just a teenager herself, Melody now craves Freya's love and acceptance - but only really knows how to have fun. Then tragedy strikes, and the bonds of love that tie these three women together will be tested to the max. Can they finally let go of the past, and pull together in order to withstand the toughest challenge life could throw them?

In her first novel, Serle presents an intensely romantic, modern recounting of the greatest love story ever toldNnarrated by Rosaline, the girl Romeo was "supposedO to love.

Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years. Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends. When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood. Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

In the summer of 1980, Annie, fresh out of graduate school, escapes a doomed engagement by fleeing to the Costa del Sol in Spain. The young traveler is seduced by the striking landscape and the shimmering sea, but not as profoundly as she was by Francisco, a local musician with a complicated past and a troubled soul. Her adventures propel her into adulthood and a life teased with what might have been. Twenty-six years later, Annies teenage daughter Marielle, curious about her mothers stories, searches for Francisco while on a backpacking trip through Spain. When Marielles search is successful, Annies thoughts return to her romantic past amidst the magnificent backdrop of the steamy Mediterranean coast. Franciscos unexpected reappearance ignites powerful feelings she didnt know were still simmering. Annie obsessively questions every decision she made that summer and wonders about a life that could have been hers had she stayed. She is torn between her love and devotion to her husband and the intercontinental pull to the life she has fantasized about for decades. Will she sacrifice the life shes built with her husband for one that nearly was hers so many years ago?

I can't stand Wes Sullivan. There's only one problem: he's my new roommate. Wes is a cocky military man. He might have left the Army, but the Army hasn't left him. I hate everything about him. How he tries to control everything, including me. How his mood is always stormy and serious. And especially how good he looks in just a towel. I can't stand the sight of Wes's gorgeous abs, because it makes me want him... ...and he's all wrong for me. Okay, we have two problems. Scratch that—three problems. The third problem is that he knows my darkest secret now. He understands. And if he leaves now, I won't just lose his half of the rent. I'll lose my heart.

A war orphan's incredible journey of survival.