One wet and stormy Irish summer, the three Miller sisters gather at their grand but shabby old family home, Tobar Lodge. Gina, middle sister and mum to a troubled teenage girl, is doing her best to keep the old country house afloat by playing host to summer visitors who rent converted cottages on the land. Eldest, Lottie, is home to lick her wounds after her latest romantic adventure has ended in disaster once again. Rachel, the youngest, has led a more charmed life but this time is coming home accompanied by a family struggling after the collapse of her husband's business. As family and strangers meet and collide, and a long hidden secret is exposed, they begin to discover that love and life is all about losing, yearning for and ultimately finding a place called home. By the time the holiday season draws to a close, all will realise that complications of past lives simmer just beneath the surface, a rich layer of secrets concealed from the eyes of others but keenly felt in the hearts of those to whom they belong.
Liz McConaghy, from a small town in County Down, spent a total of seventeen years flying with the RAF’s Chinook Fleet. Aged just 21, she was the youngest aircrew member to deploy to Iraq and was also the only female ‘crewman’ on the Chinook wing for four years. In her astounding career Liz McConaghy completed two deployments to Iraq followed by ten deployments to Helmand province in Afghanistan in support of the enduring Operation Herrick campaign. Liz’s inspiringly honest story reveals the highs and lows that she witnessed at war, and the cost that came with that both, physically and mentally for those involved. During her deployments, she survived not only a near fatal wire strike onboard her CH47, but numerous enemy fire ‘contacts’ defending her crew by returning fire from both the M134 ‘Minigun’ and M60 weapons entrusted to her to operate. Her biggest honor of all her duties, however, was serving on the Medical Emergency Response Team, or MERT, flying ambulance as it was more commonly known. This involved recovering wounded soldiers from the battlefield, often under fire, and witnessing them both die and indeed come back to life at her feet in the cabin of her Chinook. Liz saw Camp Bastion grow from a barbed wire fence surrounding an area of tents in the sand to the huge Operating Base it became. She was also on the last 1310 Flight deployment there as the British forces withdrew 10 years later handing it back to the Afghan National Army. Very few Chinook crew members, if any, spanned the length of time deployed as Liz McConaghy did. This is a genuinely unique tale that only Liz could tell, which ends with her battling the memories that haunted her, long after she had left the battlefield. Her own war within took her to the point of suicide once she had left the service. Her survival from both the battles in foreign lands and in her own head led her to begin telling her story, in the hope she can help others win their wars.
Two very different women, from two very different backgrounds, leave Ireland for France to make their dreams come true. Shona Fitzpatrick is bright and beautiful. Yet everything she touches seems to turn to dust. Her job is under threat and her boyfriend rejects her hopes for their life together. A future that once looked rosy now looks rocky. Aileen Hegarty has, according to her decent but dull husband Joe, been watching too much television. That must be why she wants to uproot their family for a new life in an unknown country. But Aileen sees far more than fun and sun on her horizons: she sees a chance to heal her family of the wound that has been throbbing under its skin for sixteen years. Shona and Aileen both need new lives. But can they help each other to get them? 'Liz Ryan understands not only a woman's heart but a woman's mind' Terry Keane Sunday Times
What would it take to destroy your closest friendship? Alison and Ciara meet at college in Dublin and soon become firm allies, sharing a flat and facing the world together. Ciara is all that Alison aspires to be - sassy, confident and fearless. Although their backgrounds could not be more different, they find solace and humour in each other's company. That is until gorgeous Dan Abernethy, a young medical student, enters their lives, and everything changes irrevocably. Love turns Alison's world upside down and a terrible betrayal threatens everything she holds dear. It is only when tragedy strikes many years later that Alison and Ciara are offered a chance at redemption.
Shivaun Reilly has had enough. Still reeling from the loss of the only family she ever knew, passionately opposed to the injustices of heartless, Celltic-tiger Ireland, she thinks her heart will break when solid, dependable Ivor - the man she always thought she'd marry - decides to give up his safe career to take new risks in Spain. Then the hospital to which she's given all the devotion a dedicated nurse can bring is abruptly shut, and her ever-helpful lodger Alana finds the perfect solution: a job in America, away from all the politics and disappointments. Shivaun can't wait to go - and in a pretty New England town, she finds a whole new world of optimism and friendship. But neither happiness nor unhappiness is that easy to leave behind. 'Liz Ryan understands not only a woman's heart but a woman's mind' Terry Keane Sunday Times
Lauren Kilroy and Saiv Lovett have been best friends since one was a college dropout while the other headed the class. A decade later, Lauren is a high-flying advertising executive while Saiv is a shy philosophy professor, and still, each is the first person the other turns to for help. And now, Lauren needs her friend. Her hectic life includes parties every night, an apartment in trendy Temple Bar - and being the mistress of a high-profile judge who has given her what could be a fatal disease. Faced with the illness but refusing to confront it, Lauren contacts Saiv and talks her into into flying off to Italy, where a new world opens up for them both. While Lauren begins to re-think her busy, superficial, money-mad life and make the most of every moment, Saiv finds her own life changing along with Lauren's. 'Liz Ryan understands not only a woman's heart but a woman's mind' Terry Keane Sunday Times
When Aran Campion leaves her sleepy Irish fishing village for faraway London, she wants both to escape and to grow. Soon her job, her music, her Saturday market stall make her life too full for the love and marriage that once seemed to be her destiny. Until she meets a struggling musician called Ben. Despite differences of race, religion, class and education, Ben and Aran seem destined for dizzying success. Until Aran has to deal, alone, with the child who could spoil all her dreams. 'Liz Ryan understands not only a woman's heart but a woman's mind' Terry Keane Sunday Times
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