She dreams of living a much larger life - seeing the world and returning to her wartime job at a landing boat factory in New Orleans.

Then, one fine day it jumps the track and crashes.”In the fall of 1957, Olivia McAlister is living in Opelika, Mississippi, caring for her two girls, June and Grace, and her husband, Holly. But will they ever escape the curse? “With an unusual plot full of unexpected twists and a graceful writing style, Parker’s latest is not only a spellbinding read but also an eye-opening look at the role of the aristocracy and women in Scotland at the turn of the nineteenth-to-twentieth century.” -Booklist Show bookįollowing the death of their mother from a botched backwoods abortion, the McAlister daughters have to cope with the ripple effect of this tragedy as they come of age in 1950s Mississippi and then grow up to face their own impossible choices - an unforgettable, beautiful novel that is threaded throughout with the stories of mothers and daughters in pre-Roe versus Wade America.Life heads down back alleys, takes sharp left turns.

As the years go on, the surviving Fairbairns attempt to show bravery in adversity. Soon it seems the whole family is doomed, with tragedy and heartbreak around every corner. But on the day that his daughter Laura’s engagement is announced, Lord Rothbury receives an unsettling visit from a mysterious man who harbors a grudge-and a curse-for the Rothbury family. The current head of the family, the Earl of Rothbury, along with his wife, two sons, and nine daughters, all seem destined for a happy future. The aristocratic Fairbairn family have occupied Lochlee Castle in Argyllshire for the past five centuries. A nineteenth-century family of Scottish aristocrats falls victim to a mysterious curse in this historical saga by the author of Riches-“A spellbinding read” (Booklist).

Forty-Ninth by Boris Pronsky