by Louisa Warren

RRP $24.95

"I was born right on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, and I often had cause to wonder if the bleak darkness of that day had seeped into my soul."

Jessica Ann MacKenzie was the second of three girls born into a close, loving and staunchly Christian family. Her parents had the normal hopes, expectations and aspirations for their daughters. But in her case, Jessica's parents were bound, right from the beginning, to be disillusioned.

Jessica's journey of self discovery was never going to be easy; there is a constant conflict between the expectations imposed by her upbringing and the need to be true to herself. And in the back of her mind, the dreaded L-word.

"I have to learn to accept myself as I am," Jessica tells herself, but the way to that acceptance is blocked by social conventions that she has not the strength to overcome alone.

About the Author:

Like Jessica, the author Louisa Warren grew up in Wellington and attended Victoria University , completing a Bachelor and Master of Arts in English Literature, and a secondary teaching diploma. There the similarity ends; Louisa taught for twenty years in New Zealand state and private secondary schools, taking twelve years away from teaching to raise a family. She began writing stories for emergent readers and novels for young teens while still teaching, but has found a new vocation, and a second career writing adult fiction.

Paperback | 148 x  210mm |  184 pages | ISBN 978-0-9582806-8-6 | August 2008 | Adult fiction; women's fiction  |  RRP $24.95