Search results for ""author ann o'loughlin""

Sisters Ella and Roberta O'Callaghan live in separate wings of their crumbling Irish mansion. They haven't spoken for decades, torn apart by a dark family secret from their past, and only communicate through the terse and bitter notes they leave for each other in the hallway.Debbie, an American woman, is searching for her birth mother. She has little time left but as she sets out to discover who she really is and what happened to her mother, she is met by silence and lies at the local convent.With the bank threatening, Ella tries to save the family home by opening a café in the ballroom much to Roberta's disgust. And when Debbie offers to help out in the café, the war between the sisters intensifies. But as Debbie finally begins to unravel the truth, she uncovers an adoption scandal that will rock both the community and the warring sisters.Powerful and poignant, The Ballroom Café is a moving story of love lost and found.PRAISE FOR THE BALLROOM CAFÉ'Secrets emerge, there's a whopper of a twist and this unabashed tear-jerker ends with a well-earthed, well-calculated emotional finale.'THE IRISH TIMES'A moving tale of loss, love and redemption.'BELLA MAGAZINE'Deftly written, moving and courageous.'THE SUNDAY TIMES'Slow-marching, romantic prose draws us into an old world that is rustic, genteel, quaint...[but] scandals lie in wait.'IRISH INDEPENDENT'Highly engaging debut you will want to dive into.'SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, Ireland'A lovely first novel.'CATHY KELLY, bestselling author.'A warm and engaging story in a unique and original setting. I loved journeying through the lives of these fascinating characters. A beautifully drawn, skilfully written, well-researched novel.'KATE KERRIGAN, New York Times bestselling author of The Ellis Island Trilogy'A lovely story of two women with the courage to confront the injustices of the past, bringing light to a dark corner of Ireland's recent history.'KATHLEEN MACMAHON, bestselling author of This Is How It Ends

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With her whole life ahead of her, beautiful young Grace's world changes forever when she's married off to a much older judge. Soon, feeling lonely and neglected, Grace meets and falls in love with an Indian doctor, Vikram—he's charming, thoughtful, and kind, everything her husband is not. But this is 1950s Ireland, and when she falls pregnant, the potential scandal must be dealt with. As soon as she has given birth, Grace is sent to an asylum by the judge, while Vikram, told that Grace died in childbirth, returns to India heartbroken. Thirty years later, after the judge's death, his estranged daughter Emma returns home to pack up his estate, where she finds Grace's diaries and begins to piece together the life of the mother she never knew. Meanwhile, Vikram is planning a long-awaited return to Ireland with his much-loved niece Rosa—who has grown up hearing all about her uncle's long-lost love—to stand, at last, at the grave of the woman he adores. When the judge's will is finally read, revealing he has sent letters to Vikram and Emma, the deception spanning both decades and continents finally begins to unravel, exposing long-buried family secrets along the way and raising the question of if true love can last a lifetime.

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American Connie Carter has lost everybody and everything dear to her. She moves to Ludlow Hall, Wicklow, Ireland to nurse her grieving heart and find answers. There, she meets Eve and Hetty and is introduced to The Ludlow Ladies Society. Can her hurt be healed? Can she ever understand or forgive? As the women stitch patchwork memory quilts to remember those they have lost, the secrets of the past emerge. With the Ludlow Ladies Society behind her, Connie has to face those secrets and the memories sweet and sour, but can she let go of the past? A story of friendship, resilience and compassion, and of how women hold each other up through the most difficult times, this is a tale which will have you crying one minute and laughing the next.

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