AustLit

'Lucinda Ellis has never really mastered the knack for dealing with people. Not that she is shy. On the contrary, she has no qualms telling others exactly what she thinks of them. So she usually avoids undue human contact. Until her sister, Jayne, decides to take a sudden trip to America.

'With Jayne's husband, Brian, stranded in a remote Aboriginal community, Lucinda is forced to take charge of Jayne's children David and Madison, their ridiculous dachshund Wilma, plus the malingering presence of teenage emo Wesley Heslop, who's taken up residence on the couch.

'Naturally, Lucinda is determined to do things her way while Jayne and Brian play out their mid-life crises. But as events spiral out of control both at home and her workplace, Lucinda reaches a turning point. She realises that to survive the whirlwind, she's going to have to find the courage to do something that she has always been terrified of... open her heart to new relationships and possibilities.' (From the publisher's website.)

'A Brisbane mother's coffee group is torn apart when newborn baby, Amy, disappears and her mother, Evelyn, broken and distant in a psychiatric hospital can't (or won't) tell anyone what has happened.

'Desperate to find Amy, and also to understand what has happened to Evelyn, the other women attempt to cope with the situation in their own way. But these circumstances have changed their lives irreversibly, and each woman begins to look for something to satiate the cravings that she had never allowed to surface before...

'Joanna is dying for cake. Clare is longing to paint again. Susan want's to claw back all the time she's lost. Wendy is trying to forget the past. And Evelyn? Well, nobody knows what Evelyn wants. But how can she not want her baby back?' (Synopsis)