by Charlotte Vale Allen

Sarah Breswick and Simon Fitzgerald are different.

Unwanted, unloved, and suffering from a disfiguring birth defect, Sarah has led a quiet, very sheltered life. At the age of thirty-two, she lives alone in a rundown inherited house in the Midlands of England, and during the week tends to the elderly residents of Crossroads with love and kindness, caring deeply for the frail inhabitants of the place -- an unlikely group of surrogate relatives.

Simon has come back to the Midlands after failing to succeed as an actor in London. He is working at the local garage, and trying to convince himself to accept that this is what his future is going to be. No glamour, none of the flash and excitement of London. Just day-in day-out boredom, fixing cars, and the ongoing uncertainty about his sexual identity.

But then Sarah's car won't start. The wonderfully good-looking young man at the garage promises to come by the house to fix the car. Neither of them has ever met anyone remotely like the other.

And so begins the awkward and touching tale of two unlikely people who manage, against the odds, to make a pair.

Publisher's Note: This book was originally published in England and in Canada, as well as throughout Europe, but has never been published in the United States.

Published by Island Nation Press