All I Ve Never Wanted

The Scions are the four richest, most powerful guys at Valesca Academy, and they rule the school with iron fists. Everyone wants to date them or be them...everyone, that is, except Maya Lindberg, who just wants to avoid them until she can graduate. She almost succeeds, until an ill-advised outburst puts her right in the Scions' path. Just like that, one becomes her fake boyfriend, one her unwanted matchmaker, one her guardian angel, and the one she can’t stand the most? Yeah, he's her new housemate. Is she happy about it? Hell no. All I’ve Never Wanted is a romantic comedy about what happens when a girl gets everything she never asked for, including a puppy, a new wardrobe, and, possibly, even true love.

This wasn't supposed to be my life. One phone call was all it took to bring me back to the small town I had grown up in. Everything had changed, and staying away was no longer an option. Four and a half years later, I was a widowed single father still here, still trying to pick up the pieces. We were doing just fine on our own, my little girl and me.At least, we were until Camryn Parker stumbled into our lives. The woman was like a tornado after a hurricane; she was the storm I never saw approaching. Behind her beauty and sarcastic wit, she was just as broken as I pretended not to be. As hard as I tried to resist, it was impossible not to fall in love with her.In the end, it took nearly losing it all for me to realize everything I never wanted was exactly what I needed.

Read along with Florence Welch this February and March as part of the Between Two Books book club 'Wry, beautiful, surprising and deeply moving' Rachel Seiffert, Guardian 'Captures so excellently the low level anxiety that hums through everyday life' Daily Telegraph ____________________________________________ You wake up. You go to work. You have strategy meetings about how to use hashtags. After work you get so blackout drunk you can't remember the circumstances which have led you to waking up next to your colleague. The next day you stay in bed, scrolling through your social media feeds and wondering why everyone else seems to be achieving so much. Then you hear about Life on Nyx, a programme that offers the chance to move to another planet and start a new, meaningful way of life. But there's a caveat: if you go, you can never come back. ____________________________________________ 'An acute satire of our social media-dominated times and a haunting examination of depression and anxiety rendered in diamond sharp prose' i 'Sauma has the horrors of the workplace nailed with satirical precision' Sunday Times Culture 'Weird, wonderful and beautifully written' Daily Mail 'For fans of Black Mirror' Elle 'Millennial angst meets sci-fi' Stylist 'Uplifting, unputdownable and mordantly funny' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

The true story of a family's generational battle with alcoholism and drug addiction, "Everything I Never Wanted to Be" is ultimately an uplifting story that contains valuable lessons for parents and teens, alike.

Winner of the Adelaide Festival Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, 2012. Over the nine days before her seventeenth birthday, Mim's life turns upside down. In the end, the same things look entirely different. Rule number one: I will not turn out like my mother. Mim knows what she wants, and where she wants to go. Anywhere but home-in a dead suburb and with a mother who won't get off the couch. Her two older brothers are in prison, so now Mim has to retrieve a lost package for her mother. Does this make her a drug runner? She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them. And she can't seem to find answers to all the new questions: Why is the monster dog Gargoyle hidden in the back shed? Why is the boy she sent Valentines to for years now suddenly a creep? And who is the mysterious girl next door who moans at night? Vikki Wakefield's first young adult novel, All I Ever Wanted, won the 2012 Adelaide Festival Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, as did her second novel, Friday Brown, in 2014. Friday Brown was also an Honour Book, Children's Book Council of Australia, 2013. Among other awards, it was shortlisted for the prestigious Prime Minister's Awards, 2013. Her new novel, Inbetween Days, will be published in October 2015. Vikki lives in the Adelaide foothills with her family. 'One of the most memorable YA books I've ever read. Original, real, startling and beautiful.' Cath Crowley, author of Graffiti Moon 'One of the best debut novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Vikki Wakefield has gifted the Australian Publishing world, and readers of Young Adult Fiction, a superior tale, full to brimming with formidable characters and an exquisite protagonist.' The Book Gryffin 'While it's both a thriller and a gritty romance, for me All I Ever Wanted is first and foremost a sparkling journey into hope. As the story drives toward its surprising conclusion, we're left as stunned as Mim as she discovers "that there are so many ways to tell a person you love them." I loved this book.' Paul Griffin '[An] absorbing young adult novel...Despite the grim setting, the characters are richly and lovingly drawn with smart-mouthed, determined Mim a particular delight. At the core of the book is the idea that things (and people) are not what they seem. It's nothing new as a concept, but it's executed with winningly original style, wit and heart. Think Underbelly meets Hating Alison Ashley.' Big Issue 'Vikki Wakefield's first novel walks the tightrope between fate and human agency. Despair is leavened by shards of hope; this is not Young Adult literature that peddles misery or wallows in a nihilistic fug. Mim is one of those resilient protagonists who still wields a degree of control over her life....Like her protagonist, Wakefield plays with the reader's prejudices. Little by little, the restrictive labels forced on various characters are seen to be products of convenience or carelessness, rather than truth...All I Ever Wanted is a thoughtful and impressive debut, and Wakefield a talent to watch.' Australian Book Review 'A beautifully-written account of one young girl trying to claw her way out of the circumstances into which she was born...It's a story about daring to dream and the transformative power of hope.' Sunday Tasmanian

Publicly humiliated, Marisa Banks is blindsided by the news that the man she's been dating for months is married. Being called names she wouldn't wish on anyone in front of a room full of people by her boyfriend's wife is enough to shake her identity to its foundations. In an attempt to rebuild, she makes a few questionable decisions. Asher Blaine is one of them. He's intelligent and sexy, but the pedestal he's got himself up on is unshakeable. Or so he thinks. Marisa asks for the one thing he can't deny her, even if it's the craziest thing he's ever done. She wants one night, his best eight hours. And damn if he doesn't deliver. The next morning, her bubble is shattered by his loud mouth, and Marisa retaliates with a stiletto and a remote. The best night of her life is over, and she's more than happy to walk away a free woman. Asher's job sends him to Marisa’s city, and when they cross paths again, it’s Asher's turn to make an offer. And just like him, she can't refuse. Will her worst nightmare and his complicated past ruin what they're building, or can they lean on one another to make it through?

"A marriage is always two intersecting stories." This realization comes perhaps too late to the husband of Etna Bliss-a man whose obsession with his young wife begins at the moment of their first meeting, as he helps Etna and her companions escape from a fire in a hotel restaurant, and culminates in a marriage doomed by secrets and betrayal. Written with the intelligence and grace that are the hallmarks of Anita Shreve's bestselling novels, this gripping tale of desire, jealousy, and loss is peopled by unforgettable characters as real as the emotions that bring them together.

“Sara Shepard delivers the perfect read….A brilliant storyteller.” —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Very Valentine and Brava, Valentine “[Written] with unflinching honesty and unstinting compassion.” —Jacquelyn Mitchard, author The Deep End of the Ocean “This riveting, provocative and well-crafted family drama surprised and delivered at every turn. I could not put it down.” —Sarah Mlynowski, author of Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) Sara Shepard, the bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars, delivers a powerful novel of family dreams, lies, and delusions. Everything We Ever Wanted begins with a phone call with allegations that rock an upper crust Philadelphia family to its very foundations, unlocking years of secrets and scandals that expose the serious flaws in outwardly perfect lives. A moving, intelligent, and unforgettable novel, Shepard’s Everything We Ever Wanted is exceptional contemporary women’s fiction that will be embraced by book clubs everywhere.