No Looking Back

Twenty-two-year-old Shivani had thrown a party one evening-and awoken the next morning in hospital, her spine and her dreams shattered by a car crash. Paralysed and then wheelchair-bound, it took Shivani years of pain, struggle and determination to regain control of her life and her body; to demand and receive respect from the world; to gain acceptance from within and without; to find love and happiness. Then tragedy struck again. As the newly married Shivani drove to Manali with her family, an oil tanker collided head-on with the car; bedridden once again, she watched helplessly as first her father-in-law and then Vikas, her husband, succumbed to their injuries. And, yet, Shivani refused to surrender-she would not let her inability to walk keep her from achieving her ambitions. No Looking Back is a deeply moving and inspiring narrative about surviving the challenges of disability in a country that takes little account of the daily difficulties and indignities faced by approximately fifteen per cent of the world's population, whether in terms of infrastructure, legislation or awareness-a country that appears to believe that disability equals invisibility from the public discourse. Undeterred by the hand fate had dealt her, Shivani Gupta has chosen to champion the cause of the disabled everywhere and is today one of India's best-known accessibility consultants. Her life is an extraordinary testament to true courage and the indomitability of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.

A fast-paced, totally unputdownable crime thriller that fans of Mandasue Heller and Kimberley Chambers will absolutely love Kat Denton is a woman running away from her past. For the past sixteen years, her life has been a living hell as Jimmy, the man she fell in love with as a teenager, becomes ever more cruel and abusive. Following the fire that killed her parents, leaving her an orphan when she was just a teenager, Kat is utterly alone and can’t see a way out. Until the day she finds out that she’s pregnant. Vowing to protect her child from Jimmy’s violence, Kat decides to fight for survival – for her and her unborn baby. Fleeing the traveller camp that has been her lifelong home isn’t easy. But along with her sister in law, Kat escapes with just the clothes on her back and the one photograph she has of her parents. Kat, along with her baby girl Lucia, starts to build a better life. But when she looks into what really happened in her parents’ death Kat uncovers dark secrets – including a revelation that will lead Kat back to the place she had been so desperate to run away from. Is she strong enough to uncover the truth and save everything that she loves most, or will Jimmy Denton have his revenge?

This is a story set in the 1870s of violence and struggle in the West and of a mother and her daughter who find themselves cast into slavery to settle a debt not of their doing. This is a story of a mother forced to submit to the vilest of tasks in the belief that it will protect her daughter from the same plight and her daughter who will in time learn what her mother is being forced to do and she will soon be forced to do the same. This is a story of a mother and her daughter whose belief in God helped them keep their minds and souls above their truly hell-like world they find themselves in and the heartbreak which awaits them.

Twelve-year-old Parisian boy Louis Whittaker has a lot on his plate - his parents are locked in a custody battle over him and his brother and sister, Mum's always working late and Dad's rarely allowed to visit them. Louis finds release in his dance classes and discovers he has a real talent for ballet. But suddenly, Dad whisks them away on a surprise holiday to England, right in the middle of the school term. Something isn't right - Dad is acting strangely again: could it be he has not fully recovered from his mental breakdown? The rented farmhouse in the Lake District is nice, but why is Dad furnishing it and why won't he let them call home? Then Louis comes across a poster - a missing person's poster. And it has his face on it.

Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all???popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend. Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it's one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took "mean girl" to a whole new level, and it's clear she and Cassie were more like best enemies. Sam is pretty sure that losing her memories is like winning the lottery. She's getting a second chance at being a better daughter, sister, and friend, and she's falling hard for Carson Ortiz, a boy who has always looked out for her???even if the old Sam treated him like trash. But Cassie is still missing, and the facts about what happened to her that night isn't just buried deep inside of Sam's memory???someone else knows, someone who wants to make sure Sam stays quiet. All Sam wants is the truth, and if she can unlock her clouded memories of that fateful night, she can finally move on. But what if not remembering is the only thing keeping Sam alive?

In this propulsive memoir from Achut Deng and Keely Hutton, inspired by a harrowing New York Times article, Don't Look Back tells a powerful story showing both the ugliness and the beauty of humanity, and the power of not giving up. I want life. After a deadly attack in South Sudan left six-year-old Achut Deng without a family, she lived in refugee camps for ten years, until a refugee relocation program gave her the opportunity to move to the United States. When asked why she should be given a chance to leave the camp, Achut simply told the interviewer: I want life. But the chance at starting a new life in a new country came with a different set of challenges. Some of them equally deadly. Taught by the strong women in her life not to look back, Achut kept moving forward, overcoming one obstacle after another, facing each day with hope and faith in her future. Yet, just as Achut began to think of the US as her home, a tie to her old life resurfaced, and for the first time, she had no choice but to remember her past.

People are constantly asking two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry where she gets her ideas. In this fascinating memoir, Lowry answers this question, through recollections of childhood friends and pictures and memories that explore her rich family history. She recounts the pivotal moments that inspired her writing, describing how they magically turned into fiction along the complicated passageway called life. Lowry fans, as well as anyone interested in understanding the process of writing fiction, will benefit from this poignant trip through the past and the present of a remarkable writer.

The courageous tale of a poor Victorian flower girl, who makes an epic journey from London across a vast and wild America . . . As voted by readers as their favourite Lesley Pearse novel, Never Look Back is by the international NO.1 BESTSELLING author. One good deed takes her into another world . . . Sixteen-year-old Matilda is a poor Covent Garden flower girl until the day she saves the life of Tabitha, a minister's daughter. Welcomed into Tabitha's family, Matilda is offered the chance of a lifetime. She leaves behind London's slums and enters the darkest corners of New York. And she travels across the plains to the Wild West, where San Francisco is in the grip of the gold rush. Streetwise and strong-willed, Matilda forges a new life for herself and Tabitha among pioneers like Captain James Russell - a man to whom she is deeply attracted. Yet a civil war will soon rip apart this new nation. Can Matilda and those she loves brave separation and carry on, never looking back? Santa Montefiore and Penny Vincenzi fans will swiftly fall for Lesley Pearse's mesmerising novels - you'll want to read them again and again . . . 'With characters it is impossible not to care about . . . this is storytelling at its very best' Daily Mail 'Heart-warming and evocative . . . a real delight to read' Sun 'Lose yourself in this epic saga' Bella 'Utterly riveting, brilliant' Closer 'An emotional and moving epic you won't forget in a hurry' Woman's Weekly