Kirjahaku

Jane Piccadilly bought a mistake-house. In a hurry. While her perfectly white shoe sunk into something brown and offensive. There was always a mistake-number-one with something new, wasn't there? And there was always only one mistake, wasn't there?Dear Alice's little girl, plain Jane. The middle of seven sisters. The one who was the least seen, but saw the most. The one who could slip out of a family gathering, and no one would see.The middle, invisible child. The one who saw the bodies. Jane Piccadilly made the mistake-house an un-mistake, and her six sisters moved in-Poppy the librarian, Violet the hairdresser, Daisy the carpenter, Rose the photographer, Zinnia the botanist, and Flora the farmhand. Then came the letters left at the front door. And the strange man with a carpet bag who sat on the bus seat.It all pointed to one thing. The unravelling. Of the mistake house with its secrets. Of plain Jane, and the threads that held her past and her present, her trauma and her guilt and her shame deep inside her, straining and breaking. The truth always has a way of exposing itself. Plain Jane wasn't so plain. Was she?

A dark secret ...Yolande Lawrence-Harrison was hiding a dark secret. She'd returned to her hometown of Tarrin to help her ailing grandmother in Flowers for Fleur, where she had to put her engineering career aside to learn the science of flower art. A note ...As Yolande fussed with the pale pink roses in the basket of her grandmother's 1950s Schwinn Cruiser bicycle, she discovered a note. Yolande fumed at the pitiful manners and pure arrogance of the wording, and after numerous exchanges, she became irritated by the persistent, annoying, pig-headed, obstinate human being who wouldn't take no for an answer.Beware ...But when Alexander Parker walked into Flowers for Fleur, her thoughts scattered. However, she refused to inhale the luring potion he offered. She could see through his projected facade, where his perfection was a practised deceit. She wondered, if she could see through his pretence, could he see through hers? Could he see that she was damaged, hiding a past that ate away at her core, allowing the darkness to engulf what was left of her inner light. Could he see that she was the colour of broken?Run ...Yolande wanted to run. Away from the flowers. Away from Alexander Parker. But she couldn't. Her grandmother's life was fading as she battled the incurable Meniere's disease, and she needed to choose whether to fight her past or not, ultimately exposing her inner demons, in order to save her grandmother and herself from the same fate.

Yolande Lawrence-Harrison was a fake. A fake florist hiding a dark secret about that terrible day of the scars. She had been called from her career as an aeronautical engineer back to her hometown of Tarrin, to help her Gram in Flowers for Fleur. And now she had to learn the science of flower art while her grandmother struggled with the incurable Meniere's disease. As Yolande fussed with the blooms outside the store, trying to stop the flowers from dying from her kiss of death, she discovered a note pushed into the pale pink roses that adorned the basket of her grandmother's 1950s Schwinn Cruiser bicycle--an unsigned note: Dear Flowers for Fleur, How much is the bicycle?I would like to acquire it.Yolande fumed at the pitiful manners and the pure arrogance of it all, and after numerous notes, she became irritated with the persistent, annoying, pig-headed, obstinate human being who wouldn't take no for an answer.But when Alexander Parker finally walked into the store, her thoughts scattered. However, she refused to inhale the luring potion he offered. She could see that he too, wore a mask to hide something. She could see through his perfect facade. She knew that perfection was always achieved by the practised art of hiding something, so it became the unseen.She wondered, if she could see through his pretence, could he see through hers?Could he see that she was damaged, scarred and unlovable, hiding a past that ate away at her core allowing the darkness to engulf what was left of her inner light. Could he see that she was the color of broken?Yolande wished she could run, back to the safety of her other life, away from the flowers. Away from Tarrin. Away from Alexander Parker. But she couldn't. Her grandmother's life was fading, and to save her, Yolande must choose to fight her past, ultimately exposing her inner demons and the need to forgive herself, in order to save herself from the same fate.