The Semi-Detached Women - Alex Quaid

For a young woman in 1960s England, falling in love can be a crime-and could cost her everything . . .

In 1963 Manchester, England, a pregnancy is enough to get eighteen-year-old Janine thrown out by her mother-regardless of whether the baby's father is Janine's much-older married boss, who's taken advantage of her. Having spent her lonely childhood immersed in romantic books, Janine gets practical and rents out one half of a stone cottage to wait for childbirth.

She isn't alone long though. Laura, a newly divorced with an eight-year-old boy and a difficult past of her own, moves into the other half of the house. The two women become friends, and their relationship grows. But after Janine's daughter is born, a social worker starts hovering, strongly suggesting that Janine allow the Catholic unwed mothers' home to put her child up for adoption.

To hold on to the happiness she's found, Janine will have to stay strong against malicious forces-and accept help from some unexpected friends-in this richly emotional novel about finding out who you can truly depend on and who you really are.

First place winner, I AM Writing Romance Competition