Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for eighteen years. She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair . . . Turns out her mother is a really good liar.
When he finds Lisa, he doesn't waste any time marrying her, but their fairytale romance is not built to last. Lisa's infidelity doesn't go unnoticed, but Frank has his reasons for maintaining his silence - until he uncovers some new information about his Stepford wife that lands him in jail. Only then does their picture-perfect life start to unravel, dragging every last skeleton out of his closet.
What happens when climbing the ladder of success means compromising everything you believe in...including yourself? This debut novel by an actress and pageant title holder gives a window into the hidden rungs of that ladder, and on the pain that comes with slipping and falling.
Frank and Leon are two men from different times, discovering that sometimes all you learn from your parents' mistakes is how to make different ones of your own. Frank is trying to escape his troubled past by running away to his family's beach shack.
David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, and his son's cousin Rosalind and their friends, have their own secret abberation which would label them as mutants.
Francis and Diana, two scientists investigating a lichen, discover it has a remarkable property: it retards the aging process. Francis, realising the implications for the world of a youthful, wealthy elite, wants to keep it secret, but Diana sees an opportunity to overturn the male status quo by using the lichen to inspire a feminist revolution.
With riveting psychological complexity, The Ruins captures the glittering allure of the Mediterranean, and the dark shadows that wait beneath the surface.