Penitence

Penitence is the story of a tragic young woman and mother called Emma. It is written bu Jude Williams.

Her past holds a deep secret that she is finding it hard to cope with.

Emma's daughter was conceived at a party where Emma was drunk. The man who impregnated her had no idea that he was a father to Sophie, Emma's daughter.

Eventually, Emma meets up with a man called Gabriel when she was enjoying herself at a nightclub.

They seem to click and Emma very quickly falls in love with Gabriel. And as a result she and Sophie soon move into Gabriel's home and live with him.

However, the relationship begins to falter and then the horrible, unthinkable happens and Sophie dies unexpectedly.

After a time Emma becomes enamoured with a supermarket manager, a divorcee called Ian. She is in love with him, to an extent, but Ian has really fallen for Emma in a big way. Perhaps more than her?

Emma wants to take up a place as a mature student at Bristol University. So Ian moves to Bristol with her. Previously Emma had had to give up her university place when she had fallen pregnant with Sophie.

In Bristol Ian uncovers Emma's secret. But there's something about her secret that might involve him.

It's a moving exploration of the secrets that can lie beneath the surface of the lives of apparently ordinary people.
It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99.