It's Now or Never

“Fans of light historical fiction will enjoy this novel” of two unwed mothers in post-WWII Liverpool whose lives converge as secrets come to light (Booklist).

In 1942, two young women, Dorothy Wilson and Lynne Donegan, give birth in a home for unwed mothers. Thirteen years later, Dorothy is a successful actress, offered her first major role in a feature film. But it will mean spending time apart from her policeman boyfriend Sam—when all Sam wants to do is settle down and start a family. Meanwhile, Lynne, having lost her childhood sweetheart in the war, is bringing up her daughter on her own, eking out a meagre living as a dressmaker.

Though their lives have taken widely divergent paths in the intervening years, Dorothy and Lynne’s lives are about to cross paths again—in ways neither could have predicted. For both women are keeping secrets from their loved ones: secrets that are destined to burst into the open, changing the two women’s lives forever.

“Francis effectively captures postwar Liverpool and uses her younger characters to foreshadow the youthquake that will soon sweep England.” —Booklist