"Where do you run when your former best friend tips their lunch straight into your lap?" When Alice Chang starts out at her new school, everything isn't quite as rosy as she'd dreamed. First, she falls out with previous best friend, Gigi, and then she finds that the only after-school club still available is GAS (Girls Achieving at STEM) which Alice considers extremely uncool. However, with the help of an inspirational teacher and two new best friends, Alice discovers that being cool isn't always what it looks like in teen magazines and that being yourself and being smart can be the coolest thing of all.

On the day that her youngest child leaves home, Alice Hatton discovers two disturbing truths in a matter of hours. The Empty Nest cliche is true. And she does not love her husband Peter at all. Now in her fifties, Alice is appalled to realise that she is no longer considered her own person, but is instead defined by her relationships – mother to her adult children, wife to her husband. Horrified by the thought of spending another thirty years with Peter in their North London suburb, Alice decides to take matters into her own hands. What follows is a triumphant and liberating breaking of all the rules. But when Alice must cope with loss for the second time in as many years, she discovers what even the most apparently ‘respectable ‘woman is capable of. Join Amanda Brookfield as she revisits her first novel, Alice Alone, and rediscover how she got her well-deserved reputation for writing about women’s lives with humour and honesty. Includes a brand new foreword from the author. Praise for Amanda Brookfield: 'An engaging, emotionally-charged and intriguing story' Michelle Gorman 'No one gets to the heart of human relationships quite so perceptively as Brookfield.' The Mirror 'Unputdownable. Perceptive. Poignant. I loved it.' bestselling author Patricia Scanlan on Before I Knew You 'If Joanna Trollope is the queen of the Aga Saga, then Amanda Brookfield must be a strong contender for princess.' Oxford Times What readers are saying about Amanda Brookfield: ‘I felt so involved in this story that I found myself thinking about it a lot during the day. A fantastic read. Gripping, moving, characters you care about, highly recommend.’ ‘Packed with suspense, (I actually held my breath during some of the scenes) and full of relatable characters, this book will draw you in from the first page. Highly recommend.’ ‘The tension builds on every page, the characters, as always with this author’s books, are drawn beautifully. I couldn’t put it down and am looking forward greatly to Amanda Brookfield’s next offering hopefully before too long!’ ‘Brookfield is undoubtedly one of Britain's foremost chroniclers of human relationships. It goes without saying that this novel is another page turner – guaranteed to make you read the last 50 pages before sleep, even though you know you have an early start in the morning – but it is much, much more.’

Alice's first year in high school gets off to a difficult start when she and her boyfriend Patrick break up, but with the help of her father, older brother, and best friends, she gains a better sense of her own self-worth.

"A few years ago, Alice Steinbach, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist decided to take a break from her life. She took a leave from her job, friends and family to go on a European journey of self-discovery, and her first book, Without Reservations, was the exquisite result of that trip. But once Steinbach had opened the door to a new way of living, she found herself unwilling to return to her old routine. She left her job and went travelling again, only this time her objective was not so much one of self-discovery as it was a reaching out. She wanted to learn, by taking lessons and courses, but also by connecting to and learning from the people she would encounter along the way. Choosing exactly where to go and what to study turned out to be harder than she'd anticipated, but Steinbach found herself repeatedly drawn to the interests and fantasies of her youth. And so her lifelong fascination with writing, animals, gardening, and food led her to study dog training in Scotland, writing in Prague, gardening in Provence, calligraphy and flower arranging in Kyoto, music in Cuba, cooking in Paris and Jane Austen in Exeter. Her weeks and months spent with fellow students of all ages are, as she'd hoped, every bit as educational as her courses. And studying side by side with people preparing for careers in these various fields gives Steinbach a second chance at some roads not taken - a chance to reconnect with her past, when so many options were still open to her. In pursuing interests she's never had time to fully explore, she finds that her sense of curiosity is as strong as it ever was, and, as she discovers during the course of this wonderful trip, we are never too old to learn."--Amazon website.

A princess is missing and a peace treaty is on the verge of collapse in this new Veronica Speedwell adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn. January 1889. As the newest member of the Curiosity Club--an elite society of brilliant, intrepid women--Veronica Speedwell is excited to put her many skills to good use. As she assembles a memorial exhibition for pioneering mountain climber Alice Baker-Greene, Veronica discovers evidence that the recent death was not a tragic climbing accident but murder. Veronica and her natural historian beau, Stoker, tell the patron of the exhibit, Princess Gisela of Alpenwald, of their findings. With Europe on the verge of war, Gisela's chancellor, Count von Rechstein, does not want to make waves--and before Veronica and Stoker can figure out their next move, the princess disappears. Having noted Veronica's resemblance to the princess, von Rechstein begs her to pose as Gisela for the sake of the peace treaty that brought the princess to England. Veronica reluctantly agrees to the scheme. She and Stoker must work together to keep the treaty intact while navigating unwelcome advances, assassination attempts, and Veronica's own family--the royalty who has never claimed her.

The summer before eighth grade, Alice tries to confront her fears, not the least of which is a fear of deep water.