Showing results by author "Laurie Petrou" in All Categories

Penny and Hattie, orphaned sisters in a small town, are best friends, bound together to the point of knots. But Penny, at the mercy of her brutal husband, is desperate for a fresh start. Willing to do anything for her older sister, Hattie agrees to help. A match is struck, and a fire burns Penny's marriage to the ground. With her husband gone, Penny is free, and the sisters, it seems, get away with murder. But freedom comes at a cost. More than a year after the fire, a charming young man comes to town. Their love for him threatens the delicate balance.

It is the fall of 1995 at Rocky Barrens University, hidden amidst the pine trees and starry skies of Northern Ontario. Aurelle Taylor, daughter of a world-famous fashion designer, becomes the closest friend of burgeoning painter Diana Martin; they have bonded over a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and begin new lives as students at RBU. They are closer than lovers, they are like one thing, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a university that is more summer camp than campus.

Stevie never meant for things to go this far. When she and Dee - defiant, bold, indestructible Dee - started all this, there was a purpose to their acts of vengeance: to put the bullies of Woepine High School back in their place. And three months ago, Stevie believed they deserved it. Once her best friend turned on her, the rest of the school followed. Stevie was alone and unprotected with a target on her back. Online, it was worse.

Penny and Hattie are sisters in a small town, bound tight to the point of knots. They share a secret they cannot escape, even while it pulls them apart. One night, a match is lit, and Penny's terrible husband is killed - a marriage going up in flames and offering the potential of a new life. The sisters retreat into their family home, a house of secrets and memories, and try to live in the shadow of what they put in motion. But Penny's husband is not the only thing they are hiding - both from the outside world and from each other.

The Grayson sisters are trouble. Everyone in their small town knows it. But no one can know of the secret that binds them together. Hattie is the light. Penny is the darkness. Together, they have balance. But one night the balance is toppled. A match is struck. A fire is started. A cruel husband is killed. The potential for a new life flickers in the fire's embers, but resentment, guilt, and jealousy suffocate like smoke. Their lives have been engulfed in flames. Will they ever be able to put them out? 

Diana Martin has lived her life in the shadow of her sadistic older brother. She quietly watches the family next door, enthralled by celebrity fashion designer Marianne Taylor and her feted daughter, Aurelle. She wishes she were a 'Taylor girl'. By the summer of 1995, the two girls are at university together, bonded by a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and forge new identities. They are closer than lovers, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a remote university.