This One Life by Amanda Prowse

Madeline has fought poverty, worked her way up in life and is very close to having her 'dream life'. She has now been given the opportunity to move to the States and pursue her dream job. To do this, she needs to leave everything behind - something she's more than happy to do, until her family suddenly needs her.

Will she chose herself or her family? Her old life or a new?

Will we judge her? Most certainly.

Will we want to be like her? Also, most certainly.

Would we have chosen the same as her? Then? Now?

The moral dilemmas posed in the story are astronomical - but perhaps would have been less so if Madelaine had been male?

Thought provoking and increasingly emotional as more of the past is revealed.

Quotes from the ARC (so may not be in the final version):

[...] how she had been the girl who wanted more, while he [...] only wanted enough
‘Don’t you want more?’ [...] ‘I think’ – he paused – ‘that I don’t want more necessarily. I only want enough, and I know that enough will make me happy.
‘Someone once told me to remember that no story is about how it starts, but always about how it finishes.’
[...] one thing she had learned was that things didn’t have to be perfect or everlasting, they only had to be enough.
I just want someone who is going to show up, someone who instinctively knows what I want and when I need it, and who just shows up!

This One Life by Amanda Prowse is currently scheduled to be released on 7 January 2025.

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