First published 2023
Cushla teaches at a parish school and works evenings at her family's pub in a town near Belfast. Bombs explode daily across Northern Ireland in 1975, and bloody IRA settlements grip the country. At the pub, she meets Michael, a Protestant lawyer who has gained fame defending IRA members. He loves Ireland but refuses to believe killing serves any purpose. Cushla knows people will always judge her through the lens of her Catholic faith and background. Despite the danger and her better judgment, she enters Michael's sophisticated world. He is much older and married, but a romance develops between them. The brutal beating of one of her student's fathers sets off a chain of events that threatens everyone Cushla wants to protect most. She must navigate the treacherous divide between Catholic and Protestant communities while her forbidden relationship puts her loved ones at risk.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance
Setting: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Period: 1975
360 pages · Hardcover · Wydawnictwo Poznańskie
Content warnings: violence