The Best Of Friends And Next Of Kin Omnibus

Hardback

Condition: Good

The Best of Friends (1995)Gina and Laurence had been the best of friends ever since they were teens - but never in love. Gina married Fergus Bedford an antique dealer who bought the sophisticated and elegant High Place for them to live in. Laurence married Hilary a down-to-earth woman who helped him transform his shambling inheritance The Bee House into both a home and a small hotel.When Fergus realizes that living with Gina and their daughter Sophy is no longer what he wants it's to The Bee House that Gina flees beginning a cycle of misery and heartache. It ricochets through both families - from Sophy who longs for things to be as they were; to Gus Laurence and Hilary's son who adores Sophy; to Gina's 80-year-old mother Vi who has found true love for the first time in her life. In her loss Gina turns to her dearest friend Laurence and finds something completely unexpected - the type of love that will send both marriages to the brink of betrayal.The Best of Friends addresses what Joanna Trollope writes about best: "suspense of the heart" (USA Today). Trollope believes "It is the mark of good fiction that the writer's eye is a kindly one...that there is a sense that we're all in this together." Next of Kin (1996)Joanna Trollope adored for her pithy tales that deal with the nuances of human nature and emotion continues her tradition with Next of Kin the story of a family coping with the death of a loved one. When Californian Caro Meredith became an English farmer's wife she hoped it would help her find the happiness and stability her childhood lacked. But when she dies 24 years later some well-kept secrets emerge that devastate her adopted daughter Judy her husband Robin and a host of in-laws. As those who knew Caro mourn her passing they find themselves pulled together by the commonality of their grief even as they are torn apart by the forces of change brought about by startling revelations. It will take an outsider -- Judy's new roommate Zoe -- to help the family heal and move on. But first they must face some of the painful truths locked inside their own hearts.