The Reject's Club

Middlingham- or "Middle-of-nowhere" as Caroline nicknames it- is home to the teenager and her closest friends, Elizabeth and Hayley. All three girls find themselves rejected, to varying degrees, by the people who are supposed to love them the most- their parents. Caroline takes cynical pride in being the black sheep of the family. Elizabeth refuses to follow the choice of profession that's been laid out for her and Hayley goes for the oldest story in the book. 'We should call ourselves "The Reject's Club." Three unwanted darlings together,' Caroline flutters her eyelashes theatrically and raises her glass. She named it and owned it. And so the girls' own little private coterie is born. The trio strive for happiness, but nothing can ever be straightforward. Romantic, maternal Hayley discovers that marriage can be a very unhappy state of being. Elizabeth is surprised to find the fashion industry she so desperately wanted to be part of a rather stupid place and sets about finding her own lodestar. And workaholic Caroline wants to thumb her nose at all the people who have ever put her down in her life by becoming successful, rich and famous. She achieves it through her writing career, but the route she takes is often the seediest way, as she desperately tries to shore up her destroyed sense of self-esteem. But the past has already happened, and one of the girls is shocked to discover a devastating family secret that links her with someone so close. And Caroline, after years of estrangement, must go back to confront her parents about why they treated her so disdainfully, before she can move forward with her life...