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A Kennedy Affair: Powerful historical WW2 fiction about friendship and forbidden passion, inspired by true events

Emily Hourican

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Two powerful families. A changing world.

'Hourican expertly weaves her elegant fictional magic' THE GLOSS

London, 1943: Boston-native Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy has returned to the city she loves, hoping to reunite with Billy

Cavendish, the man she wishes to marry. But with their parents forbidding the match, London a shell of its former

self following the Blitz, and Billy facing constant danger as an officer in the British Army, their future together looks

anything but certain.

Kick's friend Lady Brigid Guinness has swapped high fashion and exclusive dinner parties for long shifts as a nurse helping wounded soldiers. And, in secret, she writes letters to a man shunned by her inner circle.

Meanwhile, wide-eyed Sissy Maddington has arrived from Ireland to visit the Guinness family, eager to explore

everything London seems to offer, and hoping never to return home.

As the three young women navigate an ever-changing city, they find themselves less sure than ever of what tomorrow will bring. Is the key to happiness leaving behind the worlds they came from, and the people in them? Or is happiness even possible, with all that lies ahead?

Praise for Emily Hourican's novels:

'A gloriously good read' Sunday Independent

'An absolute page-turner' Irish Independent

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Emily Hourican

Emily Hourican

Emily Hourican is the author of nine novels and one book of non-fiction. Her first novel, The Privileged, was published in 2016, became an instant bestseller, and was short-listed for the Best Popular Fiction Award at the Irish Book Awards that year. She then published three more works of contemporary fiction, the last of which, The Outsider, is being developed as a six-part TV series with Treasure Films, with Emily as screenwriter, supported by Screen Ireland.

In 2019 she began writing historical fiction, and has since published four acclaimed, best-selling historical novels based on the Guinness and Kennedy families.

Emily is also an award-winning editor and journalist with the Sunday Independent,

Ireland's biggest-selling newspaper.

More about Emily Hourican

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