Hope

The summer between school and sixth-form. When Hope doesn't get into drama college, and her friends do, all her plans fall apart. She's struggling with anger, grief for her father and a sense that her own body is against her. She meets Riley on the ferry and his texts give her someone to talk to. But this isn't a story about a boy fixing everything. It's about trying new things and having the courage to ask for help.

Rhian Ivory was born in Swansea, and grew up on the Brecon Beacons and in Hereford. She got her first publishing deal at 26 and wrote four novels for Bloomsbury as Rhian Tracey. She took a break to have three children. Her fifth book, The Boy Who Drew the Future (Firefly 2015) was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. She teaches Creative Writing and a Children's Literature course for the Open University. Hope is her sixth novel. She is a National Trust writer in residence and a Patron of Reading in Buckinghamshire. She lives in Northamptonshire with her family.