Books by Lili Peloquin

The Innocents

by Francesca Segal, Richard Barre, Lili Peloquin

When a flash flood uncovers the grave of seven murdered children, scarce clues and media attention hamper the investigation, but private eye Wil Hardesty digs deeper to find the killer. Reprint.

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The Innocents

by Francesca Segal, Richard Barre, Lili Peloquin

*** Winner of the 2012 Costa First Novel Award *** "It is impossible to resist this novel's wit, grace, and charm."
--Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia

A smart and slyly funny tale of love, temptation, confusion, and commitment; a triumphant and beautifully executed recasting of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Newly engaged and unthinkingly self-satisfied, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Newman is the prize catch of Temple Fortune, a small, tight-knit Jewish suburb of London. He has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both sixteen and now, to the relief and happiness of the entire Gilbert family, they are finally to marry. To Adam, Rachel embodies the highest values of Temple Fortune; she is innocent, conventional, and entirely secure in her community--a place in which everyone still knows the whereabouts of their nursery school classmates. Marrying Rachel will cement Adam's role in a warm, inclusive family he loves.

But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia, and when Rachel's younger cousin Ellie Schneider moves home from New York, she unsettles Adam more than he'd care to admit. Ellie--beautiful, vulnerable, and fiercely independent--offers a liberation that he hadn't known existed: a freedom from the loving interference and frustrating parochialism of North West London. Adam finds himself questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence. What might he be missing by staying close to home?

Francesca Segal was born in London and studied at Oxford and Harvard University before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Observer, among other publications. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in The Observer and has been a features writer at Tatler. She divides her time between London and New York.

"With understated wit, empathy and a cinematic eye of detail, Segal brings alive a host of characters so robust that you can easily imagine them onscreen... A winning debut novel."
--People

"Inspired by The Age of Innocence, Segal's book is warmer, funnier, and paints a more dynamic and human portrait of a functional community that is a wonderful juxtaposition to Wharton's cold social strata."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A crafty homage... [Segal] writes with engaging warmth."
--Entertainment Weekly, Grade: B+

"Readers who enjoy fast-paced, gently satirical literary novels, fans of Allegra Goodman, and book group participants will find a Shabbat dinner's worth of noshing in this accomplished debut novel."
--Library Journal

"An emotionally and intellectually astute debut."
--Kirkus

"[A] delightful first novel... wise, witty and observant."
--The London Times

"Segal writes with an understated elegance."
--The Observer (UK)

"The Innocents is written with wisdom and deliciously subtle wit... This is a wonderfully readable novel: elegant, accomplished, and romantic."
--Andre Aciman, author of Out of Egypt, Call Me by Your Name, and Alibis

"A moving, funny, richly drawn story... Full of real pleasures and unexpected wisdom, this book sweeps you along."
--Esther Freud, author of Love Falls and Lucky Break

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The Innocents

by Francesca Segal, Richard Barre, Lili Peloquin

Even the innocent don't kiss and tell...

“…the quick pacing will keep readers engrossed in this series kickoff as Alice and Charlie try to sort through the soap opera that is their new lives and figure out who they can trust. It’s Gossip Girl for Connecticut’s Gold Coast.” –Publishers Weekly

The Innocentsweaves a saga of nail-biting drama, breathless romance, and gothic mystery perfect for fans of ABC's Revenge.

Though they share the same blood, Alice and Charlie couldn’t be more different. Alice is older (by one year and one day), shy and reserved, a cool blonde, a painter, a reader, a thinker. Charlie is feisty and uninhibited, a wild brunette, the kind of girl who punches a bully right in the mouth. They hate each other. They love each other. They stand by each other, when no one else will. They’re sisters.

Then their parents divorce. Soon, Alice, Charlie, and their mother are leaving their old life behind. They’re saying goodbye to their cramped Cambridge apartment and driving along the rocky Connecticut coastline—to their stepfather's summer estate in the wealthy town of Serenity Point.

The minute they drive through the gates, they wish they never had. Their arrival reopens old wounds, memories of lost loves, best friends—and bitter rivals. The people of Serenity Point thought the past was dead and buried. They were wrong.

Copies

No copies available.

The Innocents

by Francesca Segal, Richard Barre, Lili Peloquin

Even the innocent don't kiss and tell...

“…the quick pacing will keep readers engrossed in this series kickoff as Alice and Charlie try to sort through the soap opera that is their new lives and figure out who they can trust. It’s Gossip Girl for Connecticut’s Gold Coast.” –Publishers Weekly

The Innocents weaves a saga of nail-biting drama, breathless romance, and gothic mystery perfect for fans of ABC's Revenge.

Though they share the same blood, Alice and Charlie couldn’t be more different. Alice is older (by one year and one day), shy and reserved, a cool blonde, a painter, a reader, a thinker. Charlie is feisty and uninhibited, a wild brunette, the kind of girl who punches a bully right in the mouth. They hate each other. They love each other. They stand by each other, when no one else will. They’re sisters.

Then their parents divorce. Soon, Alice, Charlie, and their mother are leaving their old life behind. They’re saying goodbye to their cramped Cambridge apartment and driving along the rocky Connecticut coastline—to their stepfather's summer estate in the wealthy town of Serenity Point.

The minute they drive through the gates, they wish they never had. Their arrival reopens old wounds, memories of lost loves, best friends—and bitter rivals. The people of Serenity Point thought the past was dead and buried. They were wrong.

Copies

No copies available.

The Innocents

by Francesca Segal, Richard Barre, Lili Peloquin

"It is impossible to resist this novel's wit, grace, and charm." --Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia

A smart and slyly funny tale of love, temptation, confusion, and commitment; a triumphant and beautifully executed recasting of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Newly engaged and unthinkingly self-satisfied, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Newman is the prize catch of Temple Fortune, a small, tight-knit Jewish suburb of London. He has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both sixteen and now, to the relief and happiness of the entire Gilbert family, they are finally to marry. To Adam, Rachel embodies the highest values of Temple Fortune; she is innocent, conventional, and entirely secure in her community--a place in which everyone still knows the whereabouts of their nursery school classmates. Marrying Rachel will cement Adam's role in a warm, inclusive family he loves.

But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia, and when Rachel's younger cousin Ellie Schneider moves home from New York, she unsettles Adam more than he'd care to admit. Ellie--beautiful, vulnerable, and fiercely independent--offers a liberation that he hadn't known existed: a freedom from the loving interference and frustrating parochialism of North West London. Adam finds himself questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence. What might he be missing by staying close to home?

Copies

No copies available.

This Side of Jealousy: An Innocents Novel (The Innocents)

by Lili Peloquin

It’s Gossip Girl for Connecticut’s Gold Coast.” –Publishers Weekly

When jealousies run rampant and dark secrets are uncovered, the sisters realize that there is a dark side to paradise in this breathless romance perfect for fans of ABC's REVENGE.

Alice and Charlie haven’t stopped fighting since they arrived in Serenity Point two weeks ago. Those two weeks changed their lives. And Serenity Point has changed them.

Charlie has a new group of friends and a new life. Jude and Cybill are beautiful, exciting, and dangerously seductive. And though Sasha is proving to be a friend and confidante to Alice, Alice can’t get away from the people, places, and events that mire her in the past.

Alice loves Tommy, but the memory of Camilla, dead and gone, is driving a wedge between them. And Alice’s ex-boyfriend Patrick won’t give up on her, no matter what she says to keep him away. Jude is slowly giving up his bad boy ways for Charlie—but Cybill continues to come between them. And then Nick arrives: Dr. Van Stratten’s former intern seems to know things about last summer— things that Jude and Tommy would rather not be revealed. Alice is determined to find out what.

While the sisters grapple with the terrible truth about their family, the one-year memorial of Camilla’s death looms. The tension mounts and sparks fly as bright as July Fourth fireworks. Alice and Charlie are desperate to find out the truth that everyone seems to be hiding.

Is Camilla their enemy and rival—even six feet under? Or is she their sister, whose memory they have to protect? And what really happened to her that night on the bridge? In a town built on secrets and lies, can the truth stay buried for long?

Copies

No copies available.