"Marianne Martin is a wonderful storyteller and a graceful writer with a light, witty touch with language and a sensitivity to the emotions of people in love."—Ann Bannon, author of the Beebo Brinker novels

Renee Parker is no stranger to love. At only seventeen, she fought social services for the right to raise her four younger siblings. Fought and won. It's a challenge to parent kids scarred by a stepdad's suicide and a mother's imprisonment, but Renee doesn't hesitate to sacrifice her own future to give her brothers and sisters the best chance at a normal life. That, she believes, is what love does.

Then a different kind of love threatens to destroy everything Renee has built. Her younger brother's epilepsy brings her into contact with nurse Olivia Dumont, and for the first time in her young life, Renee realizes there is room in her heart for someone who isn't family. But the watchful eye of social worker Millie Gordon is never far away from the Parker family. And fear of what Millie could do drives a wedge between Olivia and Renee.

But the journeys they have to make separately finally bring them back to the same place. This time, have they learned how to stand up and fight for their love and their new kind of family? And will that love be enough to beat the system, even with the help of tenacious attorney Shayna Bradley?