Based on a true story about the author finding her real mother in the South of France, Abandoned Love is a compulsive, emotive read This novel is about three women, Miriam, Marjorie and Rosie. Miriam, a Lucie Clayton model, falls in love in 1960s Dublin with a South African businessman. Unable to go through with an abortion, or tell her parents, she heads to London, to consider offering her child up for a private adoption. Marjorie has let life pass her by, until in her 40s, she meets the love of her life Arthur. They marry, but cannot have children. At 44, she meets Miriam and agrees to look after her daughter with a view to adopting her. Rosie grows up in a largely dysfunctional, albeit privileged home. She daren't tell anyone she is adopted for fear of hurting her adoptive mother. She eventually tells her fiancee when she mistakenly thinks she herself is pregnant. They agree that to contact her real mother would devastate Marjorie, so do nothing. The years pass. After successful careers Rosie and her family emigrate to the South of France where, one sunny day, they go to a restaurant in St Paul de Vence. Bumping into an Irish couple, Rosie (who has always known the name of her birth mother) asks if they know a Miriam Sullivan-Cody – and to her surprise they do. Yet it is too late, Rosie finds out her mother died of breast cancer aged 44. Following this revelation, Rosie makes the trip to Ireland to discover her real family, and to find answers to the questions she's always had.