All They Ask Is Everything: A Novel

In this hopeful debut about the silent struggles of motherhood, three very different women want custody of the same two little girls—and learn they have more in common than the children they’re fighting for. Determined to be a better mother than her own, Hannah has devoted her life to her daughters. She ignores her increasing exhaustion and isolation as a widowed mom—until a disastrous mistake lands the girls in foster care. Julie is single and lonely and dreams of being a mother. After infertility issues lead her to foster parenting, she falls head over heels for Hannah’s daughters. The more she bonds with these sweet, precocious girls, the more she worries about their previous home life and becomes intent on finding a way to keep them. Recently forced into retirement, Elaine is devastated by the way her daughter, Hannah, has shut her out. When she discovers her granddaughters are in foster care, she resolves to rescue them from the system: her one chance at a parenting do-over. Each woman thinks she’s the best possible mother, but none understands the full truth. Old hurts, long-held secrets, and budding new relationships collide as they fight for the girls who could make them a family.