The Mothers -- Brit Bennett

<b><b><b><i>NEW YORK TIMES </i>BESTSELLER<b> <br></b><br><b>"Bittersweet, sexy, morally fraught." -</b><i>The New York Times Book Review</i> <p/></b></b>Fantastic... a book that feels alive on the page. <i><i><i>-The Washington Post</i></i></i> <p/>From the <i>New York-Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Vanishing Half</i>, the beloved novel about young love and a big secret in a small community. <br></b><br>Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret. <p/>All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season. <p/>It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance--and the subsequent cover-up--will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledg