Excerpt from The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Jesus, love, why do you put yourself through this?" Linda said, casting the book onto the floor in disgust.

"It was one of Mum's favorites."

"She always did have terrible taste in books. You know I gave her loads of Barbara Cartlands and she never read one?" Linda's heavily penciled eyebrows shot up in horror and June laughed.

"I have to admit, this one's a bit tough, even for me."

"It's a good thing your mum also loved gin and a gossip; otherwise we'd never have been friends." Linda took a swig from her mug. "I was thinking yesterday, do you remember your seventh birthday when we made you that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cake? We tried to make a great glass elevator, only we ended up getting a bit tipsy and the whole thing was skew-whiff like the Leaning Tower of Pisa." She let out a loud guffaw, splashing hot tea on the sofa.

"You guys always made me the best birthday cakes," June said, smiling. For her sixth birthday, her mum and Linda had baked her a giant spider and a luminous pink pig for Charlotte's Web, and for her tenth birthday they'd tried to make Hermione and Hagrid out of sugar fondant, although it had ended up looking like something out of a horror movie.

"Why couldn't you have just had a princess cake like other girls your age?" Linda said, rolling her eyes in mock irritation. "Anyway, how was your birthday? Did you see friends?"

"It was good, thanks."

"Hmm ..." Something in Linda's tone suggested she knew all too well that the only friends June had spent it with were Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. "Well, I got you a little something."

Linda produced a rectangular parcel from her handbag, which June opened with some trepidation. Linda's birthday presents always stuck to a certain theme: last year it had been a book called How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You and the year before that it was How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Now June pulled the wrapping paper off to reveal Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction.

"I saw it in the charity shop and thought of you," Linda said with obvious pride.

Excerpted from The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson. Copyright © 2021 by Freya Sampson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.