Stolen Innocence

A deeply emotional novel about scandal, shame, survival, and reclaiming your story.

Twenty years ago, Maura Lenihan was the beautiful red-haired teenager at the center of a devastating political sex scandal that destroyed lives, fueled tabloid headlines, and left permanent scars on everyone involved.

Now thirty-five, Maura has carefully built a quiet, controlled life far from public attention. She works as a hospice nurse, spending her days caring for the dying and her nights escaping into romance novels. Safe. Invisible. Untouchable. Exactly the way she wants it.

But Maura's carefully protected world begins to unravel when the press suddenly renews interest in the decades-old scandal that once made her infamous. At the same time, one of her newest patients — a wealthy young Wall Street banker with hauntingly familiar blue eyes — awakens painful memories Maura has spent years trying to bury.

As old secrets resurface, Maura is forced to confront the truth about what happened all those years ago, the powerful people who protected themselves at her expense, and the devastating emotional cost of being publicly judged while still a child.

Set against the backdrop of Long Island privilege and political influence, Stolen Innocence is an emotionally layered women's fiction novel about shame, resilience, family pressure, forbidden love, and the long shadow of public scandal.

If you enjoy Jodi Picoult's "ripped from the headlines" fiction, then Stolen Innocence is for you.