Holly

''Holly. I hope you won''t mind me buying you this. I think it''s the sort of thing you''ll like. Am I right? And I think it matches your eyes. This comes with best wishes from (and I know it''s corny). A Friend.'' And that was how it all started.

Holly starts receiving anonymous gifts at the café where she works. She can''t believe it - how romantic can you get? But when Holly finds out the identity of her admirer she is in for a shock - her admirer is not a potential boyfriend: her admirer is her father. Holly has to come to terms with the fact that her father is not the man who lives at home with her, who she loves and calls her father. Her father is a man who has lived all her life on the other side of the world, not even knowing of her existence. Holly and her mother have some talking to do.

Mary Hooper tackles this emotionally fraught situation with tenderness and compassion, yet still with her trademark pacy readability that has proved so popular with the young teen girls'' market.