The Leap Year Gene

The Leap Year Gene

Shelley Wood

Shelley Wood

From the author of The Quintland Sisters, a sweeping, imaginative historical epic that follows the remarkable lives of the McKinleys, a family forever altered by daughter Kit's secret. February 29, 1916. A baby girl is born—but as the months and years go by, Kit McKinley inexplicably ages just one year for every four. Her mother Lillian, a fledgling botanist, fears that Kit's condition will catch the attention of Lillian's fellow suffragettes, who have embraced the eugenics craze sweeping North America targeting unfit, unwed mothers and "defective" children. For decades, Kit and her family must keep on the move to conceal her secret and protect her from the unwanted attention of Nazi scientists, nosy doctors, Big Pharma and the insatiable news media that is always hunting for the next sensational story.When Kit finally reaches her teens and can pass for an adult, she must decide whether she wants to stay perpetually on the run or stay...
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The Quintland Sisters

The Quintland Sisters

Shelley Wood

Shelley Wood

"A historical novel that will enthrall you... I was utterly captivated..." — Joanna Goodman, author of The Home for Unwanted GirlsFor fans of Sold on a Monday or The Home for Unwanted Girls, Shelley Wood's novel tells the story of the Dionne Quintuplets, the world's first identical quintuplets to survive birth, told from the perspective of a midwife in training who helps bring them into the world. Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, making them wards of the British king, Emma signs on as their nurse. Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical "Quints" playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression,...
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