Raised with four older stepcousins in a conservative, churchgoing family, Frannie Price teeters on the brink of adolescence in the summer of 1985. Her timidity and awkwardness make her easy to overlook, yet she has one true friend in her cousin Jonathan. Jonathan, her childhood champion and the best person she knows. But when the Grant twins enter her life, Frannie's world turns upside down. Not only does the sly and charming Eric Grant set her girl cousins against each other, but his flirtatious sister makes off with Jonathan's heart. Only Frannie sees the faults running beneath the family landscape-not that anyone's asking her opinion. Not her strict Uncle Paul, not her beloved Jonathan, and certainly not the Grants, who, after having their way with the rest of the Beresfords, turn their sights on her. What's a girl to do? And why does she feel, in this uncharted territory, like God left her at the border?With sympathy, humor and more than a nod to Jane Austen's
Mansfield Park
,
The Beresfords
chronicles Frannie's coming of age, when all around her is coming apart.