Mira Books To Publish Hard-hitting Book Club Fiction By Bestselling Irish Author, Melissa Hill

NEW YORK - Oct. 4, 2016 - PRLog -- Mira Books is delighted to announce the acquisition of world English rights to two books by Melissa Hill, the USA Today bestselling author of 13 novels including The Charm Bracelet, Something From Tiffany's and Before I Forget.

The first novel of the two book deal, Keep You Safe, tackles the controversy surrounding childhood immunization and is set to generate heated discussion at book groups.

The novel will be published simultaneously on the September 7, 2017 by MIRA Books in North America and HQ in the UK. Keep you Safe will be published in hardback, ebook and audio download.

HQ Senior Commissioning Editor Anna Baggaley acquired the rights from Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown Group Ltd for six figures.

"I'm hugely looking forward to working with the teams on both sides of the Atlantic and especially happy to have my UK and North American editions co-ordinating for the very first time," said Hill.

"MIRA is thrilled to be publishing this internationally bestselling author," said Margaret O'Neill Marbury, vice president of General Fiction Editorial at MIRA Books. "Melissa's strong voice and emotion driven stories have universal appeal, and Keep You Safe, with its timely, controversial subject matter and gripping storyline, has all the makings of a bestseller."

"I've always been an enormous fan of Melissa's addictive writing and I'm so incredibly excited by this amazing new editorial direction from her," said Baggaley. "This feels like the perfect next step that Melissa fans and book club readers alike will devour!"

Kate O'Hara's daughter, Rosie, is one of a small percentage of Irish children with a disorder meaning they cannot be immunised. All Kate can do is hope that herd immunity keeps diseases at bay, and her little girl safe. Madeleine Cooper and her husband decline controversial measles jabs for their daughter, Clara. She prays that it's the right decision and if her little girl becomes sick, she gets through it unscathed. The two girls have just started primary school in the same class. And when one day, tell-tale red spots appear on Clara's chest, and Rosie's a few days after, both mothers fear the worst. Clara recovers quickly, but Rosie becomes seriously ill and is admitted to hospital. Can and should the Cooper parents —in the eyes of the law—be held accountable for choosing not to vaccinate their daughter? And if the unthinkable happens, are they indirectly responsible for five-year old Rosie O'Hara's death?

About Melissa Hill

A USA Today and international #1 bestselling novelist, Melissa Hill is the author of 13 novels, including The Charm Bracelet, Something From Tiffany's, Before I Forget, Please Forgive Me and many more. Melissa's books have been translated into 25 different languages including Bulgarian, German, Czech, Finnish, Latvian, Serbian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Thai and Chinese. Movie rights to two of her novels have been optioned by a major Hollywood studio as well as for American TV. Melissa also co-writes forensic thrillers with her husband Kevin, under the pen-name Casey Hill, featuring crime scene investigator Reilly Steel. Melissa Hill lives in South Dublin with her husband and daughter.

About MIRA Books

MIRA Books is an imprint of Harlequin and features a line-up of some of the bestselling authors across North America as well as industry-anticipated debut authors. MIRA Books is committed to publishing the very best in commercial fiction, including women's fiction, suspense and psychological thrillers, literary bestsellers, and historical. In 2015, 24 MIRA Books titles placed on bestseller lists (New York Times, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly) for a total of 194 weeks. MIRA publishes approximately 100 books per year in hardcover, mass-market and trade paperback formats.