Quiet, contemplative Esther is in love. It’s an all-encompassing love that sweeps her off her feet but also leaves her dangling with nothing to hold onto. It’s thrilling, unlike anything she’s ever felt before, and she gives her whole heart to this marriage, to this willful, passionate man.
Things change when she becomes a mother. It’s not just the two of them anymore, and as Esther gives a large piece of her heart to her daughter, Rosa, she starts to realize that maybe love shouldn’t be this hard. That she shouldn’t have to give up her whole self to be with him. That now that she’s a mother, she can’t.
Set in the years leading up to The Woodlands, The Willful follows Esther, Rosa’s mother, as she navigates young motherhood, a marriage on the brink, and the hard decisions that come with living in a controlled world with an uncontrollable man.
Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology.
She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing.