The Ties That Bind.
A debut novel by Lorna Moone. A love story about permanence, authenticity, and the parts of ourselves we're willing to lose to keep the ground we can't bear to lose.
The story
Dani has spent her life learning that nothing stays — not the family she was born to, not the ones who raised her, not the ground under her own feet. When she starts searching for the biological parents she's never known, she isn't really looking for answers so much as proof: that permanence might be possible after all.
Then she falls for her business partner, Alex — steady, guarded, seemingly the safest person she's ever loved. Except Alex isn't free. She's trapped in a relationship that looks secure from the outside and isn't safe at all.
What follows is a story about two kinds of survival: Dani's, built on being real even when it costs her everything solid; and Alex's, built on staying safe even when it costs her the truth. The Ties That Bind is a love story where the stakes are never just romantic — they're about which parts of yourself you're willing to lose to keep the people, and the ground, you can't bear to lose.
The people
Dani
Dani has never trusted anything to last. Given up for adoption and raised without answers, she carries a wound that made her fluent in leaving before she's left — and hungry, in spite of herself, for something permanent. Searching for her biological parents isn't closure; it's an experiment in whether roots can hold. She is authenticity without security: fiercely, sometimes recklessly honest, and never quite sure the ground will still be there tomorrow.
Alex
Alex has built a life that looks, from any reasonable distance, like it's working — a stable relationship, a business she's good at, the kind of composure people mistake for peace. What they don't see is the cost of holding it together: a partner who controls more than he protects, and a version of herself she's had to keep small to survive him. Alex is security without authenticity: safe on paper, but rarely, fully herself. Until Dani.
Every level of this story pulls in the same direction. Dani wants permanence and doesn't trust it. Alex has permanence and can't be herself inside it. Falling for each other means both of them have to risk the one thing they've built their whole lives to protect.
Lorna Moone
Lorna Moone is a songwriter, novelist, and visual artist. The Ties That Bind is her first novel.