WE WERE DYING FOR A HOLIDAY
The six of us arrived on that beautiful Greek island dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and blood orange sunsets, ready to lose ourselves in the wild freedom of a weekend away with friends.
On the first night we swam under a blanket of stars.
On the second night the games began on our clifftop terrace.
On the third night the idyll cracked, secrets and lies whispering on the breeze.
And by the final night there was a body on the rocks below . . .
WHO WOULD KILL FOR IT?
A marriage in the spotlight
Joanna Whitman’s high-profile marriage held more secrets than she cares to remember, so when her ex-husband dies, she doesn't know what to feel. But when she discovers that he’s left behind a pregnant young woman, Joanna is forced to act. She knows exactly how brutal the spotlight on them both will be…unless she can find a way for them to disappear.
A beach house hideaway
Ashley Blake is amazed when Joanna suggests they lie low at her beach house in her sleepy Californian hometown. Joanna should be hating her, not helping her. But alone and pregnant, Ashley needs all the support she can find.
A summer of new beginnings
Joanna's only goal for the summer is privacy. All Ashley wants is space to plan for her and her baby's future. But when an old flame reappears, and secrets spill out under the hot summer sun, this unlikely friendship is put to the test…
When Lottie Foster’s grandmother’s best friend Gwen dies, she leaves Lottie her lovely home, Cuckoo Cottage.
Lottie loves the cottage but Matt, a charming local builder, points out that beneath its charm it is falling apart. Luckily he is always on hand to help with the problems that somehow seem to keep cropping up. But is he just a bit too good to be true? Certainly Will, Lottie’s closest neighbour, seems to think so.
Lottie plans to set up her own business renovating vintage caravans. She hasn’t told anyone about the project she has cooked up with Jemma from The Cherry Tree Café to repurpose Gwen’s old caravan and turn it into a gorgeous tearoom.
But before she can finally enjoy living with her legacy she must uncover who she can trust, and who to avoid. And with two men vying for her attention, will she also find love?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
All’s fair in love and…medicine?
Dr Katie O’Neil has only been in Heartcross a few hours when she finds herself already ruffling feathers – not least with medical school nemesis and new colleague Ben Sanders.
Katie’s the woman Ben loves to hate and until now he’d hoped he’d never set eyes on her again but now she’s back – and living next door!
When a charity boat race down the River Heart puts the two in direct competition, sparks fly. The winner takes it all, but who will it be? And will their prize be far more than they were expecting…
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
On the Greek island of Castellorizo young Sofía must put her big dreams on hold to support her older sister Maria with her large family. But World War II is looming and while the idyllic island may seem far from harm at first, there are unspeakable dangers on the horizon - perils that will change the sisters' lives forever . . .
Devastated by her divorce and the death of her dear mum, Olivia seeks solace on Castellorizo. Her Granny Sofía fled the beautiful Greek island during the war, but Olivia knows little else about her family's history. The only link to the Island she has left is her elderly great-uncle George. As his memory begins to fail, Olivia feels her one chance at uncovering the truth about her grandmother start to slip away.
As a mother's sacrifice echoes throughout the generations, will Olivia discover some things are best left in the past?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
The worn leather-bound diary, tied with a red ribbon, has hidden the truth for seventy years. The spine crackles as she opens it, reading the long-forgotten words of her grandmother. “What if you never come back? What if you die trying?”
Nazi-occupied Prague,1942: Amelia is hiding in her closet when flashlights blind her and she’s captured by the SS. Out on the cobblestone street, her heart shatters as her mother is shot before her eyes. She is shoved onto a freight train with hundreds of others—hours pass as they travel in darkness.
Arriving in a concentration camp, Amelia fears for her life when she is led to a block by a soldier. He is her enemy, yet he secretly passes her a piece of bread; an act that saves her.
They are meant to despise one another, but Amelia and Charlie are powerfully drawn to each other. Amelia sees how Charlie risks everything to save prisoners from deportation—and she sees the kindness in his eyes.
Amongst so much tragedy, falling in love is a miracle. Yet, one day, Charlie utters those miraculous words. “I’m in love with you. To everyone else, we’re wrong, but what does that matter when nothing in this world is right?”
But under the all-seeing gaze of the guards and endless watchtowers, there is only so long they can keep their secret—and the very act of loving each other endangers their lives. Will they remain loyal to each other in the face of death? And when they finally say goodbye, will it be by choice or by force?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Welcome to the Sunshine Island - where the beaches are golden, the lifestyle is perfect and anything is possible.
Piper Le Brocq is happily single after the disastrous ending of her engagement eighteen months before. The only man in her life is Jax, her best friend and cousin, who spends his life teaching locals how to forage and taking tourists on boat trips around the island. Her days are filled with helping out at her mother's guest house and selling her glass mosaics at The Cabbage Patch emporium in Trinity.
Piper loves living on the Sunshine Island, where the neighbours look out for each other and visitors are welcome. So, when handsome guest Alex Cooper arrives at the guest house to check up on his grandfather, she welcomes him to the sunny island. And when he needs help after his grandfather is injured, she's quick to get involved.
Yet, the more she gets to know Alex the more mysterious he seems, and Alex isn't the only one keeping secrets from her.
Amber is a city girl at heart. So when her boyfriend Jake suggests they move to the countryside to help out at his family farm, she doesn't quite know how to react. But work has been hectic and she needs a break so she decides to grasp the opportunity and make the best of it.
Dreaming of organic orchards, paddling in streams and frolicking in fields, Amber packs up her things and moves to Skylark Farm. But life is not quite how she imagined - it's cold and dirty and the farm buildings are dilapidated and crumbling.
But Amber is determined to make the best of it and throws herself into farm life. But can she really fit in here? And can she and Jake stay together when they are so different?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
This will be Ella’s eighth time down the aisle…
Ella has made it her mission in life to find every bride in their dream dress.
But every time she sends one of her happy customers off to the altar with a perfect, ivory silk gown, she thinks of those seven, hideous bridesmaid dresses hanging in her own closet.
She’s about to add another one, too, because her best friend’s wedding is now only months away. And this one, in a muddy shade of brown, might be the worst dress yet.
Ella is excited for her friend to have the perfect seaside wedding, but every discussion about flowers and centrepieces makes her feel more alone than ever.
So, Ella finally accepts her friends’ pleas to set her up on a blind date.
Ella is set to meet a handsome, gym-going estate agent. But a mix up on the night throws her into the path of Kit, instead.
Kit is most definitely not the man she was supposed to meet, but he could end up changing her life in ways she never thought possible…
At 8am the first shots are fired.
At 1pm, the police establish the gunman has a hostage.
By 5pm, a siege is underway.
At 9pm, DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer.
One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
1943
Evelyn dreams of escaping Vaughan Court and the loveless marriage that led her there. Then, at the height of the Second World War, a single moment changes her life and tethers her to the house for ever.
2016
Decades later, life has given as much as it has taken from Evelyn. Although a bestselling author, Evelyn still cannot escape the painful hold of the past.
Aspiring journalist Bethan hasn't been back to Vaughan Court since she was a little girl. But the opportunity to interview her grandmother's oldest friend - the Evelyn Vaughan - leads her back to North Wales. As Bethan learns about Evelyn's life, she realises the ghosts of the grand house are yet to be laid to rest. And soon she's determined to uncover the secrets hidden within . . .
Beth loves her job working in a care home, looking after its elderly residents, but she doesn’t love the cramped and dirty house-share she currently lives in. So, when she gets the opportunity to move to Nightingale Square, sharing a house with the lovely Eli, she jumps at the chance.
The community at Nightingale Square welcomes Beth with open arms, and when she needs help to organise a fundraiser for the care home they rally round. Then she discovers The Arches, a local creative arts centre, has closed and the venture to replace it needs their help too – but this opens old wounds and past secrets for Beth.
Music was always an important part of her life, but now she has closed the door on all that. Will her friends at the care home and the people of Nightingale Square help her find a way to learn to love it once more…?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Five years after the death of her firefighter husband, Eden knows better than anyone that life can change in an instant. Now, instead of the future she had planned with Andy, she has Lila - the daughter he never got the chance to meet. And instead of Andy, she has his family.
Then Eden meets someone. Someone she knew before Andy, before Lila, before the tragedy. Someone who reminds her of how she used to be. But Andy's mother has other plans. And Eden is facing an impossible choice. One that could tear a family apart . . .
'What if I told you,' he said, 'that I believe my mother's life to be in danger?'
Robertson Bennet returns to Edinburgh after a 25-year absence in search of his parents and his inheritance. But both have disappeared. A quick, routine police check should be enough - and Detective Inspector Helen Birch has enough on her plate trying to help her brother, Charlie, after an assault in prison. But all her instincts tell her not to let this case go. And so she digs.
George and Phamie Bennet were together for a long time. No one can ever really know the secrets kept between husband and wife. But as Birch slowly begins to unravel the truth, terrible crimes start to rise to the surface.
Even happy families have their secrets…
Since the sudden death of her husband, Naomi has steadily rebuilt the life they shared in the village of Tilsham by the sea.
Her eldest daughter, Martha, is sensible and determined – just like her father was – and very much in control of where her life is going. If she could just get pregnant with her husband, life would be perfect.
Willow, the youngest, was always more sunny and easy-going, yet drifted through life, much to her father’s frustration. But now, with charming new boyfriend, Rick, she has a very good reason to settle down.
The three women are as close as can be. But there are things Naomi has kept from her daughters. Like the arrival of Ellis, a long-lost friend from way back, now bringing the fun and spark back into her life. And she’s certainly never told them that her marriage to their father wasn’t quite what it seemed…
SORRY
The only word scribbled on a note from Beth's husband before he disappeared.
The police believe that Oscar took his own life and this last apology was his way of saying goodbye to his wife. But Beth knows there is more to the story. As disturbing secrets about his life emerge, and the lies of those closest to her begin to unravel, she realises she never really knew her husband at all.
She wants to know what he was sorry for, and she's going to find out... but someone doesn't want her to discover the truth.
And they'll do anything to stop her.
Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Charlotte Butterfield to the blog to talk about her latest book By This Time Tomorrow which is published in paperback tomorrow.
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Accept it, he is dead.
No, it’s not true.
It is. Everyone thinks so except you.
Forced to leave their family home in London after it is bombed, Maddie and her two young daughters take refuge at Knyghton, the beautiful country house in Norfolk where Maddie’s husband Philip spent the summers of his childhood.
But Philip is gone, believed to have been killed in action in northern France. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited.
Arriving at Knyghton, Maddie feels closer to her missing husband, but she soon realises that there’s a reason Philip has never spoken to her about his past. Something happened at Knyghton one summer years before. Something that involved Philip, his cousin Lyle and a mysterious young woman named Flora.
Maddie’s curiosity turns to desperation as she tries to discover the truth, but no one will speak about what happened all those years ago, and no one will reassure her that Philip will ever return to Knyghton.
Today it's my pleasure to be hosting one of the blog tour slots for The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley. And thanks to Anne from Random Things Tours and Susanna's publishers Simon & Schuster UK, I have a copy of the book to give away to a follower of the blog (restricted to UK residents only this time).
There are many who believe they know what happened, but they do not know the whole of it. The rumours spread, and grow, and take their hold, and so to end them I have been persuaded now to take my pen in hand and tell the story as it should be told…
Autumn, 1707. Old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union with England, the French are preparing to launch an invasion to carry the young exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh the streets are filled with discontent and danger.
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Thirty-year-old Ruby is done with love: no more drama, no more complications, no more men. She’s living life for herself and that’s just the way she likes it. But her whole world is turned upside down when her grandmother calls to say her beloved pottery business is failing, and she might lose her beautiful little Cornish house by the sea. She needs Ruby to come back to Cornwall and save the day…
Returning to Indigo Cove stirs up memories Ruby would rather forget, but she’s determined to save her grandmother’s home. As the summer hots up so does the pressure on Ruby and she’s in need of a distraction. Although quite literally walking into Gabe Roskilly, the sexy and brooding owner of the local brewery, wasn’t part of her game plan.
Ruby tries to ignore her attraction to Gabe but it’s impossible to avoid the tall, dark, handsome stranger as Gabe is at the centre of village life. And when Ruby’s plans for the little Cornish house start to fall apart, she discovers Gabe might be the one person who can help her. Ruby’s promise to stay single is tested to the limit. But are Gabe’s intentions all good… or is Ruby about to get her heart broken again?
Can Ruby save her grandmother’s cottage and find true happiness this summer? Or will secrets from the past ruin everything?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Miriam arrives at a British checkpoint she is exhausted and hungry. But deep down she knows she is still one of the fortunate ones. One of the few to survive the camps. Having lost her husband and son, Miriam clings to the hope of finding her daughter, Rosa.
Closing her eyes, an image of Rosa appears: the last time Miriam saw her in 1939, boarding a train that would take her to the safety of England. ‘Say goodbye here, Mama, the platform is too crowded,’ Rosa had said as Miriam cupped her daughter’s face with both hands and kissed her through tears.
‘Not long now, my darling,’ Miriam vows as she stands tall and walks through the gates of the checkpoint. There, she is introduced to an English officer named Jack. If Miriam has any hope of finding Rosa, Jack will need to help her travel to England.
But as Miriam begins to tell her daughter’s story, there is a look of recognition in Jack’s eyes. As he listens, he is transported back to an unforgettable English summer, to secret picnics in the long grass, and to a love that shaped the man he became. Will Jack now risk everything to help Miriam make the biggest journey of all, back to her daughter and to a hopeful future?
1965. A young white female student becomes involved in the fight for civil rights in North Carolina, falling in love with one of her fellow activists, a Black man, in a time and place where an interracial relationship must be hidden from family, friends and especially the reemerging Ku Klux Klan. As tensions rise in the town, she realises not everyone is who they appear to be.
2010. A recently widowed architect moves into the home she and her late husband designed, heartbroken that he will never cross the threshold. But when disturbing things begin to happen, it's clear that someone is sending her a warning. Who is trying to frighten her away, and why?
Decades later, past and present are set to collide in the last house on the street...
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
In life, nothing is certain. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something can happen to change the course of everything . . .
Liv Brooks is still in shock. Newly-divorced and facing an uncertain future, she impulsively swaps her London Life for the sweeping hills of the Yorkshire Dales, determined to make a fresh start. But fresh starts are harder than they look and feeling lost and lonely she decides to adopt Harry, an old dog from the local shelter, to keep her company.
But Liv soon discovers she isn’t the only one in need of a new beginning. On their daily walks around the village, they meet Valentine, an old man who suffers from loneliness who sits by the window and Stanley, a little boy who is scared of everyone, hides behind the garden gate and Maya, a teenager who is angry at everyone and everything. But slowly things start to change…
Lizzy Munro is working at the Cannes Film Festival, in a job that involves a lot more admin than red-carpet glamour.
There, Ciaran Flynn is the man everyone is talking about: heartthrob of the moment and director of the most romantic movie of the year.
What nobody knows is that twelve years ago, they were best friends . . . and they haven’t spoken since.
But when Ciaran’s film runs into trouble, there’s only one person he can turn to.
Is twelve days enough to save not only Ciaran’s film, but also the spark he and Lizzy once shared?
