Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Emma breathes a sigh of nervous excitement as she hangs up the beautiful ivory dress. Heartbroken and with her divorce freshly signed, the anonymous donation of a stunning wedding gown is just what Emma needs for her new adventure: selling unique clothing from her own vintage shop, tucked away amidst the winding streets of Heaven’s Cove.
Not everyone in the village is welcoming. Handsome Leo runs the bespoke suit shop next door – and his uptight father Robert doesn’t approve of the vintage store’s quirky style. But Emma’s fears that she was wrong to uproot her old life fade the more time she spends with Leo. Because a warm heart lies behind his brooding exterior…
Their new connection is called into question when Robert sees the silk wedding dress. The usually emotionless older man is shocked at the sight of the gown: but refuses to say what’s wrong. Together, Emma and Leo promise to solve the mystery of who the dress belonged to – and why Robert is so shaken. Their questions around Heaven’s Cove lead them to an empty manor house, a wedding that happened years ago, and a family who haven’t been seen around the village since…
But the closer they get to answers, the more pain they could cause Robert. And when a shocking revelation about Leo’s family comes to light, Emma must question everything. Is it time to run from Heaven’s Cove as quickly as she arrived? Or if she finally finds the truth about the wife who wore the wedding dress, could it heal her – and Leo’s – heart for good?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Wife at the Last House Before the Sea to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s been a very long time that I have read a book in a day but the eighth book in Liz Eeles’ Heaven’s Cove series, The Wife at the Last House Before the Sea, was the book that changed that. Right from the very beginning I was completely sucked into the story and feel that this is the best book in the series since the earlier books. I felt the plot was brilliantly developed and there wasn’t any filler in chapters or periods where nothing much occurred. The pacing was perfect and going back and forth between the three main characters Emma, Leo and Robert and having chapters from their viewpoint was excellent. It meant I didn’t form overly strong opinions on just one character which would have been wrong. Instead, I felt equally invested in all three and how their stories begin to interconnect, and I couldn’t put down my Kindle as I just wanted to keep reading to see how everything would unfold and hopefully resolve itself. A clever and expertly devised story awaits you between the covers of this wonderful book which I thoroughly enjoyed.
A brief prologue sees a woman packing up a special wedding dress that was exquisitely crafted. It’s time to let go of the past as the dress and other clothes belonged to another life when she’d felt like someone else. We are then introduced to Emma who has been in Heaven’s Cove for three weeks running her vintage shop. She had only ever visited the beautiful coastal village which has a strong community where everyone knows everyone else’s business just once before many years on a family holiday. But now she is embarking on a new stage in her life having left London following her divorce from Carl after she discovered that he had been having an affair. Her daughter Thea is grown up and working in London but Emma stresses over the fact that she won’t be near to her anymore. Emma is not normally spontaneous but the decision to move to Heaven’s Cove was made on a whim and she is filled with fear, apprehension, agitation and a sadness that she won’t make a success of the business and she will have to leave.
As she approaches her shop door, she notices a bag which has been left there. She welcomes donations and even more so when she sees the beautiful wedding dress inside it as the profits of its sale can go to a charity. As she empties the bag a ring falls out with the initials B and R. Did the generous donor of the dress mean to leave the wedding ring there or was it an accident? So sets in motion a chain of events that will see a story from the past come rushing into the present and as Emma journeys to discover the answers she will learn a lot about herself in the process. Emma’s husbands infidelity had smashed her self-esteem but it was brilliant to see her pushing her own emotional issues aside and focusing on the task at hand and in doing so I felt she matured an awful lot and became more willing to push things that needed to be said and done and for once she started putting herself first over the demands of her ex who had curtailed her in so many ways.
An unfortunate incident thanks to Maisie - the young girl that Emma hired to help out in the shop - leaving a plug in the sink with the tap left running means Emma is put in very close contact with Leo and his father Robert who run the gentlemen’s outfitters next door. Their electrics are ruined thanks to Maisie’s carelessness and Emma feels immense guilt and offers Leo a corner of her shop to use whilst repairs are carried out. Leo’s business is a very traditional one where Robert is determined things will remain the same despite the shop haemorrhaging money. Leo is dying to drag it into the 21st century but feels constrained by tradition and the unwillingness of his father to adapt to the changing times and the new needs of his customers. Leo has always been expected to live up to his father’s exacting standards and I could sense that theirs was an uneasy relationship where Robert always wanted the upper hand and they never worked on an even playing field. Leo himself was dealing with trauma and although he got off to a rough start with Emma which I think was influenced by his fathers opinions, I could see that there was a spark between the pair but were they both too emotionally damaged to do anything about it?
One wonders whether Emma starts using the search for the owner of the wedding ring as a displacement activity? To take her mind off the fact that running the shop was giving her its challenges and also that she was far away from family and friends who could give her the emotional and physical support that she craved. But as Leo begins to open up a different more softer side to him emerges and he wanted to know who owned the wedding ring just as much as she did. It’s then that I thought Emma began to come into her own. I became deeply invested in the pair solving the mystery and I could some things beginning to emerge that was giving hints as to what had occurred so many years ago but I wasn’t exactly right when the big reveal came. This was great as I love to be kept in suspense until the last moment possible and I appreciated the twists and turns here.
I thought it was brilliant that Robert was given chapters to share his point of view and to have him as a character so relevant and prominent within the overall storyline. He had a certain aura about him as being the man about town or village in this case. He was a significant businessman, who was on many committees and organisations and therefore an important man in the village. He did have a demeanour initially of being overbearing, pompous, abrasive and being full of his own self importance but the more that was revealed about his character and why he was acting in a certain way the more I felt he became more human and in a small way approachable.
Liz could easily have made him to be the complete and utter baddie of the story who everyone detested and wanted nothing to do with at all but the reader was exposed to a different side of him. That he had a past which thanks to the discovery of the wedding dress had out a strong forbearing on the present. Worlds he had tried to supress were beginning to collide and I adored how Leo and Emma set about solving the mystery and getting to the root cause of things. As did I as a reader. Robert began to expose his more vulnerable side and his brusque exterior didn’t seem to matter anymore but will there be a happy ending or has too much water flown under the bridge?
The Wife at the Last House Before the Sea was a fabulous read with a story and setting that I didn’t want to leave when I reached the last page. The plot was creative and well tackled throughout with a romance that gently simmers, a mystery to be solved and characters that you root for until the very end. I hope Liz has plans to continue writing more books set in Heaven’s Cove as she provided the readers with entertaining stories and long may she to continue to do so.
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