HI Readathon: A Cottage in the Country by Linn B. Halton

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

What do you do when your best friend has an affair with your husband of twenty-five years?

Well, you pack your bags, grab half of the equity in the house you've both lovingly restored and run away to an idyllic little cottage in the country.

Only, it’s not quite so idyllic when

1) Rustic charm sounds rather romantic, but the reality is something else …

2) The heavens decide to open on moving day and the rain just keeps on coming

Maddie Brooks grits her teeth and hires the highly recommended 'man who can', ex-soldier, Lewis Hart. As he rips out the very shabby, and decidedly not-so-chic kitchen, reality sets in. Not only is he the most abrupt person she's ever met, but the man is a Neanderthal!

As the flood waters rise, and the village is cut off, everything that could possibly go wrong, does.

Hitting the big five-o is the final straw. No presents, family or friends—just infuriating Lewis, who can’t leave because the flood has now cut off his exit. How on earth is she going to get through this and put her life back together?

Can Maddie Brooks become that ‘fifty-and-fabulous’ woman of her dreams?

Amazon link: Kindle

Guest Post: Linn B Halton talks about inspiration

Today's guest post has been written by author Linn B Halton who talks about inspirations for her writing.

I was talking to someone recently about their dream to sit down and write one day, hopefully sooner rather than later!  To be honest (reading between the lines – more about what she didn’t say, than what she said) she’s been putting it off, simply because she doesn’t know where to begin.  In conversation she mentioned that she often had moments of inspiration but never when she was in a position to write anything down.

It struck a chord with me and made me realise that whilst I didn’t begin writing novels until 2009, my planning started very early in life.  When I did eventually sit down to write I already had a journal of very random jottings. Sometimes it was just a few words, a part-sentence.  Sometimes it was a ‘feeling’ or something I’d witnessed that I had described in great detail.  Occasionally, it was a description of a character, usually their traits rather than physical appearance.  Ironically when I sat down to write my first novel I didn’t even open the cover to look at my precious notes.  I sat in front of the screen, thought hard until a title popped into my head and I was off and running.  I had no idea where I was going, but I found the opening lines made me excited to be at the start of the journey.  “Dying was, quite frankly, incredibly easy.  One minute I was there and the next minute I was ‘here’, wherever ‘here’ is.”