Sunday 23 June 2019

BLOG TOUR: A Cornish Summer - Catherine Alliott


Flora's been in love with her husband for twenty years. The trouble is, he's been married to someone else for the past fifteen . . .
Now she's been invited to spend the summer in the shady lanes and sandy coves of Cornwall. It should be blissful.
There's just one small snag: she'll be staying with her former mother-in-law, Belinda.
And Flora discovers she's not the only one invited when her ex-husband shows up out of the blue, complete with his new wife. So now there are two small snags.
Can Flora spend the summer playing happy families with the woman who stole her husband's heart, and the mother-in-law who might have had a hand in it?
Or will stumbling on the family secret change her mind about them all?

What did I think?

Catherine Alliott is an author who has been on my radar for a while and I have a number of her books in my collection but, rather shockingly, A Cornish Summer is the first one that I have read.  Such is the curse of so many books so little time.

A Cornish Summer is different from books that I would usually read in that it is more of a family saga.  Flora heads to Cornwall to paint a portrait of her ex-father-in-law, taking along her friend, Celia, for moral support.  It's just as well she took Celia with her as she didn't expect her ex-husband and his wife to be there also.  I really felt for Flora having to cope with seeing her ex-husband when she makes no secret about the fact that she is still in love with him.  That's not all she has to cope with though...enter the overbearing ex-mother-in-law FROM HELL.  Belinda is a total bitch and even her own grandson agrees with me!

What starts out as a lighthearted slow-burning tale, actually turns slightly darker and more sinister with a very strong and well told environmental message.  It's very current in this day and age as we are being made aware of the devastating effects of pollution, plastic or otherwise.  With private companies striving to make a profit to keep their shareholders happy, it's very possible that they would cut corners at the expense of the environment.  I found this so scarily realistic and, as heartbreaking as it was to read, it never hurts to remind people to help save our environment.

With all family sagas there are plenty of skeletons in the closet, some more firmly in the closet than others.  I loved the fact that Flora's ex-father-law, Roger, has a not so secret mistress who is fun-loving, young at heart and the complete opposite of his wife.  Bubbly Babs is clearly the love of Roger's life but he is forced through social convention to keep up appearances with Belinda the Bitch.  Roger isn't the only one with secrets though...

Escape to Cornwall with A Cornish Summer; it's the perfect book to read as you lounge in the sun with a pitcher of Pimm's.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:


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