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Summer of Secrets
GUEST BLOG – Adrienne Vaughan
Award winning Author & Poet
Adrienne Vaughan writes spellbinding, page-turning romantic suspense.
Her Heartfelt Series − The Hollow Heart, A Change of Heart and Secrets of the Heart – is set on an island off Ireland’s west coast and features a feisty investigative journalist, and her irresistible West Highland terrier. (Adrienne studied at the Dublin College of Journalism and loves animals, especially dogs.)
Her collection of short stories and poetry, Fur Coat & No Knickers was shortlisted for the Irish Carousel Prize for Anthology and her WWII short story, Dodo’s Portrait, was shortlisted for the Colm Toíbín International Short Story Award at the Wexford Literary Festival.
Summer of Secrets is the first in a series of sweeping family dramas, each with a touch of Irish magic.
All her books are heart-warming, uplifting reads, featuring her trademark gripping style, and laugh out loud moments.
Adrienne, husband Jonathan, and two cocker spaniels divide their time between rural Leicestershire, the Wicklow mountains, and coastal South Devon. Agatha Christie – the cat – (and Lorraine) take care of things while they are away.
Summer of Secrets – blurb
Mia Flanagan has never been told who her father is and, aged ten, stopped asking.
Now she keeps her own secrets.
But when the movie she’s working on ends in disaster, she flies home to discover her fiancé has a secret too; leaving her dreams crushed.
Broken-hearted, a lonely summer in London looms. Until, family friend, Archie Fitzgerald, invites her to stay at his fading mansion on Ireland’s ancient east coast.
For Archie also has a secret, and the longer Mia stays, the more she wonders if Archie really is her father after all.
Some images of Ireland so beautifully evoked by Ms Vaughan in Summer of Secrets
My review – Goodreads – This novel has it in spades: stunning Irish setting (a character in its own right), a grand but decaying family home (Galty House), glamour in the form of acclaimed actors Archie Fitzgerald and Fenella Flanagan, American hotel owner Ross and the cute, but not too cute, Pearl who melts your heart. The novel contains all of Ms Vaughan’s trademarks: glamour, secrets, intrigues, and adventure. How could it fail to please? At the centre of it is Mia, the wardrobe mistress whom I immediately bonded with and wanted to have a happy ending. However, life isn’t easy for Mia who lives in the shadow of her famous mother Fenella and, although she is surrounded by people who love her, is held back by long-buried personal secrets of the past. Is she Archie Fitzgerald’s daughter? The answer to that alone kept me turning the pages. I agree with other reviewers that Archie dominates every scene, and it isn’t until he vacates centre stage that Mia can have her moment in the spotlight and we learn the truth about who she is. There was a lot to absorb in this novel and many of the answers lay in the past and were the remit of some of the secondary characters who gave the novel a sense of community. I was particularly impressed by the authors use of flashbacks to give the reader the information they needed to understand the motivation of all the characters – and to guess the identity of Mia’s father. In the end, all is resolved and – without giving too much away, I was happy at the way the author tied up all the loose ends to bring the novel to a satisfying conclusion. I look forward to reading the sequel when it is published.
The perfect beach read this summer
Where to find Adrienne Vaughan on social media
The Collaborator’s Daughter
GUEST BLOG – EVA GLYN
CHARACTERS OF A CERTAIN AGE
I have always liked people and I have always liked wine, firmly believing that both are more interesting as they mature. So why does so much romantic fiction feature characters in the first (or, at a push, second) bloom of youth, when those in the third age are largely ignored?
After all I have friends in their sixties who have fallen in love, and why wouldn’t they? For so many retirement is an opportunity to change things around, whether they are single through circumstance or choice. A time of excitement, of new beginnings. And of downright terror about what might lie ahead.
This is where Fran Thomson, my protagonist in The Collaborator’s Daughter, finds herself. She quit her job to care for her stepfather, but now he has died, and when she looks the future in the face it’s rather too shapeless and empty. Not only that, but the past shifts under her feet as well, when she discovers the birth father she always believed died a hero, was executed as a Nazi collaborator.
Fran somehow finds the courage to travel to Dubrovnik to try to find out what happened. I am not altogether sure I would have had the guts, but then she’s a romantic heroine and I am not.
A romantic heroine who, by her own admission, is carrying a few too many pounds and hasn’t a clue how to apply clever make up. So she is more than surprised when Jadran Novak, a Croatian silver fox who was roped into helping her find out about her father by his nephew, begins to take a more than friendly interest and suggests a research trip:
Fran gazed at the clothes spread out on the bed. They were going for three nights, that was all. Why was she making such a meal of it? Her denim skirt would do for the evenings, and she knew Jadran liked her embroidered cardigan, so she’d take that as well.
Despite the difficulties of packing, there was a frisson of something about the trip that took her back to being a girl again, back to the shared house in Parsons Green. This was what they’d do before a night on the town; lay potential outfits on their beds, then run from room to room in their underwear, giggling and squealing, borrowing a skirt here, a pair of tights there …
Oh my god. Underwear. Hers was utilitarian to say the least. Sensible cotton knickers and well-constructed bras. But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as though anyone was going to see them. Were they?
Fumbling her phone she checked Jadran’s text again. He had booked them rooms, plural. Her slightly tatty and greying knickers would remain her secret. As would the folds of flesh they strained to hide. Honestly, she could have at least tried to diet while she was here, but what with a glass or two of wine every night, and baking cakes for Jadran … But it was fine. He’d booked two rooms. Clearly his intentions weren’t sexual at all.
The tiny lurch of disappointment surprised her. Yes, it was a lovely fantasy to want to be kissed and held in his arms, but the reality of going any further was frankly appalling. But that wasn’t entirely true either. A tiny part of her, a part that had been hidden for so long she had almost forgotten it existed, wanted more. Alone in her bed at night, all sorts of more. But in the cold light of day even the thought absolutely terrified her.
Eva Glyn writes relationship-driven fiction set in Croatia for One More Chapter, and she’s rather close to sixty herself. Find out more at www.evaglynauthor.com.
Want to read on? Then follow my lead and download this fabulous novel …….. review to follow in the fullness of time.
Buy link for The Collaborator’s Daughter:
https://mybook.to/CollaboratorsDaughter
Lizzie Lamb - author 