Jenny Colgan - The Summer Seaside Kitchen
Another of Jenny Colgan's fabulous romantic comedy books, this novel transports the reader from everyday life into a remote Scottish island where the skies are endless, summer daytime lasts forever, and anything is possible. The heroine, Flora, has left her island home for the bustle of London where she works as a paralegal, and dreams about her handsome but unattainable boss, Joel. By a strange coincidence, one of the firm's rich clients has a problem with wind farms on Flora's home island. She is sent by her firm to investigate the problem, and to try and get the locals on the client's side. But Flora has issues of her own to confront, and finds it hard to return to the family home where her father and three brothers still work the farm. She faces the past, revisits old pain, and begins to connect with her family and friends. But her boss, Joel, soon arrives to help with the case. It's a mix of nostalgia, romance, family issues and glorious nature, all in a wonderful setting. A magical combination.
Amelie Antoine – Interference
Gabriel, 31, is mourning the sudden death of his wife, Chloe. In the weeks after the funeral he begins to look more deeply at the life he spent with her, searching for answers, and begins to wonder what she was hiding. His grief is tempered by meeting Emma, a photographer, who is helping members of a bereavement group compile memory photo albums. She is saving hard to pursue her dream of being a photojournalist. The two begin to connect, and we see the plot unfold from the point of view of Gabriel, Emma, and a ghostly Chloe. The story has a twist which took me completely by surprise (which I won’t spoil). This debut novel by a young French author (translated) is unusual and stirs up questions of the ethics of contemporary values. All three main characters turn out different from the way we originally see them. The book stretches belief, but it's an interesting read, which was an Amazon choice new publication.