The Hidden Cottage

Description

Mia Channing appears to have an enviable life: a beautiful home, a happy marriage, a job she enjoys and three grown-up children to whom she's devoted. But appearances can be deceptive. . . When the family gathers for her son's 30th birthday, he brings with him his latest girlfriend who, to their surprise, has a nine-year-old daughter. Then, before the birthday cake has even been cut, Mia's youngest daughter Daisy has seized the opportunity to drop a bombshell. It's an evening that marks a turning point in all their lives, when old resentments and regrets surface and the carefully ordered world Mia has created begins to unravel.

With an insatiable appetite for other people's business, Erica James will readily strike up conversation with strangers in the hope of unearthing a useful gem for her writing. She finds it the best way to write authentic characters for her novels, although her two grown-up sons claim they will never recover from a childhood spent in a perpetual state of embarrassment at their mother's compulsion. The author of many bestselling novels, including Gardens of Delight which won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, and her recent Sunday Times top ten bestseller, The Queen of New Beginnings, Erica now divides her time between Cheshire and Lake Como in Italy, where she strikes up conversation with unsuspecting Italians.

The Hidden Cottage is a heart-warming, romantic story full of engaging characters, an emotional rollercoaster. * DAILY EXPRESS * I raced to the end of this. * DAILY MAIL * Like Maeve Binchy, the characters are identifiable, yet somehow never predictable and always with an element of sympathy ... This novel, telling the story of a perfect family and its imperfect realities, is splendid and just right for an end-of-summer read. * PARENT TALK * A story of family ties, love and loss * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *