This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Debs Carr
Judith Warren is standing at the alter with her fiance, John in the Cape Cod church near her parent's home when she realizes that not only is this not the wedding she'd imagined for herself, she's also wearing the dress her mother chose, with flowers in her mother's favourite colour, and also that she's about to commit herself to a man her mother chose for her. John is handsome, fun and her best friend and although she loves him, she's not in love with him and neither, despite her best attempts, will she ever be a proper replacement in her parents' hearts for her dead sister Rose.
Jude runs away, devastating John and her parents and through her mother's best friend in Oxford ends up going to work in Cornwall at Pengarrock the ancestral home of Petroc Trevillion an academic with film star looks. Jude is an archivist who specialises in gardens, she's read all Petroc's books and is excited to have the chance to work with someone she's admired for so long, but finds the older man in an unhappy state trying to find a way to keep his home despite the financial drain it has on him and his son's distinct lack of interest in the place and antagonism towards his father. Petroc is haunted by a past tragedy and confides in Jude about his search to solve a historic mystery and find the whereabouts of jewels that went missing over a century before, but which he believes could save his family home should he manage to find them.
There are some books that you open, sit down to read and don't stop until you've finished and this is one of those books for me. The vivid colours of the Cornish coast and the views of the Helford river as the backdrop to the tired, but magnificent family home of the Trevillions, together with mystery that has scarred Petroc's life and distanced his son kept me reading until the very end. A Cornish Affair reminds me of hazy, sunny days, it's full of mystery, romance and a perfect summer read, whatever the weather.
10/10
Liz Fenwick's Website