A Cottage By The Sea By Carole Matthews

[amazon_link id=”0751545538″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’A Cottage By The Sea’ is the latest book by Sunday Times bestseller, Carole Matthews.

Grace has been best friends with Ella and Flick forever. The late-night chats, shared heartaches and good times have created a bond that has stood the test of time. When Ella invites them to stay for a week in her cottage in South Wales, Grace jumps at the chance to see her old friends. She also hopes that the holiday will help her relationship with her husband Harry and that the space and time will give them the chance to reconnect. Then lovely and bubbly Flick arrives, accompanied by handsome and charming Noah. This is one week which will change all their lives forever.

Like everyone else I was quite excited about ‘A Cottage By The Sea’ and when I received a copy, I was quite quick to get stuck in.

Right from the start, we are brought into Grace’s troubled world, where her marriage is far from ideal and as she tries to find her own way in life, she struggles with new emotions and experiences. Her best friends Ella and Flick, have been by her side since university working and partying together, they helped each other through the ups and downs. Ella is a quiet, artistic and bohemian character, who has found her heart belongs to her parents seaside cottage, but her partner Art has other ideas, with a rock n’ roll lifestyle, he has no intention of settling down. Whilst successful literary agent Flick, longs to settle down after a string of failed relationships with studs and married men, she thinks she has found a keeper in the shape of estate manager, Noah.

‘A Cottage By The Sea’ is a rollercoaster of a book, packed with witty moments and scenes of heartwarming tenderness between friends, as they reminisce about university life when things were much simpler. As the story is seen through the perspective of Grace, I thought she was a wonderful lead character, intriguing to read, as the week passed, she seemed to develop into a completely different character, gone was the quiet and hesitant woman who first arrived at the cottage and with the help of mysterious and gentle Noah, she becomes a vibrant woman who suddenly discovers a lust for life. Even though Grace was my favourite character in the book, I did develop soft spots for Ella and Noah, both characters had lovely calming presences in the story when scenes became particularly rowdy. As for the characters, Flick, Harry and Art, I found them all deplorable, they were all self absorbed, selfish and conceited, as all they seemed to do was sit about and drink. Flick, in particular, annoyed me as a friend, she was the worst one, shallow and oblivious to her friends troubles, I regularly found that my blood would boil with scenes with her in them!

Wonderfully written with interesting characters and a beautiful seaside cottage to envy, ‘A Cottage By The Sea’ is refreshing and compelling story, that will have you hooked from the very beginning, filled with friendship, humour, sun and sand, this book is beautifully touching and the perfect holiday read.

You can buy[amazon_link id=”0751545538″ target=”_blank” ] A Cottage by the Sea on Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available from good bookshops.