An uplifting, charming read which you’ll be recommending to everyone – a wonderful read – meet Coming Home to Brightwater Bay by Holly Hepburn.
The plot:
Merina Wilde has it all: a successful career writing the kind of romantic novels that make even the hardest hearts swoon, a perfect carousel of book launches and parties to keep her social life buzzing, and a childhood sweetheart who thinks she’s a goddess. But Merry has a secret: the magic has stopped flowing from her fingers. Try as she might, she can’t summon up the sparkle that makes her stories shine. And as her deadline whooshes by, her personal life falls apart too. Alex tells her he wants something other than the future she’d always imagined for them and Merry finds herself single for the first time since – well, ever.
Desperate to get her life back on track, Merry leaves London and escapes to the windswept Orkney Islands, locking herself away in a secluded clifftop cottage to try to heal her heart and rediscover her passion for writing.
But can the beauty of the islands and the kindness of strangers help Merry to fool herself into believing in love again, if only long enough to finish her book? Or is it time for her to give up the career she’s always adored and find something new to set her soul alight?
With every page, I loved it more and more
If you need a definition for the perfect feel-good read, this book will be right at the top of the list.
This was the exact book I needed – I couldn’t stop smiling whilst reading it and I honestly gave it a hug a couple of times and I’m most definitely not ashamed. I’ve already compiled a list of people who I’m absolutely buying a copy for. It’s not a “you’ll like this”, it’s a “this is everything you could need right now” book.
The plot is one of my favourites in this genre– writer struggling to write, escapes big city life, heartbreak? Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything better.
I knew 30 pages in that I was going to love it, and with every page, I loved it more and more. From the characters, to the location and just how I felt myself relax into the comfortable writing. It genuinely made me laugh out loud too, something I find fairly tricky with books.
These characters – honestly, take me to Brightwater Bay just for them. From a roof-eating goat (you read that right), to Merry’s best friend, the love interests (swoon-worthy) and the neighbours – what a fantastic group. I also loved how involved I became with Merry; there were times I wanted to give her a hug and then shake her, and more often than not, just be living her life.
A minor issue I had was that there’s repetition when it isn’t needed, in the first half of the book. For example, a character’s name might be mentioned, and then there’s another couple of sentences around them, like we hadn’t met them (which we had).
This is the 5th book published in relation to Brightwater Bay, and although I haven’t read the previous novellas (yet – they’re currently in eBook formatting), sign me up for hundreds more. I’m a little ashamed to say I haven’t read anything else by Hepburn, and I’m going to read all of her books asap.
I cried so many happy tears during the last 20-odd pages, and I’ve never smiled so much whilst reading – Cheshire Cat smiles. Loved loved loved – 5-stars.
Coming Home to Brightwater Bay, Holly Hepburn, RRP £7.99 (hardback); Book Depository
Pages: 431
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Romance, Fiction
