My favourites this month are:
Daisy James - Escape to the Hummingbird Hotel
This is a new author for me, and I shall certainly look out for more of her feelgood novels! Abi is unexpectedly left a property in Corfu by her aunt, whom she'd never met because due to a mysterious family estrangement. Following a disastrous romance, Abi decides to take a holiday there to deal with selling the property. The money would mean she could buy her dream cottage in England and pursue her ideal career as a botanist. The Hummingbird Hotel is not at all what she expected, nestled in the Corfu countryside next to an extensive vineyard. It's a place for retreats, enriching courses and relaxation. She finds herself immediately on the wrong foot with the vineyard's owner, Nico. As Abi begins to fall in love with the peace and beauty of the island and make friends with the locals, she's also finding her emotions are being stirred by the handsome Nico who seems to have some troubling issues in his past. Abi begins to question her intention to sell the hotel, realising it would cause many problems for the people she has grown to care for. But if she stays, will it be the end of her own dreams? Atmospheric, and a wonderful escapist read during the dark months of a British winter.
Faith Hogan - The Bookshop Ladies
I always enjoy Faith Hogan's novels. This is another set in her fictional Irish seaside town of Ballycove, and I spotted one or two characters from her previous books. In The Bookshop Ladies, American Joy has recently lost her Parisian art dealer husband. On his deathbed he shocked her by revealing that he has a daughter. This is heartbreaking for Joy, as the two of them were childless. She discovers that he's left his daughter Robyn a painting, which on impulse she decides to take to her in Ballycove. She finds the young woman to be lacking in confidence and pining with unrequited love. Robyn also has no idea of her origins. Before Joy can reveal who she is, a misunderstanding leads her to become a volunteer in the old bookshop that Robyn has just taken over. Against all the odds, Joy takes to her husband's daughter, and realises that she can help her with the dilapidated and financially failing bookshop. But when Robyn's mother Fern arrives in a state of despair, it is inevitable that secrets will be revealved. All three women are caught up in the life of the bookshop, and soon their long-held ideas about life, love, friendship and family are challenged. Warm-hearted and uplifting.
Diane Saxon - The Good Twin
This English thriller had me hooked. Twins Summer and Skye lost their mother due to a brain haemorrhage not long before they were due to go to university. Summer bows to her father's wish to defer her place and stay at home to help their twelve year old sister Jade in the aftermath of this tragic event. But her twin Skye takes chooses to go to university. When Summer disappears with no warning, the family concludes she must have run off, unable to cope. They don't realise that she's been taken, and is being held prisoner. The novel unfolds in two timelines, and from two points of view. We see Summer in her prison, suffering at the hands of her attacker who is only known as L.J. Then seven years on, we see her family beginning to move on. Jade is at university, Skye has her own flat and a dog, and a failed relationship. But most importantly, it's their father's wedding day, to Martha. At the last minute before they leave for the church, Skye answers a call to their house phone, and the torment of her twin's disappearance bursts back into her life. High in suspense, the reader is pulled along in a breathtaking ride as clue after clue begins to surface, and danger stalks Skye as well as her twin. Compelling right to the last page.