Recharge your batteries with two sunshine reads – by various authors – book reviews –

The Cornish Hideaway

Jennifer Bibby

Spring is here so what better way to start recharging your batteries than an early visit to the warm sunshine of a picturesque seaside village nestling in Cornwall?

Debut novelist Jennifer Bibby admits she is happiest by the sea, and loves to travel and enjoys exploring the lives of women as they set out on life-changing adventures, new friendships and of course, the promise of romance.

And when her favourite kind of romantic hero is a typical bad boy turned good (with a dark and hidden backstory just waiting to be dug out!) then you know you’re in for a rollercoaster ride... and on this occasion, through the gorgeous sun, sand and sea of Cornwall.

All artist Freya has ever wanted to do is paint so when she fails her Master’s Degree in Art, on the same day that her boyfriend Matt decides he needs a ‘more serious’ partner, to Freya – now artistically ‘burned out’ – it feels like the end of the world.

Luckily, she has a saviour in the shape of best friend Lola who invites her to the sleepy Cornish village of Polcarrow to work in her café. With nothing keeping her in London, Freya jumps at the chance of a summer by the sea.

What Freya needs now is time to focus on herself but then dark and mysterious biker Angelo Borelli blows into town on a stormy afternoon, with his own artistic dreams and a secretive past, and Freya’s plans of a romance-free summer fly straight out of the window.

Readers will adore basking in the warmth and healing power of Bibby’s gorgeous summertime odyssey as friends old and new, and a caring, close-knit community, rally round a young woman who is learning to love again.

Using art as her central motif, Bibby lets her words paint pictures so we can feel the sun on our faces, and hear the sigh of the waves and the calls of the gulls as Freya resets her life and follows her heart to a place to call home that seems a million miles from busy, bustling London.

Charming, uplifting, and packed with wonderful characters, this is the perfect story to kick off a summer of loving!

(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £8.99)

The Boathouse by Stepping Stone Bay

Helen Rolfe

Sun, sea and sand... sit back and relax into a beautifully warm, romantic and soul-soothing tale of family, forgiveness and second chances as feelgood women’s fiction writer Helen Rolfe whisks us away to idyllic Stepping Stone Bay.

Rolfe always writes straight from the heart and her much-loved stories feature idyllic rural locations where problems are real, characters often face challenges, broken people are mended, love and friendship blossom, and endings are always happy.

So soak up the good vibes that weave their way into this journey through childhood memories and painful secrets as we meet a young woman revisiting the gorgeous seaside village of her youth and discovering that sometimes, starting again means taking a step back.

As a kid, Nina O’Brien spent all her summers at her grandparents’ cabin by the beach at Stepping Stone Bay. Long, sunny days full of fun and laughter with her best friends, Leo Magowan, the boy from the boatyard next door, his older brother Adrian, and local girl Maeve.

As Nina grew older, her friendship with Leo slowly started to blossom into love but one fateful summer night changed everything and those glorious days came to an abrupt end for them all.

Twelve years later, Nina must return to the bay to renovate the old cabin and pass it on to a new owner. But her plan to get the job done and get out isn’t quite as simple as she thinks because Leo still lives in the cabin next door and not only that, he works at his family’s boathouse right there in the bay.

As they begin to work through their differences and what happened all those years ago, will Nina really be able to walk away from him twice?

Meanwhile, Maeve has finally returned home to face the past. Her eleven-year-old son, Jonah, loves the sea, unlike Maeve who is terrified of it. But she knows she can’t keep Jonah away from the sea or the truth forever because sooner or later her secret will be out.

Rolfe has her own very special brand of kindness, and it’s this sense of warmth and intimacy that makes The Boathouse by Stepping Stone Bay such a sparkling, sun-kissed treat... a reading gift which is guaranteed to lift hearts and make us long for summer.

With emotions running high, painful topics tackled with genuine compassion and understanding, plenty of romance to enjoy, and all set in the kind of enchanting seaside village where many of us would love to live, this is a book that might well need to be consumed in just one sitting!

(Orion, paperback, £7.99)