Doubting Abbey
Hilarious and heartwarming, spend your holiday season with Gemma and AbbeySwapping downstairs for upstairs… How hard can it be!?Look up the phrase ordinary girl and you’ll see a picture of me, Gemma Goodwin – I only look half-decent after applying the entire contents of my make-up bag, and my dating track-record includes a man who treated me to dinner…at a kebab shop. No joke!The only extraordinary thing about me is that I look EXACTLY like my BFF, Abbey Croxley. Oh, and that for reasons I can’t explain, I’ve agreed to swap identities and pretend be her to star in the TV show about her aristocratic family’s country estate, Million Dollar Mansion.So now it’s not just my tan I’m faking – it’s Kate Middleton style demure hemlines and lady-like manners too. And amongst the hundreds of fusty etiquette rules I’m trying to cram into my head, there are two I really must remember; 1) No-one can ever find out that I’m just Gemma, who’d be more at home in the servants quarters. And 2) There can be absolutely no flirting with Abbey’s dishy but buttoned-up cousin, Lord Edward.Aaargh, this is going to be harder than I thought…Praise for Samantha Tonge'I was hooked from the start, by this impressive debut novel' – Chicklit Club'This really was a humorous read, Gemma is such a witty character who always seems to get herself into mischief, I never expected this book to be a witty read but it was the humour that kept me hooked.' – Rea Book Reviews' Samantha Tonge has taken an every-day girl and stuck her in this crumbling manor where she has to pretend to be her best friend and help win a reality TV program. She takes all our guilty pleasures and wraps them in one good read.' – Novel Escapes
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Swapping downstairs for upstairs⦠How hard can it be!?
Look up the phrase ordinary girl and youâll see a picture of me, Gemma Goodwin â I only look half-decent after applying the entire contents of my make-up bag, and my dating track-record includes a man who treated me to dinnerâ¦at a kebab shop. No joke!
The only extraordinary thing about me is that I look EXACTLY like my BFF, Abbey Croxley. Oh, and that for reasons I canât explain, Iâve agreed to swap identities and pretend be her to star in the TV show about her aristocratic familyâs country estate, Million Dollar Mansion.
So now itâs not just my tan Iâm faking â itâs Kate Middleton style demure hemlines and lady-like manners too. And amongst the hundreds of fusty etiquette rules Iâm trying to cram into my head, there are two I really must remember; 1) No-one can ever find out that Iâm just Gemma, whoâd be more at home in the servants quarters. And 2) There can be absolutely no flirting with Abbeyâs dishy but buttoned-up cousin, Lord Edward.
Aaargh, this is going to be harder than I thoughtâ¦
Doubting Abbey
Samantha Tonge
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2013
Copyright © Samantha Tonge 2013
Samantha Tonge asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2013 ISBN: 9781472073778
Version date: 2018-07-23
SAMANTHA TONGE lives in Cheshire with her lovely family and two cats who think they are dogs. Along with writing, her days are spent swimming, willing cakes to rise and avoiding housework. A love of fiction developed as a child, when she was known for reading Enid Blyton books in the bath. A desire to write bubbled away in the background whilst she pursued other careers, including a fun stint working at the EuroDisney theme park. Formally trained as a linguist, Samantha now likes nothing more than holing herself up in the spare room, in front of the keyboard. Writing romantic comedy novels and short stories for womenâs magazines is her passion.
Huge thanks to Lucy Gilmour and the HQ Digital UK team for this opportunity and their enthusiasm. Same to my agent, Kate Nash, for all her hard work. Thanks to those writing friends who have unconditionally supported my journey to publication, in particular Caroline Green and Emma Darwin. I couldnât have done it either, without the rest of the WriteWords crew, including Jon Gritton with his technical know-how. Plus Iâve appreciated input into my writing career from Shirley Blair at The Peopleâs Friend.
For Martin, Immy and Jay â thanks for never doubting me.
Contents
Copyright
Epilogue
About the Publisher
LORD EDWARDâS E-DIARY
Welcome to this blog. Your visit is appreciated. May I introduce myself â I am Lord Edward, the son of the Earl of Croxley. Our home, Applebridge Hall, is in the final of theMillion Dollar Mansioncompetition. For regular updates of our progress, please do grace this blog with your presence.
Monday 27>th August
7p.m. Good evening, readers. Finally I write my first entry. Do bear with me, as I am new to blogging, which I see as a modern twist on my ancestorsâ habit of keeping journals. The programme-makers insist you will be interested in my thoughts on the competition, so I shall attempt to bring honesty and some perspective to this diary.
Honest thought number one? Chaos has descended. The film crews arrived again todayâcue a refresher course on camera and sound procedures. A national tabloid interviewed Father. To my irritation, the photographer suggested we both wore monocles and borrowed a cluster of the Queenâs corgis. Regardless of the fact I donât know Her Majesty, my response equalled âover my dead bodyâ.
