The Summerhouse by the Sea: The best selling perfect feel-good summer beach read!
The Top 10 bestseller!'You know you're in for a treat when you open a Jenny Oliver book' Debbie JohnsonA brand new summery story about returning to your past and finding a new beginning from bestselling author Jenny Oliver!Every Summer has its own story…For Ava Fisher, the backdrop to all her sun-drenched memories – from her first taste of chocolate-dipped churros to her very first kiss – is her grandmother’s Summerhouse in the sleepy Spanish seaside town of Mariposa.Returning for one last summer, Ava throws herself into a project her grandmother would be proud of. Café Estrella - once the heart of the sleepy seaside village - now feels more ramshackle than rustic. Just like Ava, it seems it has lost its sparkle.Away from the exhausting juggle of London life, Ava realises somehow her life has stopped being…happy. But being back at the Summerhouse by the sea could be the new beginning she didn’t even realise she needed…
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‘Brilliantly written, this is packed full of humour and there is a wonderful thread of love… A perfect holiday read.’
– The Sun
‘This book made me want to dance on the beach with a glass of Sangria in my hand. The perfect summer read.’
– Sarah Morgan
‘This is a real treat. A touching story of love, loss and finding out what really matters on life. I love it!’
– Julia Williams
‘Jenny Oliver writes contemporary women’s fiction which leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.’
– Books with Bunny
‘Intelligent, delightful and charming! The writing is exquisite.’
– What’s Better Than Books
‘A very uplifting story full of happy endings and guaranteed to make you smile…’
– Goodreads
‘A sprinkling of festivity, a touch of romance and a glorious amount of mouth-watering baking!’
– Rea Book Review
‘…it was everything I enjoy…I couldn’t find a single flaw in the book.’
– Afternoon Bookery
‘I didn’t want to put the book down until I had reached the very last word on the last page.’
– A Spoonful of Happy Endings
JENNY OLIVER wrote her first book on holiday when she was ten years old. Illustrated with cut-out supermodels from her sister’s Vogue, it was an epic, sweeping love story not so loosely based on Dynasty.
Since then Jenny has gone on to get an English degree and a job in publishing that’s taught her what it takes to write a novel (without the help of the supermodels). Nowadays, her inspiration comes from her love of all things vintage, a fascination with other people’s relationships and an unwavering belief in happy ever after!
Follow her on Twitter @JenOliverBooks or take a look at her blog jennyoliverbooks.com.
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2017
Copyright © Jenny Oliver 2017
Jenny Oliver 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 author’s 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, down-loaded, 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.
Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008217969
Version: 2018-07-18
For Waldo and Woody
CONTENTS
Ava was standing at the crossing when her phone beeped. She took it from her pocket at the same time as glancing left for traffic.
Instead of looking right, Ava opened the WhatsApp message from her brother, Rory: Gran in hospital, it read. She frowned down at her phone and wondered how Rory could ever think that was enough information. But then the horn of the 281 bus stopped all other conscious thought.
The shriek of the brakes filled the air as she saw the huge windscreen, the wipers. The face of the driver in slow motion, mouth open. Her whole body tensed. She felt her hand drop the phone. Time paused.
There was a fleeting thought that this was actually really embarrassing.
And then – smack – she didn’t think anything else. Just felt the hard pain in her hip, then the thwack of her head as she was thrown down on to the tarmac, and an overriding sense of unfairness because she wasn’t yet ready to die.
The nurse waited patiently as Ava tried once more to get through to her brother.
‘It’s voicemail,’ Ava said, apologetic. ‘Everyone’s on voicemail. No one’s answering their phone, I’ve tried everyone. I’m really sorry.’ All her friends were in meetings or on the tube or at lunch, unreachable.
‘It’s fine.’ The nurse’s nametag read Julie Stork. Ava wondered if using her name might aid familiarity – she found it a bit creepy when the man at Starbucks called her Ava because he’d written it on a cup every day, but she could do with an ally. The alternative was another nurse, Tina, who Julie was talking quietly with now. Tina was terrifying. Her uniform stretched tight over her solid figure, hair scraped back in a ponytail, all-seeing eyes like hungry jackdaws. She’d been the one to inform Ava that she couldn’t go home without someone to watch over her for twenty-four hours, while making it very clear that they needed the bed back as soon as possible.
