Freya’s life is in tatters. She has lost her job and her husband so has retreated to Heaven’s Cove to stay with her interfering sister. Belinda has set Freya up with a job interview and Freya is nervous but more than qualified. Working with Kathleen goes well except for the cold behaviour from her son Ryan combined with keeping secrets from him…
I felt that this book was more emotional than the previous two as the main characters are all beset by grief. Freya is mourning the end of her marriage, Ryan is mourning the death of his wife, and Kathleen has a secret heartache that she has kept hidden for decades. This also serves to give each of them a vulnerability which makes them easy to like.
The plot is delivered through multiple perspectives in the third person. This allows the various characters to explore their situations, emotions and reactions to events. The setting is richly described and provides a backdrop to the developing personal situations. We meet characters from the previous books and it is nice to catch up with their lives.
The Girl at the Last House Before the Sea is an emotional yet uplifting novel.
The Girl at the Last House Before the Sea: An absolutely addictive and heartbreaking page-turner (Heaven’s Cove Book 3)
The girl stands on the clifftop, feeling the soft breeze lift her shining red hair and dry her tears. She can almost hear Ireland calling her home across the wild sea. But she can never go back. And in that moment, she swears no-one will ever find out why.
Freya is desperate for escape from her messy break-up when she’s offered a job caring for elderly Kathleen in the seaside village of Heaven’s Cove. Kathleen’s once-red hair is now a brilliant white, but there’s always laughter in her Irish lilt – until the day Freya finds her weeping, her gaze fixed on Driftwood House, perched on the cliffs above the village. She refuses to say what’s wrong…
Kathleen’s son Ryan, quiet with striking emerald eyes, resents that a stranger is caring for his mother. But as Freya presses him for answers on a long walk across a windswept beach, Ryan finally admits that Kathleen breaks down in the same way, on the exact same day every year – never telling anyone what is causing her pain.
Finding a photo of Kathleen as a young girl standing outside Driftwood House years before she says she moved to the village, Freya is determined to find the source of Kathleen’s heartache. But as she gets closer to Ryan, and to the sad, forgotten history of the house, Freya is faced with an impossible decision…
Should she share this heartbreaking secret with Ryan and risk their chance of happiness together? And will facing the truth bring Kathleen peace in her final years – or will it tear them all apart?
An absolutely breath-taking and heartbreaking page-turner about healing old sorrows and finding new joys. Perfect for fans of Debbie Macomber, Barbara O’Neal, and anyone longing to escape to the rugged Devon coast.
Liz writes heart-warming and uplifting women’s fiction about families and relationships, and romantic comedies full of love and laughs.
She worked as a journalist for years and brought up a family on the south coast of England, all the while writing fiction on the quiet. After being short-listed in a couple of national novel-writing competitions, her dream of being a published author came true when she was signed by Bookouture.
When not writing, Liz likes walking by the sea, catching up with friends and binge-watching box sets. She also loves hearing from readers and can be contacted at www.lizeeles.com, or on social media.
