Ally and her dad, Geoff, run the family business, a creative retreat, from their home Hollyhock Cottage in picturesque Kittiwake Cove. They give their guests their dream break, but Ally hankers after glamourous city living, fancy restaurants and art galleries.
Ally’s survival strategy is to escape out of season, take a break abroad and pretend to be the person she always imagined she would be. She meets Logan while she’s away and he turns out to be exactly the kind of distraction she’s looking for.
With her spirits restored, Ally returns home, picks up the reins again and sets her sights on another successful season, but when Logan unexpectedly arrives on the scene, she soon realises she’s in for a summer that’s going to be far from straightforward…
Heidi Swain is one of my auto buy authors and I have loved
each and every one of her books that she has written. The Holiday Escape is her
second standalone novel so this is a perfect book to introduce you to Heidi’s
writing if you haven’t read a book by her before.
Ally is our female lead in The Holiday Escape and we meet her
two personas! The Ally who jets away to Barcelona and pretends to be the person
living the life she dreamed of and the Ally who lives and works with her dad at
costal Hollyhock Cottage where they run creative retreats.
But call it fate if you will Allys two worlds are about to
collide when the romance, she sparked on her recent get away surprises her by
turning up at Hollyhock Cottage!
This set of characters got right under my skin and I
devoured each and every chapter hungry for more. Ally is such a selfless
character putting her mums wishes and dads needs before her own and I loved the
path of self-discovery she made throughout this storyline with a little help
from Logan along the way. The friendship between Ally and Flora was a joy to
watch they felt more like sisters with an unbreakable bond but as for the
dreaded Tara she had my warning siren going off from her first appearance!
What I loved about this storyline is that in places it was
predictable but equally there was surprises instore for me too so I was kept hooked
the whole way through and could kick myself for not joining the dots together
to work out what was going on behind the scenes.
The book covers the effects of losing a loved one on our path
in life, moving on and letting go of the restraints we sometimes put on
ourselves through feeling of loyalty, duty and love. But this book is on no way
a sad novel it is full of hope, friendship, love and support.
Heidi Swain’s first book The Cherry Tree Café has always
held the number one spot firmly for me and as much as I have loved her
following books none of them have quite challenged this one for the top spot…..
That is until The Holiday Escape has come along and now it
hasn’t knocked it off its perch but they are sitting firmly together in the
number one spot together so Heidi Swain fans you are in for a treat with this
one.
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