Monday, July 16, 2018

Review: A Cottage By The Sea


A Cottage By The Sea by Ciji Ware. Sourcebooks. 2010.

The Plot: Blythe Barton Stowe flees to Cornwall after a bitter divorce. She walked in on her movie director husband Christopher with someone else -- and while she's getting a nice settlement, the money hardly makes up for the pain, the loss, the betrayal.

Her grandmother says their family came from Cornwall, so Blythe decides to do some exploring in addition to hiding out from the press. She rents a cottage on the estate of "Barton Hall," that may or may not be linked to her family. She meets the handsome widower who is the current owner, struggling to make ends meet.

And she also finds herself having visions -- of an eighteenth century Blythe Barton, who had a husband named Christopher. What wil l the past tell her about the present? And her future?

The Good: I enjoyed this book -- a nice romance, and the supernatural aspect was nicely interwoven into the present story. I like a story that is about a person picking up the pieces and reinventing themselves, and Blythe does that -- and also has to deal with the complicated feelings from her divorce.

And the setting! All very Poldark.

Main drawback: most of the other women are viewed and portrayed as competitors for first her husband, then her boyfriend. Very old school romance -- it seems the books I read in high school always had a snobby posh girlfriend (or practically girlfriend) for the love interest, who was terrible yet somehow the guy never realized it.



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© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

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