The House by the Sea

From Sunday Times best-selling author Santa Montefiore comes a novel about losing yourself, but finding your future.… Ellen Trawton is running away from it all - literally. She’s getting married to a man she doesn't love, her job is depressing, and her mother is getting on her nerves. So she escapes to the one place she knows her mother won't follow her - her aunt's house in rural Ireland. Once there, she uncovers a dark family secret - and a future she never knew she might have.

England, 1932: Grace Hamblin, the beekeeper's daughter, knows her place and her future, until her father dies. She’s alone, except for one man who she just can't shake from her thoughts…. Massachusetts, 1973: Grace's daughter Trixie Valentine is in love. But when he has to go home to England, he promises to come back, if she will wait for him. Both mother and daughter are searching for love and happiness, unaware of the secrets that bind them.

Gracie Burton is a grandmother living quietly in Devon. She has rarely left the village over the past 40 years. Her daughter, Carina, is immensely high-powered, with her own fast-paced business in London. She has very little time for her 17-year-old daughter, Anastasia, away at boarding school, and even less time for her ageing mother. In many ways, the three of them barely know each other. 

When her husband dies in a tragic accident, Antoinette's world falls apart. He was her rock and the man she thought she knew better than she knew herself. But as she arrives at the church for George's funeral, she sees an unfamiliar woman. Phaedra loved George too, and could not bear to stay away from his funeral. As she sits before his wife, she knows that what she is about to reveal will change their lives forever….

1995, London. When Sir James Harrison, one the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of 95 he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family but also a secret so shocking, so devastating that it could rock the English establishment to its core. Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist assigned to cover the legendary actor's funeral. The great and the good of the celebrity world are there. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind, the contents of which others have been desperate to conceal for over 70 years. 

Gianluca's life is empty. His City job, his seven-figure income, his glossy girlfriends - all have long ceased to satisfy him. His marriage is over, and he barely knows his young daughters. In search of serenity and a deeper purpose, he flees to Italy. But life on the sun-drenched Amalfi coast is not as peaceful as Luca anticipates.

Best-selling children's book writer Angelica is amused and flattered at the attention of Jack, the owner of a vineyard in South Africa, whom she meets at a dinner party. With his easy charm and reputation as a ladies' man, Jack makes her feel good about herself - surely it can't do any harm to indulge in a mild email flirtation?

When nine-year-old orphan Georgia James is unexpectedly fostered by the kindly Celia and her bank manager husband, she can hardly believe her luck. But then - on her 15th birthday - she suffers the cruellest betrayal of all at the hands of her foster father and is forced to run away, leaving everything she loves behind.

Absorbing and escapist, The Villa on the Riviera is perfect summer listening for fans of Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore. Polly Smith is struggling to make a living as an artist when her friend and patron, Oliver, invites her to the south of France. But her world is unexpectedly turned upside down when she digs out her birth certificate to apply for a passport. Her parents are not who she believed them to be - even her name is different.

At the age of thirty two, Harriet Swift thinks she has the perfect life - a satisfying career, her own flat and a new boyfriend who respects her need for her own space. But when tragedy strikes and her only sister is killed in a car crash, Harriet is forced to give up her well-ordered life and to help her parents look after her orphaned niece and nephew. Moving back to her childhood home and sacrificing so much doesn't come easy and before long Harriet discovers things about her family she never believed possible...

Summer 1939: After touring an unsettled Europe to promote her latest book, Romily Temple returns home to Island House and the love of her life, Jack Devereux. But when Jack falls ill, his estranged family are called to his bedside. With war now declared, each member of the family is reluctantly forced to accept their new stepmother and confront their own shortcomings. But can Romily cope with the life that has been so unexpectedly thrust upon her?

On holiday with friends, young historian Briony Andrews becomes fascinated with a wartime story of a ruined villa in the hills behind Naples. Briony’s grandfather had been a British soldier during the Italian campaign of 1943 in that very area. Handed a bundle of letters that were found after the war, Briony sets off to trace the fate of their sender, Sarah Bailey. As Briony begins to uncover the story, she encounters resentments and secrets still tightly guarded.

Summer 1935. Best friends Kate Shelton, Ella Tetley and Daphne St. Maur are on the cusp of a new life, having graduated with classics degrees. Kate is desperate to start work on an archaeological dig straightaway, and she is thrilled to be given a position at the famous Knossos palace site in Crete. However, she doesn't bargain for working with gruff site director Lewis Sinclair - nor for her own complex feelings towards him. In Yorkshire, Ella's family expect her to marry Sam, her steady friend who is training to be a doctor....

A love affair...between Matt Shaw, self-made property tycoon, and Eliza Clark, dazzling fashion editor and one-time Deb of the Year. Their story spans sixties London, the extravagance of Milan and the lovely decaying country house that has been in Eliza's family for generations, and the source of huge trouble itself.

THE PRESENT - After her mother’s death, Emilie de la Martiniéres finds herself the sole inheritor of a chateau in the south of France. There she discovers an old notebook which leads her along a journey to unravel the tragic love story of the mysterious Sophia. THE PAST (1943). Constance Carruthers, arrives in occupied Paris at the height of conflict. There she stumbles into the heart of a wealthy family and is drawn into a web of deception, the repercussions of which will affect generations to come.