Review: Loved it!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2014
Having organised for best friend Emma to look after her eighteen-month-old son Sebastian, Jennifer Gates cooked Jack’s favourite dinner while cleaning the house from top to bottom. Then she made her way to the Sea Breeze Golf Club where Jack taught his young students the rudimentary facts about playing golf, preparing to surprise him with the entire package – starting with herself. But the surprise back-fired when she discovered Jack getting sandy at the bottom of a bunker – and he wasn’t alone.Distraught, she raced home and packed bags for her and Seb, taking the wine she had chilling plus the beef ragout she had cooked for their dinner - leaving Jack a note on the table – then Jenn headed to Em’s and refuge. With Jenn cuddling her young son and struggling not to cry, Em was horrified and sympathetic. Her solution, after several glasses of wine and dinner, was a sound one – she gave Jenn the keys to her parents’ beach shack down the WA coast at Geographe Bay. Jenn had spent a lot of summers there with the whole Culhane family when she was younger, and she had idolised Em’s big brother, Brayden as long as she had known him. But eight years ago he had made the decision to work in the mines – Jenn was devastated and her decisions went downhill after Brayden left, until she met Jack.The long drive the following day was peaceful in part – Seb slept most of the way while Jenn was deep in thought, wondering what their next step would be, wondering what went wrong with Jack and her relationship – but nearing their destination, teething pain began to cause him to cry, then scream; Jenn was frazzled when she pulled up at the shack – and horrified to see Brayden’s car sitting in the driveway after Em had told her the place was currently empty.As the hours passed and Jenn struggled with her dilemma, she discovered Brayden had problems of his own as well – but their easy friendship of the past was soon rekindled. Seb fell instantly in love with his Uncle Brayden; he was wonderful with kids as he’d been surrounded with them most of his life. Spending some hours at the beach with Seb was soothing… What would happen to her and Jack now? He wanted his girlfriend and son to return home, but was that an option? Jenn was confused, her confidence was shot to pieces… And who was that strange man?What a wonderfully entertaining read! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Aussie author Lily Malone – this is my second by her, and I’ll definitely be reading more. Lily is an extremely talented writer – her characters are real, with emotions which made me react accordingly, even laughing out loud in a few places! An author who is right up there at the top of her genre, and I have no hesitation in recommending this one highly.