
Hello and welcome to Books and Me! Today I have the pleasure of handing over the Blog to the lovely ANGELA BRITNELL as she shares an extract with you to help celebrate publication day for the fabulous SUMMER AT SEASPRAY COTTAGE
Over to you Angela…
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RELEASE DAY POST: Summer at Seaspray Cottage by Angela Britnell
Itâs lovely to be here again, Karen and thank you so much for inviting me to stop by on publication day my new release â Summer at Seaspray Cottage. The story is set primarily in my home county of Cornwall and Chough Cove is inspired by Mevagissey, the small fishing village where my mother grew up. I thought your readers might enjoy a small taste of the book so have picked out an extract for them. To set up the story: Thea Armitage has inherited her auntâs cottage in Chough Cove and returned to Cornwall for the first time since she was a teenager. Harry Venton has also landed back in Chough Cove and this time heâs determined not to be driven out by either public opinion or the father he hasnât spoken to in twenty years. Much to the dismay of many villagers heâs building a house and is there to stay. To say heâs shocked to come literally face to face again with the woman heâs never been able to forget â no matter how hard he’s tried â is an understatement of massive proportions ⌅…………
âMr H, are you going to sign for this or stare into space all day?â Jacko poked Harryâs arm and pointed at the waiting delivery driver.
Harry grabbed the tablet and used his finger to scrawl something resembling his name on the screen. Maybe he was a dinosaur but he preferred a pen and paper over these techy gadgets that made everyone look illiterate. âCheers.â He strolled away to check out the long planks of wood stacked up on the ground.
âBit dark arenât they?â Jacko came to stand by him, frowning.
âTheyâre exactly what I wanted. Theyâre perfect.â He stroked the weathered grey cedar. âDoesnât it remind you of the ocean on a winterâs day?â
âI suppose.â The builder smirked. âBloody freezing and blowing a gale you mean?â
Harry gave up trying to explain his vision for the house heâd been planning for years now.
âIâll get the lads to help me shift it all tomorrow.â Jacko pulled out his car keys. âYou coming for a pint? The wifeâs got her book club meeting at our place so Iâm staying out âtil theyâre gone.â He chuckled. âTheyâll talk the hind legs off a donkey and none of it about the book.â
âCheers but not right now. Thereâs a few things I want to wrap up here. I might stop by later.â It would sound rude to say all he wanted was to be left alone. Harry loved nothing better than seizing the chance to walk around his new property when no one else was about. These quiet times gave him the chance to study the progress theyâd made and decide where he might want to make any changes.
Jacko tipped him a nod and ambled over to his dilapidated white van. Harry kept his fingers crossed this wouldnât be one of the many days when the ancient van refused to start but it rumbled to life and drove off belching diesel fumes.
As it often did his gaze drifted to the row of old terraced houses on the opposite side of Polmorva Road and picked out the one on the far left with its fresh yellow paint where he grew up with his father. There were few fond childhood memories associated with the place. Georgie Venton had hated his son. Day after day, year after year he made Harry pay for causing his beloved wifeâs death in childbirth. With the benefit of maturity, Harry had tried to understand the mind of a man maddened by grief but couldnât yet find it in him to forgive. Since they started building he frequently spotted his fatherâs stooped figure standing by the door but he wasnât there today. He felt a satisfaction deep in his gut at forcing Georgie to see how successful his son had become despite his tough beginnings.
With a smile he turned back to the half-completed building. Venton House. Perhaps it was vain to put his name on his new home but heâd earned his money the hard way so why shouldnât he indulge himself for once? He pushed away a niggle of misgiving and studied the curved iron
framework sweeping across the front of the house, ready for installation of the floor to ceiling glass highlighted in thin strips of black wood that would front his kitchen and living space. The expansive view over the harbour and on out to sea would be second to none.
The boards that arrived today were destined for shingling the outside of the house so it would blend seamlessly with the environment around, picking up colour from the granite cliffs beneath and on stormy days the steel-grey skies and choppy waters. Heâd steered as far as possible away from the jaunty nautical look beloved of so many coastal homes with their fake anchors and cheerful blue and white soft furnishings. Venton Houseâs design was deliberately stripped down and elemental. Harry quirked a smile. An ex-girlfriend once described him in a similar albeit less polite way.
Harryâs stomach growled and he struggled to remember if heâd eaten today. Jacko had offered him one of the mountain of doorstep sandwiches his wife packed him off with every morning but heâd been too impatient to stop working. Perhaps he should go for a pint with the builder after all and grab something to eat at the pub.
The stiff breeze whipping in off the sea made him shiver in his T-shirt and shorts. Although it was the beginning of June and summer in Chough Cove the difference between the sheltered harbour and up here on the exposed cliff was often night and day. In the middle of winter when there was no hiding from the worst of the weather his house would need every bit of its expensive underfloor heating system.
Harry bestowed one last quiet, satisfied smile on the half-finished building and strode off down the road. A few people nodded as he passed them by but no one stopped to speak. He told himself their reticence didnât bother him because if his hard upbringing taught him one thing it was patience. Once they recognised he was here to stay and wanted to do his part to benefit the community he hoped theyâd come around.
Strings of coloured lights twinkled against the external whitewashed walls of The Dolphin and the door stood open, allowing a constant stream of people to go in and out. The throbbing music and loud laughter drifting out set him on edge and he changed his mind about joining Jacko. He leaned on the harbour wall instead and rested his arms on the rough, uneven stones. The tide was creeping back in so the orderly lines of fishing and pleasure boats bobbed around like corks.
A peal of raucous laughter rang out behind him.
âThe fish and chips are gonna be my treat. Donât argue.â
A womanâs drawling American accent made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
âGod you always were a bossy cow!â
The second voice heâd recognise anywhere. Kelsey Nancarrow. His oldest friend in the village who now avoided him whenever possible, only exchanging a polite nod if their paths unavoidably crossed. Her late grandmother, Vera, had been the Ventonsâ next-door neighbour in Polmorva Terrace and took care of both Harry and Kelsey when they were young and their parents were all at work. They remained close as they got older until they were sixteen. Itâd never occurred to him that Kelsey saw him as anything more than a good friend but apparently heâd been wrong and his rejection struck her hard.
âWatch where youâre going,â Kelsey yelled.
Harry jerked around as a woman barrelled into him and he automatically clamped his hands on her arms so she wouldnât knock them both over. Her head flew up and the wide silver-green eyes with their fringe of soot-black lashes thatâd haunted his dreams for years flared with shock. Thea Armitage stared at him as though sheâd seen a ghost.
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So what happens next? Should they give each other a second chance or let the proverbial sleeping dogs lie? Youâll have to read the rest of the book to find outâŚ
Thank you again for being such a wonderful supporter of my trans-Atlantic romances and I look forward to returning for a chat when my next book is released â a Christmas story involving a pantomime that is still a work in progress at the moment!
About the Book:
What would you do if you inherited a Cornish cottage by the sea?
If youâre Thea Armitage, sell it as soon as possible. Whilst thereâs no denying that Seaspray Cottage has its charm, it just holds too many bad memories for Thea to consider keeping it â although at least spending the summer preparing it for sale gives her a distraction from troubles back home in Tennessee.
What Thea didnât count on was her worst Cornish memory moving in right next door. Local bad boy Harry Venton played no small part in Theaâs decision never to return to Cornwall twenty years before â and now heâs her neighbour! Could things get any worse?
Except Harry isnât the boy he was, and as Thea comes to realise that her opinion of him was built on lies and misunderstandings, perhaps things will start looking up for her summer at Seaspray Cottage …
Buying links:
Kindle: https://amzn.to/3uqkiry
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3bNvGar
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3QbBfz9
Nook: https://bit.ly/3QeSW0H
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About the Author:
Angela was born in St. Stephen, Cornwall, England. After completing her A-Levels she worked as a Naval Secretary. She met her husband, a US Naval Flight Officer, while being based at a small NATO Headquarters on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. They lived together in Denmark, Sicily, California, southern Maryland and London before settling in Franklin, Tennessee.
Angela took a creative writing course in 2000 and loved it so much that she has barely put her pen down since. She has had short stories and novels published in the US. Her novel Sugar & Spice, won Choc Litâs Search for an American Star competition and was her UK debut.
Follow Angela on Twitter: @AngelaBritnell
Like Angela on Facebook: Angela Britnell