Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan is the perfect antidote for anyone experiencing trying times or in need of good cheer. The recently published Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages delivers humor and heart as a mother and daughter rekindle their relationship fractured over time and distance. Her flawed and realistically depicted characters face challenges, disappointments and heartache until learning experiences and second chances pave the way to romance and happy endings.
Although seemingly a simple formula, her well-crafted, beautifully written work is never trite. Vividly depicted settings in the remote northern Scottish isles allow readers to visualize and appreciate the clear blue skies of midsummer or shiver in the near-constant gray oyster light of winter when daylight is limited to six to seven hours, or less, depending on the weather. Storms may brew swiftly and halt the small planes ferrying mail, goods and passengers in this windy yet temperate part of Scotland, but they seldom last long.
Analogous to several of the author’s bestselling novels, Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages is set in the fictional island community village of Carso, located in the Highlands where the Atlantic and North Sea meet in northern Scotland. It’s a long journey by train or car from Edinburgh, with the last leg completed by air or ferry.
A Begrudged Homecoming
Thirty-year-old Essie Carter has seldom returned home since completing university and landing a dream job with a Swiss-based firm. Proud to be earning nearly twice her mother’s salary but dismayed that high rent, required clothing, expensive pub nights and outings with friends left plans for saving overwritten with considerable credit card debt. Her gorgeous boyfriend Tristan opts to keep company with his high-flying and possibly dodgy investment advisor roommates, friends since boarding school and university, rather than spend more time with her, emphasizing his reluctance to be in a committed relationship.
When Essie’s firm relocates to headquarters in Berne, her job summarily ends sans severance pay. Unable to secure other employment, depressed and embarrassed by failure, Essie feels compelled to return to her mother Janey Carter’s small home in Corso.
Village hospital chief audiologist Janey loves her meaningful work, from fitting cochlear implants on hearing-impaired infants to working with seniors adjusting to new hearing aids. Her ex-husband Colin was a serial cheater who left Janey and filed for divorce as soon as their younger child Essie left for university. Colin quickly married his younger mistress, started a new family and spares no time for his two adult children.
Thanks to her frugal nature, Janey was able to purchase and renovate a wee seaside cottage after being compelled to sell the lovely marital home. Her job, volunteer work and pub trivia nights keep her actively engaged in the community. Janey’s son Alasdair (Al) works full-time, lives independently and appreciates his mother. Essie has been estranged since her parents’ divorce, blaming her mother for the upsetting changes, not understanding that they reluctantly had agreed to stay together until she finished secondary school.
An Unexpected New Chance at Love
Living together in a tiny two-bedroom, one-bath cottage could be workable if self-centered, oblivious Essie pitched in with cooking, cleaning and laundry. Instead, she goes out of her way to criticize her mum, sleeps late and creates messes while eating and drinking her way through her mother’s refrigerator and pantry.
Exasperated, Janey ultimately compels daughter Essie to rejoin the living by inviting her to the pub owned by her high school nemesis Shelby, where she begins to connect with Shelby’s brother Dwight. He is an unlikely love interest, for he is a blue-collar worker, short and obsessed with country and western music. Essie finds it comical that his clothing preference is for western shirts, jeans, cowboy boots and a hat. The hazard pay earned on his job on a North Atlantic offshore platform oil rig has allowed him to purchase three dilapidated cottages next to Janey, who soon involves her daughter in helping with his renovations.
There are several twists and intriguing subplots in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages as one young woman learns you can go home again. Colgan’s work encourages readers to appreciate and indeed savor the mundane joys found in their own familiar surroundings.
About Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling novels and has won various awards for her writing, including the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award and the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Award. Her books have sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide and have been published in thirty-six territories, and in 2015 she was inducted into the Love Stories Hall of Fame. Jenny is married with three children and lives in Scotland.
