Erica James

Lake Como - beautiful, enchanting, romantic... For Floriana, it is the place where the love of her life is getting married to another woman. And she's been invited to the wedding. For Esme, it is where, over sixty years ago, she fell in love for the first time. So often she's wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart - and changed the course of her life. Adam is in danger of burying himself entirely in his work after his girlfriend left him. Could a trip to Lake Como be the distraction he needs? Now it's time for each of them to understand that the past is not only another country, it can also cast haunting shadows over everyone's lives...

Summer at the Lake

Ashcombe was the most beautiful house Saskia had ever seen as a little girl. A rambling pink cottage on the edge of the Suffolk village of Melbury Green, its enchanting garden provided a fairy-tale playground of seclusion, a perfect sanctuary to hide from the tragedy which shattered her childhood. Now an adult, Saskia is still living at Ashcombe and as a book restorer devotes her days tending to the broken, battered books that find their way to her, daydreaming about the people who had once turned their pages. When she discovers a notebook carefully concealed in an old Bible - and realising someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to hide a story of their own - Saskia finds herself drawn into a heart-rending tale of wartime love...

The Dandelion Years

Clayton Miller's life is a mess. His career as one of the country's best comedy scriptwriters has stalled, and his long-term girlfriend has left him for his ex-best friend and ex-writing partner. Just when he thinks his life couldn't get any worse, he commits a spectacularly public fall from grace and with the press hounding him, his agent banishes him to the middle of nowhere until the dust has settled. At a remote country house he meets Alice... Alice Shoemaker is a voiceover artist who habitually goes to great lengths to avoid telling the truth, and after agreeing to help out a friend by shopping and cleaning for the unknown man staying at Cuckoo House, she soon becomes suspicious that her strange and obnoxiously rude client has something to hide. But, equally, so does she. When they discover the truth about each other they form an unlikely friendship, but then Alice discovers Clayton has betrayed her in the worst possible way.

The Queen of New Beginnings

A gorgeous small-format edition of Erica's latest novel, complete with lavish finishes. The perfect gift for those who like their fiction with an extra dusting of sparkle ...

Promises, Promises

The Gardens of Delight brochure promises the opportunity to visit some of the most beautiful gardens in the Lake Como area of Italy. For Lucy, the chance to go to Italy offers more than just gardens. Lake Como is where her father lives, and the last time she saw him was when she was just a teenager. Recently married Helen and her wealthy husband have just moved into the Old Rectory. With her husband spending so much time away from home, Helen throws herself into caring for the garden. But Helen needs help - and friends - and so decides to take the plunge and join the local Garden Club. Conrad isn't the least bit interested in gardening. Widowed for five years, his life revolves around work and humouring Mac, his elderly uncle who lives with him, and who has expressed a desire to go on the Gardens of Delight tour. Reluctantly, Conrad agrees to accompany him. 'Anything for a peaceful life,' he concedes. But a peaceful life is the last thing any of them are in for...

Gardens of Delight

Venice has been Lydia's home for many years, a place where she has found peace and fulfilment. Then one day she glimpses a young man's face in the crowd that threatens to change everything. He's a heart-stopping reminder of a dreadful secret she believed she had banished to the past... As a young child, Lydia and her sister were sent to live with grandparents they'd never even met before. It was a cruel and loveless new world for them and it forced Lydia to grow up fast. She learned to keep secrets and to trust sparingly, and through it all she was shadowed by grief and guilt. Now, twenty-eight years later, Lydia is persuaded to leave behind the safe new life she has created for herself and return to England to face the past. And maybe her future.

Tell It to the Skies

Paradise House, a bed and breakfast and home to the Baxter girls, has the best views of the beach in the old-fashioned resort of Angel Sands. With her mother taking time out it is up to Genevieve Baxter to maintain the running of the bed and breakfast, until she finds a trip down memory lane.

Paradise House

A look at the lives of three tsunami survivors three years after the event.

It's the Little Things

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 then her only sister is killed in a car crash, and Harriet is forced to give up her well-ordered life to help look after her orphaned niece and nephew. Moving back to her childhood home in Maple Drive, and sacrificing so much, doesn't come easy and before long Harriet discovers things about her family she never believed possible. Meanwhile, the shabbiest house in Maple Drive has a new occupant. Will Hart also thinks he has the perfect life. Having swapped his successful career as a lawyer for that of an antiques dealer, he believes in living for the moment and is entirely happy with his lot. Then from nowhere tragedy strikes and he faces the biggest challenge of his life. Harriet and Will have no choice but to piece together a new future for themselves, but can they see it through?

Love and Devotion

Charlotte Lawrence, widowed at thirty-four, decides to return to all things pre-Peter, and that means moving back to the Cheshire village of her childhood. It also means exchanging a clinical company flat for the pretty but overgrown garden of Ivy Cottage, and the constant attentions of her interfering sister Hilary. Most of all it means Alex, Ivy Cottage's drop-dead-gorgeous tenant, with whom Hilary is determined Charlotte should find love anew, and whose charming exterior hides his own secret tragedy...

A Breath of Fresh Air

For many years, Alastair and his best friends Danny and Simon have spent summers together with their families at his gorgeous holiday home, Linston End, against the idyllic backdrop of the Norfolk Broads. The memories are ingrained in their hearts: picnics on the river, gin and tonics in the pavilion at dusk, hours spent seeking out the local swallowtail butterflies. There's no reason to believe the good times won't continue down the generations, though there are surprises in store for them all... After Alastair's wife Orla passes away in a tragic accident, he goes travelling - and when he returns, it's not just adventures and memories he brings back, but Valentina, his new love interest. Is this just a holiday romance? What will Alastair's decisions mean for the long-time friends?

Swallowtail Summer

Torn between struggling to live up to the expectations of being a Modern Woman and ridding herself of the effect of a repressed upbringing, Izzy Jordan would be the first to admit that it's time to take stock of her life. She's thirty-one, with a teaching career on the skids - not surprising, really, given that she harbours a strong desire to lock her pupils in the art room cupboard and throw away the key. She also has a manipulative mother and an ex-boyfriend whose parting shot was to tell her she was boring in bed! So when she's invited to spend the summer on Corfu and is offered the chance of a no-strings holiday romance with the irresistible Theo, what should she do? Go for it, or listen to the voice of Modern Woman and tell him to sling his hook? Just as she thinks she's made up her mind, along comes Mark, whose turbulent past sets in motion a series of dramatic events...

The Holiday

From Erica James, bestselling author of Summer at the Lake, comes an enchanting tale of one family coming together and finding their way. It's the summer of 1939, and after touring an unsettled Europe to promote her latest book, Romily Temple returns home to Island House and the love of her life, the charismatic Jack Devereux. But when Jack falls ill, his estranged family are called home and given seven days to find a way to bury their resentments and come together. With war now declared, each member of the family is reluctantly forced to accept their new stepmother and confront their own shortcomings. But can the habits of a lifetime be changed in one week? And can Romily, a woman who thrives on adventure, cope with the life that has been so unexpectedly thrust upon her? Readers are captivated by Coming Home to Island House: 'Erica James at her very best...a fulfilling, hugely enjoyable read' 'This book felt like a luxurious treat' 'A wonderful thread of love, grace, loss and forgiveness... Highly recommended' 'One of those glorious stories where you don't want to put the book down!' 'I feel completely in love with all aspects of this books - the characters, the setting and the writing. I absolutely adored it' 'A captivating and thoroughly enjoyable read. If you enjoy superbly written character-driven stories this this one is a must-read' 'A beautiful story about family and friendship...a gorgeous heartwarming style'

Escape with an enchanting family drama from the Sunday Times bestseller

Coming Home to Island House

In order to spend more time with her four-year-old son Ned, Clara Costello trades in her secure, well-paid job and two-seater sports car for a camper van called Winnie, and the three of them set off on a mystery tour of England. Of course, her friends and family think she's gone mad. But when they arrive in Deaconsbridge, a small market town on the edge of the Peak District, Clara and Ned become drawn into the lives of the locals. Two in particular seem destined to get under Clara's skin: Gabriel Liberty, a cranky widower who terrifies his family; and Archie Merryman, a local dealer in second-hand furniture who possesses a heart of gold. Then Clara finds herself having to confront a problem much closer to home, and one she had hoped she would never have to face...

Precious Time

Lizzie has an unfortunate knack for attracting bad luck, but this time she's hit the jackpot. Losing her heart to her boss at the radio station where she works leads directly to losing her job, and with no money in the bank she's forced to swallow her pride and return home to her parents. As if that wasn't bad enough, her mother finds her work at the local care home for the elderly, and it's there that Lizzie meets Mrs Dallimore. In her nineties, Mrs Dallimore also finds herself in a situation which she's reluctantly coming to terms with. Old age has finally caught up with her, and with her life drawing to a close she gives in to the temptation to relive the past by sharing it with Lizzie. She tells Lizzie of the day when, as a young girl, and shortly before the outbreak of World War II, she left her home in America to cross the Atlantic to England where she hoped to meet her English grandparents for the first time. At best she hoped for a family reconciliation, but before long her visit turned into so much more. As Lizzie listens to Mrs Dallimore's story, she begins to realize that she's not the only person to attract bad luck, or make mistakes, and maybe things aren't so bad for her after all . . .

Song of the Skylark

The captivating new drama of family secrets and second chances, from Sunday Times bestselling author Erica James It's the autumn of 1962 in the idyllic Suffolk village of Melstead St Mary. Evelyn Devereux's husband Kit is planning their 20th wedding anniversary party. But as they prepare to celebrate, Evelyn receives an anonymous letter that threatens to unravel the secrets she's kept hidden for many years - secrets that reach back to the war and her days at Bletchley Park. Evelyn's sister-in-law, Hope, has brought joy to countless children with her bestselling books, but despite having a loving husband and caring family, happiness has never come easily to her. Then in an instant her fragile world is turned upside down when she too receives an anonymous letter. Across the village, up at Melstead Hall, Julia Devereux has married into a life beyond anything she could have dreamt of, not realising until it's too late that it comes with a heavy price. Meanwhile, in the sun-baked desert of Palm Springs, Romily Devereux-Temple, crime-writer and former ATA pilot, is homesick for her beloved Island House, where she's saved the day more times than she can count. On her return home, and shocked to learn what has been going on in her absence, she finds herself reluctantly confronting a secret she's kept hidden for a very long time. Once again Romily is challenged to save the day and hold the family together. Can she do it, and maybe seize some happiness for herself at the same time? From the gorgeous Suffolk countryside to the glamorous resort of Palm Springs, let Erica James sweep you away... *** Readers are enchanted by Erica's storytelling... 'A glorious summer story which sizzles with passion: idyllic location, compelling characters and lives so interwoven that their secrets have the power to change everything. I wanted it to go on forever' Cathy Bramley 'Joyously readable' Woman & Home 'The setting is almost a character in itself in this evocative tale of tears and laughter' Woman Magazine 'Erica James offers glorious escapism set in a house to die for' Sunday Express Magazine 'Full of warmth and appeal' Good Housekeeping 'A captivating read: beautifully written and heartrendingly sad' Daily Telegraph 'Absorbing and uplifting' My Weekly

The captivating new family drama from the Sunday Times Bestseller - the perfect escape for 2020!

Letters From the Past

Hidden Talents

It was a wedding invitation that changed everything for Floriana ... If she hadn't been so distracted at the thought of having to witness the one true love of her life get married, she would have seen the car coming. If she'd seen the car coming, there would have been no need for elderly spinster Esme Silcox and local property developer Adam Strong to rush to her aid. And if Floriana hadn't met Adam and Esme she would never have had the courage to agree to attend Seb's wedding in beautiful Lake Como. For Esme, Lake Como awakens memories of when she stayed at the lake as a nineteen-year-old girl and fell in love for the first time. So often she's wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart all those years ago, a man who changed the course of her life. Now it's time for both Esme and Floriana to face the past - and the future - on the shores of this most romantic and enchanting of lakes.

Erica James

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