The novel starts just after Christmas. Ailsa McNeil is fifty-two and lives in Canberra, Australia with her husband Bob. Their sons are in their twenties (Nate and Pat) and have left home, so it’s just the two of them now. They have been married nearly twenty-five years, but Bob has changed and Ailsa is worried if their marriage can survive.
Ailsa’s friend from Uni, Bev Cooper, lives in Bellbird Bay on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Bev invites Ailsa over there and she takes this opportunity, giving herself and Bob time and space to consider their futures.
While staying with Bev, Ailsa is surprised to hear Bev’s twin brother Martin is coming home. They shared a kiss when she was nineteen. Martin is now fifty-two years old and fighting to save his reputation as an award-winning photographer.
I do enjoy reading books where the main characters are around my age – and these were exactly my age at fifty-two, so that was good. I could relate to broken marriages and grown up kids. But I also enjoyed the beautiful setting of Australia and the coast.
It was easy to get into the story and I liked all the characters, they all have something warm and wonderful in them (maybe not Sofia so much) and I was really rooting for Ailsa to have her happy ending.
I would definitely recommend this book.
9 out of 10
BLURB
Summer in Bellbird Bay
Can Bellbird Bay provide solace to these two broken souls?
When Ailsa McNeil’smarriage falls apart, an invitation to spend the summer with an old friend in Bellbird Bay offers her the opportunity to escape and regroup. What she doesn’t expect is to meet her friend’s twin brother, the first man to stir her emotions when she was an impressionable nineteen-year-old.
As a young man, Martin Cooper couldn’t wait to leave Bellbird Bay. He has spent the past thirty years travelling the world and has accomplished his dream of becoming a celebrated travel photographer. But it has come at a price and, when his career and personal life take a downward turn, he returns to his hometown to consider his future.
When an accident thrusts the two together, their earlier attraction resurfaces. Torn between the desire to protect herself from further hurt and her renewed feelings for the man she’s never forgotten, can Ailsa find happiness again or is it too late?
A heartwarming tale of family, friends, and how a second chance at love can happen when you least expect it.
Purchase Link – getbook.at/SummerinBellbirdBay
Author Bio –
After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.
From the small town in Scotland where she grew up Scotland, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!
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