This is the perfect Sunday read - not too taxing but a satisfying tale that doesn't take the easy option of ending on the perfect happy ever after finale.
Alexa has an idyllic life in Cornwall. Fabulous home, family and the perfect best friend in the form of the boy next door, Harvey.
The only fly in the ointment is that her mother is estranged from Alexa's Nonna and subsequently dies without healing the rift.
This begins a period of major confusion. Alexa is sent away to school and her father quickly remarries and suddenly she has a step sister on the way.
Her teacher plants the idea of striking out and having her own adventure and when Harvey proposes on her 18th birthday she refuses and she heads to London as a lady's companion.
Via Venice, heartbreak, reconciliation with her Nonna and near death she finds herself back at home and realises that her greatest adventure was right under her nose the whole time and that marrying Harvey would make her complete.
Fans of the perfect happy ever after may not like the ending but I think a touch of the unexpected makes for a more realistic and satisfying read.
Alexa has an idyllic life in Cornwall. Fabulous home, family and the perfect best friend in the form of the boy next door, Harvey.
The only fly in the ointment is that her mother is estranged from Alexa's Nonna and subsequently dies without healing the rift.
This begins a period of major confusion. Alexa is sent away to school and her father quickly remarries and suddenly she has a step sister on the way.
Her teacher plants the idea of striking out and having her own adventure and when Harvey proposes on her 18th birthday she refuses and she heads to London as a lady's companion.
Via Venice, heartbreak, reconciliation with her Nonna and near death she finds herself back at home and realises that her greatest adventure was right under her nose the whole time and that marrying Harvey would make her complete.
Fans of the perfect happy ever after may not like the ending but I think a touch of the unexpected makes for a more realistic and satisfying read.