The House Beneath The Cliffs by Sharon Gosling published by Simon & Schuster

Chef Anna moves to Crovie, a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth, for a fresh start after the breakdown of a long relationship with a “celebrity” chef. When she arrives at her new home that was a bit of an impulse buy, she discovers that her new home is nothing more than a glorified shed, and the village itself sits beneath a cliff right on the edge of the sea, in constant danger of storms and landslides. She feels she has made a terrible mistake and vows to stay just one night before moving on and selling it.

Yet as she begins to learn about the Scottish coast and its people, something she thought she’d lost reawakens in her. She rediscovers her love of cooking and turns her kitchen into a pop-up lunch club. But not all the locals are delighted about her arrival, and some are keen to see her plans fail.

Will Anna really be able to put down roots in this remote and wild village? Or will her fragile new beginning start to crumble with the cliffs . . .?

This book has been on my TBR (to be reviewed!) list for a quite a while, but I knew that I had to be disciplined and read the others on my list before finally getting to this one. Well, it was worth the wait, it’s like ordering a mundane starter (other books) and knowing that the main course is going to blow your socks off because it’s exactly what you want. This book was a fantastic gastronomic three course meal, within a book cover!!! I wasn’t disappointed!! It was a truly wonderful read and it was so refreshing to read a book that wasn’t set in the Cotsworlds or Cornwall, which seems to be the trend at the moment.

I didn’t just read this book, for the short time that it took me to read it (as you will flick through the pages so quickly, wanting to know more!) I lived my life alongside the characters. I could feel the Scottish sea air on my face as I walked along the cliff path with Anna and every day I was always one of the lucky six to sit at her table and enjoy her food.

This book had everything, a sprinkling of heartache, a pinch of grief and a dollop of romance…for me, the perfect recipe for a remarkable, completely believable story

Please, please, please don’t let the story finish there though – I would love to revisit Crovie, perhaps at Christmas so we can see what has happened to the characters and how life has turned out for them.

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