A Cottage By The Sea by Carole Matthews

In the interests of full disclosure I read this book whilst on holiday in a British Seaside Town on the Irish Sea coast so my judgement may have been impaired slightly.  This book makes for great holiday reading as it is weirdly comforting, no idea why but it did feel like a nice warm hug to go with my frosty pint.

Basically it is the story of three couples - Ella and Harry, Flick and Noah and Ella and Art - and what happens during a week away in a remote Welsh cottage.  The setting itself is pure escapism, beautiful sprawling cottage, rugged coastlines and gorgeous scenery with a sprinkling of generally exquisite weather that we get maybe once every five years.  The biggest issue with it is that you know, from about Chapter Four where things are going with Ella/Harry and Noah/Flick.  Maybe that's why I gleaned such enjoyment from it, I knew where things were going early on and so there were no surprises within the pages and it gave me the satisfaction of being right.

I think it also helped that the type of holiday they have would not work for me at all - surfing, coasteering and cliff top walks are definitely not on my list of things to do whilst away.  I'm also not sure the remoteness would suit me.  However, it is fun to read about whilst doing exactly what you need to make your holiday suit you - I think I'm more of the Flick and Harry school of thought about how to enjoy yourself and relax.

The characterisation is absurdly good and, with the use of very loose flashbacks, we get to know the three girls pretty well.  The men are more caricatures than characters unfortunately but as this is supposed to be all about the women I found myself forgiving that.  Ella is our narrator through the book and she is full of contradictions, which I actually quite liked.

Honestly, there is a lot that is wrong with this book but I genuinely enjoyed every minute of this book over the couple of days I spent reading it.  Perfect holiday reading but I suspect it would not work half so well if you are picking it up in lunch breaks or on the commute.