Amazing yet complex characters & relationships. This is the perfect summer read I loved it would recommend it to anyone.

I have read and enjoyed this author's titles before but found I disliked nearly all the main characters and didn't care if their precious house was destroyed.

Swallowtail Summer by Erica James. This book isnt one I would usually pick but I decided to go for a different genre and boy an I glad I did.

The book is great from the start. It follows the summer of Alastair and his friends and their families just after his wife has died. Full of intrigue, love, laughter, sorrow, gulity secrets and lies. There are a lot of characters but it was easy to follow their story arcs.

This would be a super read on the beach or chilling out on the patio. My first Erica James book and definately not my last.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing for the ARC of this book. (My review is my own opinion)

Will Reivew on Amazon once the book is out.

I was glad to be reacquainted with Erica's writing which I've enjoyed in the past but not read anything of hers for a while. This is an excellent light holiday read centred around the delightful Norfolk Broads which the evoked the atmosphere there perfectly. Having said it is a light read there is a darker undercurrent which grounds the novel well. I didn't really like particularly most of the characters most of whom seemed rather unlikable and self centred. However others were delightful.

A good reintroduction to Erica James and her easy escapism writing and we'll worth reading

It's been a while since I reead something by Erica James, but this is definitely up to her usual standard. The characters and their relationships are complex, the location is lovingly described and the drama unfolds at a good pace. A great summer read.

I was so eager to read this book since it was set in the beautiful Norfolk Broads, one of my favourite places in the UK and somewhere I have had many boating holidays on those gorgeous waterways. It was a delight therefore to read Erica's beautiful descriptions of the area and the wildlife making me feel as if I were right there again. I love the author's writing style and the book was an interesting read introducing us to a group of friends with their many different traits and foibles and their reaction to losing the place where they have spent so many happy times together as Alistair, the owner of the property and their widowed friend, tells them he has met someone new and is selling up and moving away. If I'm honest I have to say that I didn't particularly like any of the friends finding them self centered with few redeeming features. Instead of celebrating their friend's new found happiness they were thinking only of themselves and how it would affect them which made it difficult to like them. I also found it rather confusing at the start with so many characters to get to know at once and trying to remember who belonged to who but once that was sorted in my mind I enjoyed the story. The pretty cover of this book didn't reveal as light and happy a theme that it depicts as it has some dark, strong and serious emotions within it but overall a good read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a preview copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I loved this book and read it all in one go. So many different characters with different strengths and weaknesses but not discovered until a death had taken place.
Trio of male friends from a young age,lives turned upside down.
After a tragic incident that left friends devastated.
A must read..

I received a copy of this book via netgalley. Initially, I wasn’t at all sure and found the switching narrative from character to character quite hard to follow as there were so many players and it took a while for them to become distinguishable in my head. Once they did however and once the story got underway properly, I was hooked! I thought the characters were well written and very true to life - with both strengths and vulnerabilities. The relationships were complex and very human, lives interwoven with a twist at the end I didn’t see coming. Not sure about the ghostly voice to be honest but overall, a great read
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GYM1SNR?ref=cm_sw_em_r_rw_mw_pSt0Tj8vO0ROu

Alastair, Simon and Danny met as school boys and spent their summer's at Linston End, the old house owned by Alastair's aunt Cora.

When Alastair inherits the house and they all marry, they continue the tradition. Unfortunately his wife meets a tragic end things start to change.

Beautifully told story set in th Norfolk Broads.

I’m a big fan of Erica James having read all of her books. My thanks to netgalley and Orion publishing for a copy. This story has characters that I found easy to get to know and is located in the beautiful Norfolk broads. Linston End is a property where the river flows past the bottom of the garden. Idyllic! Alastair inherited the house from his great aunt following his yearly holidays there as a child. He was married to Orla, a complex arty controlling person. Alastair’s two best friends and their families holidayed with them every summer. An apparently strong bond between them all. Following Orla’s untimely death in a drowning accident Alastair goes travelling for 9 months returning with the announcement that he has met someone else and intends to sell Linston End and start a new life with Valentina. Swallowtail Summer tells the story of that summer and of the close friends reactions to the news. When Valentina arrives the holiday turns sour with arguments, accusations and spilled secrets. I was gripped from the first page and didn’t want it to end. Highly recommend

What a fantastic book from Erica again! Great settings and likeable characters. Also what a lovely cover.

I have read and enjoyed all of Erica James' previous novels so was keen to read this one and I wasn't disappointed. I found the beginning a little hard to get into, but once all of the characters had been introduced, the book really took off and drew me into the story.

This is a story of friendship, loss, loyalty, change, relationships and love. I really enjoyed the setting in the Norfolk Broads and the descriptions of the location and its wildlife.

A perfect read for a sunny afternoon in the garden or on the beach.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw Swallowtail Summer on Netgalley, I thought the cover was pretty and I found the synopsis intriguing!

It begins with quite a tragedy, which allows the personality of the characters to play out nicely. How each member of the group react to the tragedy and to each other’s reactions is really interesting. This building the story of the three couples who were long term friends, for many years and still so having now, grown up children.

The book is about relationships in life and what ifs as well as taken bold chances and when you do, how they can turn out.

I didn’t find it engrossing the entire time of reading it, but it absolutely did make me think and wonder a few things.

I found the main location of where everyone met up on the Norfolk Broads, absolutely idealistic! I think it might be wonderful one day to go and have a look at what it actually does look like.

Could there be a sequel? I think it would work if it were a couple of years down the line and it was the place of the young generation to meet up, with perhaps their children if they have any or partners they may be involved with. As well of course some of their parents coming along too if they’re still about!
Who knows? Maybe there will be more tales told about that section of the river!

I would suggest this book as quite a light read to someone. I enjoyed it.

So good to read a book where the main characters are middle-aged. A thoroughly enjoyable read about a set of friends who's long friendship is disrupting the arrival of another woman. Perfect summer reading.

This is a wonderful story of love, friendship and trust- totally transporting the reader to Linton End house. A great read with an unexpected ending.

Overall this is a good read. I thought that the book was a bit too long and I did not particularly like any of the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Linston End nestles on the Norfolk Broads and has been the summer holiday home for Alastair for many years. When he marries Orla it became a holiday home for his two friends and their families as well. They have all had many happy summers there with each other and Alastair and his friends are like brothers.
Suddenly Orla dies - but is it suspicious? and Alastair decides to go travelling.
Then the families are invited back to the house where they receive very unexpected news. Is this the end of the summer holidays and what will the far reaching effects of the news have on them all?
How can one summer start and end so differently? and lives turned upside down for ever.

Alistair Lucas is a 60 year old retired lawyer, he inherited a gorgeous old house in the country from his Aunt Cora and he and his two best friends, their wives and children have spent idyllic weekends and holidays at Linston End. After Alistair's wife Orla dies tragically Alistair left England to travel, but now he has returned and his plans will shock and disturb his friends.

Sorrel and Simon Wyatt and their two children Rachel and Callum have spent every holiday at Linston End, except one disastrous summer when Sorrel insisted they went to Brittany, it was an unmitigated disaster and since then there has been no further dissent. But Sorrel bears grudges against Alistair and Orla and the way in which her family has idolised the two of them.

Danny and Frankie Fielding and their daughter Jenna make up the third family. Danny and Frankie have a perfect marriage but after Danny's recent heart attack and enforced retirement their marriage has become a minefield of fear and secrecy.

As the families gather for one last weekend together secrets are spilled, and a catalyst threatens to destroy a friendship that has lasted for fifty years.

This novel was reminiscent of the novel Rebecca, or at least Alistair's wife Orla and the stranger that comes to Linston End both remind me of the first Mrs de Winter, callous, self-absorbed, the life of the party, needy. I also can say that I pretty much disliked every character in this novel, their so-called lifelong friendship seemed based on nothing more than self-interest.

Overall, I thought this novel meandered slowly through the twists and turns of this weird group of so-called friends but the outcome was fairly obvious right from the start and frankly the destination wasn't worth the journey and I was left with a sour taste in my mouth.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is the perfect book to read while lazing on a sun lounger or sitting quietly in a shady garden with a long, cold drink. It’s the story of a group of friends and their adult children who spend their summers at Liston End, a huge house set right on the water’s edge in the Norfolk Broads. Pretty early on, we learn that Alastair, the owner of the house, back from a lengthy sojourn abroad after the death of his wife, is about to unveil a decision that will affect the entire group. I won’t spoil the story by telling you what it is, suffice to say the course of action he decides to pursue results in all sorts of secrets coming to light.

There were a number of aspects of this story that I particularly liked. First of all, it portrayed complex, interlinked, multi-generational relationships in a way that was very true to life. It made a pleasant change to be following the love-lives of people in their sixties, whilst at the same time seeing similar threads being pulled through the lives and relationships of their children. This makes it all sound very worthy, and probably a bit dull, but it really wasn’t like that at all!

I felt as though I could see Liston End, the descriptions of life by the river and of the house itself brought the place vividly to life. And I loved the characters too, there were lots of sub-plots involving each of them which kept me riveted, wanting to know what happened next to each of them. I read this book over several sittings, swept along with the story and the people and felt extremely satisfied by the ending – something that isn’t always the case with a summer read, if you know what I mean.

If you’re looking for an absorbing, gentle read with lots of twists and turns, sprinkled with a bit of escapism, then this is definitely one for you.

Nothing and no one are what they seem. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story wove through the complications of entwined relationships. A great summer read.