Simply amazing. This is my first book by Heidi Swain and it certainly won’t be the last.
This book was beautifully written and drew me in right from the start. I identified with Tess and became invested with her quest to rediscover herself and unravel her parents past. I felt my shock was quite possibly equal to Tess’s when her dad finally caught up with her and told her the truth.
So many heartfelt and beautiful story lines perfectly wrapped up together making this a simply beautiful read.

Tess is running away.

Heidi Swain’s The Secret Seaside Escape is pure happiness and sunshine in book form. I adored heading off to Wynmouth and being transported to the Norfolk coast. There’s such a glorious sense of place in Heidi Swain’s descriptions so that I felt I was walking around the village and on the beach with Tess. I thoroughly appreciated the fact that there are vagaries of weather that lend a realism alongside the escapism too. Tess is just as likely to be blown about by a squall as have her freckles deepen in the sunshine so that the story has an underlying credibility.

And what a story there is in The Secret Seaside Escape. We might well be expecting a happy ever after ending from this genre, but my goodness there’s quite a journey to get there with exploration of some weighty themes and a plot that romps along with several surprises along the way. There’s a characteristic sense of community that this author always explores so well, but there is the added piquancy of a turbulent past for Wynmouth villagers too, that intrigues and enthralls completely. I was desperate to get to the bottom of the dynamics between Joe and Sam so that it actually felt as if I were Tess, rather than reading about her. These were real people I cared about, not characters in a book. Tess in particular appealed to me. She embodies the modern successful woman and still has flaws and desires that make her utterly compelling. I finished reading The Secret Seaside Escape feeling as if I wanted to visit her in Wynmouth because she felt like an old friend.

Heidi Swain explores so beautifully, and somehow completely naturally, the real values of life in The Secret Seaside Escape too. Top of the range cars and money can’t buy happiness and Tess and Hope both have to learn that they cannot always control life or have the outcomes they want for themselves and others. Love, family and other relationships, the impact of over-work, loyalty, friendship, secrets and community form a fascinating backdrop that held me spell bound. The more I’ve thought about The Secret Seaside Escape since I finished it, the more I think it might just be Heidi Swain’s best book yet!

When it comes to feel good fiction, Heidi Swain is an absolute expert. She makes her readers laugh, and cry, and leaves them feeling they have had the highest quality entertainment along the way. The Secret Seaside Escape is an utter joy and I loved it.

I loved this!
After her mother's sudden death Tess throws herself into work at her Father’s PR firm. Working long hours and not taking holidays Tess is heading for burnout.
Deciding to help her dad sort through her mother's things Tess finds a diary that turns her whole world upside down.
Leaving her father a short message Tess flees to the place that holds her fondest childhood memories, Wynmouth.
There Tess settles in quickly and with the help of Landlord Sam, Cafe owner Sadie and her daughter Hope and Farmer Joe Tess begins to feel like a local. Can Tess find the answers she needs in the small seaside village or will she find more questions.
As always with Heidi Swain it is beautifully written. The characters, setting and story are all outstanding. A great book you can lose yourself in.

This is the first Heidi Swain book I have had the pleasure of reading, and it certainly won't be my last! I loved it from the start, warmed to the main character Tess really quickly and couldn't stop reading. A heartwarming, and in some places heartbreaking book. I had tears of laughter and sadness along the way. All of the characters were brilliant, and there was a good age range too. I loved the area descriptions of where it was set, and there were some unexpected twists at the end that I didn't see coming. An absolute joy to read!

Life and work just gets too much for Tess. After losing her mother she had immersed herself in her work for the family firm and now, burnt out and resenting her father, she returns to Wtnmouth, the place she spent idyllic childhood holidays.

As Tess makes friends in the village, she discovers secrets, misunderstandings and a sense o peace and belonging.

A well written HEA escapist novel which helped pass the time during the current state of lockdown . If you cannot visit the seaside then the next best thing is to read a good book about it!

Heidi Swain is one of my go to authors for a feel good novel.Life a

This is the first book I've read by Heidi Swain. I chose it because I felt in need of an escape (who doesn't at the moment?!), and the idea of a secret seaside escape was too good to miss!

The book is a gentle read, a mix of friendship, romance, intrigue and family relationships. There are some very likeable characters here, and I enjoyed reading about their exploits in this pretty-sounding part of the world. Throw in a few surprising twists and turns, and you have yourself a perfect summer read!

Will look out for more novels by this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

I’m a huge fan of this author and her wonderfully escapist books which are just what I need at the moment.

The wonderful descriptions of Weymouth made me feel nostalgic for past family holidays on the beach. I’ve always loved the idea of moving somewhere new and starting again, so you can imagine how much this book appealed to me. The descriptions were very vivid and made me feel that I was actually there experiencing everything alongside them. I can’t wait to go to the beach when all of this is over.

I loved the close knit community depicted in this book which was heart warming to read about. It was so nice to see everyone looking out for and helping each other for once. There were some fabulous, unforgettable characters which made me laugh out loud at times. George in particular was incredibly funny and Joan and Sophie brought tears to my eyes as they were such lovely people.

Overall I thought this was a fantastic, compelling novel which I got lost in for hours at a time. I loved following Tess, Sam, Joe and Hope as they go about their lives in Weymouth and slowly become part of the community. There are some great hidden meanings in this book too about how important friendship is and how it’s important to take chances sometimes which just made this book for me.

Huge thanks to Harriet from Simon & Schuster for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

I read this book whilst the country is in "lockdown" and so there is no chance of a holiday or getting away from everyday life. This heartwarming story proved to be a perfect distraction from this. A chance to travel to a beautiful seaside town and make new friends all without leaving my own home.

The story has many character whom the reader grows to love and care about, along with lots of plot twists and turns which keep one guessing and ensures the ending is not quite as expected.

Well worth a read and will be a perfect holiday read once we can once again travel, but right now is a gentle and warm way to while away enforced time at home. Thank you.

I know I'm late so heading straight to Amazon to leave a 5 star review xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This was a lovely bit of sunny seaside escapism with a few twists to keep me on my toes! It follows the story of Tess, an employee at her father's PR company who finds herself suddenly needing a break from it all. On a whim she decides to revisit her favourite seaside resort from when she was a child, but when she gets there she learns that not everything is quite how she remembers it.
It was a nice, easy read with fun characters, potential love interests and a lot of idealic scenary. I also loved all the talk of food - it made me hungry reading some of the delicious sounding meals on the menu at Sophie's cafe! Having read this during lockdown it's exactly the sort of warm, summery read you don't even realise you're craving!
Thankyou to netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review.

I'm packing up now and ready to move into Crow's Nest Cottage in Wynmouth and hopefully become part of this wonderful, friendly, seaside community.
The twists and turns of the different relationships, make for an entertaining read, which was very difficult to put down. At the same time I did not want it to end!
I thoroughly recommend this book.

We might not be able to physically go on holiday to the seaside just now but we can live vicariously and take a trip to beautiful Wynmouth with Tess Tyler, in Heidi Swain’s newest book which is published today.

Tess works in the family firm and after a particularly pressured time plus an upsetting discovery, she decides to take a break in the little Norfolk town of Wynmouth where she spent many a happy holiday as a child. As she begins to rest and recover, she soon finds herself becoming involved in the life of the town and putting her planning skills to good use. But there is always a sense that there is some sort of secret just waiting to come to the fore…

I love the settings that Heidi Swain creates. Despite the typical British ‘summer’ weather Tess experiences for much of her stay, Wynmouth sounds like an idyllic place, not just for a holiday, but to live. I could easily picture Crow’s Nest cottage next to the pub, and Sophie’s cafe, the beach huts and so on. There is quite a sense of community too and with Tess’s help and encouragement, I felt this grew stronger throughout the book. I enjoyed watching Tess start to blossom again through helping others and discovering the things that really mattered to her. With two men vying for her attention (not that Tess seems to notice this!) it’s a gorgeously romantic read too.

And the food, oh the food! This is definitely not a book to read if you are remotely hungry as the descriptions of Sophie’s creations will have your stomach rumbling, your mouth watering and you running off to find the recipes.

The Secret Seaside Escape is perfect reading for just now (or any time) offering the reader a real escape from the worry and stress of everyday life. A great book to curl up with and imagine those holidays that we will one day be able to enjoy again. With lots of secrets waiting to be uncovered, new friendships, community spirit, a gorgeous setting, some surprises and a beautiful love story or two, this is a joyously, uplifting, feel-good book.

This book was exactly what I needed right now - beautiful escapism to a place that made me feel happy and relaxed.
I loved everything about Wynmouth - Tess, all the locals, the places they gathered and the memories they had - and it was easy to visualise it all as I read.
Such a lovely, easy read, with a few little surprising twists, that kept me wanting to pick it back up until I had finished. I hope we get to visit Wynmouth and the gang again soon!

This book is a ray of sunshine, set in the Norfolk town of Wynmouth. It focuses on workaholic Tess Tyler. After the death of her mother, Tess has thrown herself into a life of non stop work at her fathers PR firm for the last 2 years. Determined to prove herself to her like minded father, Tess has forfeited her own needs and private life to live up to his expectations. But after the discovery of shocking diaries amongst her mothers personnel effects Tess begins to question everything and needs to escape to clear her head.
So she heads for the seaside town of wynmouth where she spent happy times as a child on holiday and where she had her first kiss.
Here she blends with the locals especially pub land lord Sam and cafe owner Sophie and her daughter hope.
As she throws herself into organising village events and the life of others, the longer she’s away the more she wants to forget and hide from her own life. But at some point she is going to have to face up to it.
I loved this book as I have loved all the other Heidi swain books I have read.
Pure escapism in a beautiful summer setting. I would highly recommend.

What a fabulous summer book! It was just the tonic for the strange way life is at the moment (lockdown). I’ve read & enjoyed a couple of Heidi’s Christmassy books before and this was just as good if not my favourite. I loved the seaside town of Wynmouth & could almost smell the seaside and feel the sunshine from the descriptions. It reminded a lot of a place where we used to holiday when I was a child.
All the characters were so likeable & all had an intriguing storyline that kept you guessing right to the end.

Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for the opportunity to read this fabulous novel. I will be recommending it to everyone this summer!

"The Secret Seaside Escape" introduces us to Tess Tyler, working for her father's PR firm really hard - she has to prove to him and to the others that she's worth his trust. It also helps her - or at least is supposed to help - to get over death of her beloved mother. And so, for over two years she actually doesn't have a private life and hasn't been on holidays... To say that she lives under pressure would be an understatement. So it's no wonder that she catches herself thinking back to the better times, when they, as family, spent some of the best holidays in the seaside village of Wynmouth in Norfolk. When going through her mum's possessions she finds a photo of Crows Nest Cottage, and also a printed diary that puts her parents' relationship in a completely different perspective, Tess decides it's time for a break - from work, from her father, from life. She hopes that returning to a place that made her happy so many years ago will help her and will bring her so much needed joy. But will it?

The book has a wonderful setting, with a very picturesque location in Norfolk, at the seaside, with a cosy pub Smuggler's Inn, with its moody owner Sam, where you can play Scrabble and listen to some spooky stories, and lovely beach cafe where you can taste some brilliant and unusual recipes of Caribbean fusions. The author can easily transport you to her setting, she has a way with words and her descriptions are vivid and reach. I also do have such a place of my many happy childhood memories, where I spent the best time during my summer holidays, and I could truly relate to Tess's need to travel to Wynmouth, to try and bring back this small bit of happiness back and thanks to Heidi's writing I could really see why she loved this place so much, and why she felt like at home there.

As much as the story was light and undemanding, I simply wanted to bang the characters' heads either together or on the wall - they were desperately immature, jumping to the worst kinds of conclusions immediately and offended at anything and everything at the word go. I know that you can't always communicate with each other, that it's hard to talk, but please, get a little depth, be more real and genuine, you the characters from "The Secret seaside Escape".

It was a very easy and lightly predictable read, and everything happened as it should happen, you could easily just tick all the boxes. I would call this book "chick lit for beginners", as there is really everything you should expect from this genre.

The family related twists at the end turned out really well. It was a thing you could see coming but the outcome was totally different to what I was expecting, and I liked it, this bit different view at the family.

As usual, the author also touched upon some heavier issues in her book, softening them through the lovely setting and light overall tone, but altogether, this book truly felt slightly heavier. And while Ms Swain has managed some of the heavier issues, the others dragged on as if they overwhelmed her? I would really love to read Tess's mother's diary, there was so much told about it, and it took ages before Tess even read one page, even though it was so important to her, and I must admit, I've lost my interest before it even picked up pace. Nevertheless, kudos to the author for trying to make the book this little bit more ambitious by adding mystery and intrigue to the plot.
There is, of course, everything you can expect from Heidi Swain: gorgeous food, friendship, romance and she, as usual, highlights the importance of community. If you're in a need of a fresh, light and relaxing read then look no further - you've found your book!

It’s no secret that I’m a self-confessed Swainette, and love her worlds so much that I really wish I could head off to Wynbridge without a moment’s notice. I have loved the journeys she has taken us on to Wynbridge, Wynthorpe Hall, Nightingale Square and now she has widened her world to take us to the seaside, namely Wynmouth. I just adore the worlds she has created and the wonderful characters who have inhabited those worlds.

I fell in love with Wynmouth, and the holiday cottage that Tess rented for her stay. It was picture perfect, and a fabulous place for her to unwind. Tess worked in the full-on world of PR, and it was lovely to see her take a moment, switch off her phone and disconnect from her crazy world. Although she was unable to hide her talents for PR, it was lovely to see her become involved with the community, helping to organise a beach clean up operation, and helping with other social events in Wynmouth.

The additional characters were lovely, and although the burgeoning romance with the delectable Sam was clear to see, this book was more about emotional growth than it was about romance. There were some unpredictable twists and turns along the way, and the value of community shone through, as it always does in a novel by Heidi Swain.

In this time of lockdown, this book is the perfect escape, and although I desperately want to head to the Norfolk coast, I am quite happy to content myself with this visit to Wynmouth. I look forward to finding out more about the characters in Wynmouth, and will patiently wait for a return to this idyllic secret seaside escape!

I just adored this book. It was warm and charming with true to life characters and some clever twists and turns many of which I never saw coming. There was a bit of everything in the story including romance, new beginnings, family secrets, misunderstandings, falling outs and rifts among some of the villagers that have gone on way too long and need to be resolved. All of this is set in the delightful coastal village of Wynmouth. Who wouldn't want to live here or stay in the pretty cottage where Tess, the main character, moved to in order to take a break from the stresses of her job? Heidi's vivid descriptions of the seaside village and the pub and cottage were so realistic I could almost believe that I HAD been there for a holiday at some point. I love Heidi Swain's books. They are easy to read, the prose flows beautifully and the stories are so engaging that it's almost impossible to put them down once started. I do hope that there will be a future book set in wonderful Wynmouth as I really fell in love with the place and the characters who live there. Looking forward to the next book by Heidi and meanwhile, I heartily recommend this one. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a pre release copy in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book and really struggled to put it down. I wanted to finish it and see what happened but at the same time I didn’t want it to end. I am so glad on how the book finished but I don’t really want to ruin it but following the story of Tess on her ‘holiday’.
I really enjoy books by Heidi Swain and this certainly wasn’t a let down. Would highly recommend this for a feel good read this summer.

As a child, Tess Tyler used to holiday in the seaside town Weymouth with her Mum and dad. That’s when her family were happy. Now grown up, Tess is a high – flyer in the family’s PR business. Her dad is her boss, her mother having died years previously and Tess still hasn’t come to terms with her death. The stress of her job, together with the discovery of her mother’s diary leaves her reeling. Tess decides to take a break and without letting her dad know of her plans she finds herself heading to Weymouth where she rents a cottage for a few weeks. But circumstances change for the better and she gets close to the locals showing her skills by helping them find ways to bring more tourism to the town. Whilst there she meets past loves and finds things that changes her life forever.