The House Beneath the Cliffs

the most uplifting novel about second chances you'll read this year

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Pub Date 29 Sep 2021 | Archive Date 17 Aug 2021
Simon and Schuster UK | Simon & Schuster UK

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Description

‘A gorgeously remote and romantic great escape, brimming with foodie passion, friendship and heart’ Laura Kemp, author of A Year of Surprising Acts of Kindness

A remote yet beautiful village. A tiny kitchen lunch club. The perfect place to start again.
 
Anna moves to Crovie, a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth, for a fresh start. But when she arrives, she realises her new home is really no more than a shed, and the village itself sits beneath a cliff right on the edge of the sea, in constant danger of storms and landslides. Has she made a terrible mistake?

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 . . . ?
 
Beautiful, moving and utterly absorbing, The House Beneath the Cliffs is a novel of friendship and food, storms and secrets, and the beauty of second chances

‘A gorgeously remote and romantic great escape, brimming with foodie passion, friendship and heart’ Laura Kemp, author of A Year of Surprising Acts of Kindness

A remote yet beautiful village. A tiny...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781471198670
PRICE £8.99 (GBP)
PAGES 400

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Average rating from 51 members


Featured Reviews

An excellent story, poignant and heartwarming. It made me smile and moved, I rooted for Anna hoping for the best.
The descriptions of the hamlet made me wish I could travel there, the characters are fleshed out, the plot flows and kept me turning pages.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's strongly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

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This is a wonderful book. The characters are full, rounded and intriguing. You are drawn in to know more about them. The village and community are just what you dream of finding and the story warms your heart. A real must read book.

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Amazingly "The House Beneath the Cliffs" is set in a real hamlet on the Scottish coast east of Inverness. I struggle to imagine why anyone would choose to live there but if it is truly as it is described in this book then the sense of community must be a major draw.

Anna is fleeing from an abusive relationship and buys her tiny house in Crovie almost on a whim; two good reasons though are the remoteness from London and the fact that she can afford it without a mortgage. When she first arrives she wonders what she has done (as she bought the house without viewing it) and almost leaves immediately.

Luckily Anna stays on and gradually falls in love with the area and becomes part of the community. A heart warming tale which shows that love can be found even in the most remote places.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

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This is an author who is new to me, but having heard her talking about this new novel, I thought it sounded right up my street. I was particularly attracted to the story as the setting is in an area I have been to recently. While not having visited this particular small seaside village, I did drive down to quite a few similar villages along that Moray Firth coast towards Inverness.


The story centres on chef Anna Campbell, who is just getting out of a long-term relationship with celebrity chef Geoff, who has become completely overbearing. Desperate to escape, she has bought a small house in the tiny seaside village of Crovie with the unusual name of Fishergirl’s Luck. Unfortunately, she only viewed the property online, so the size and location are a bit of a shock; the house is basically a converted storage shed. The village itself is obviously a shadow of the busy fishing village it once was, partly due to the extreme weather that sometimes blows in from the sea, and to the precarious state of the cliff that overshadows the area. Her first instinct is to turn and flee, but the friendly neighbours she meets convince her to stay a while longer. Even the grumpy old resident who seems to hate her can’t make her leave. Anna soon begins to feel at home in her little house and to turn her hand to cooking once again, even running a pop-up lunch club a few times a week. She also becomes friendly with handsome single dad Robert MacKenzie who lives in a nearby town. However, when the weather turns really nasty, it looks as though Anna’s comfortable life may be at an end.

I have really enjoyed reading this moving and dramatic story that kept me absorbed for hours at a time; I can highly recommend it to all. I admired Anna and her sense of adventure in leaving behind her old life and being ready to say yes to any opportunity that came her way. There are lots of other interesting characters in the story, with a range of backgrounds. I loved the relationship between Robert MacKenzie and his son and their involvement with a pod of bottlenose dolphins for which the area has become famous. What can I say about the village of Crovie - so tiny and with the constant threat of that cliff above it, with its frequent landslips, and yet so full of community spirit. Who could fail to be charmed? Anna’s little house sounded so cosy and an absolutely ideal place for someone looking to escape. Of course, with Anna being a top-notch chef, there is lots of delicious food being prepared in this story, with plenty of seafood on offer.

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I read this book having just read a crime novel and a psychological thriller. What a lovely breather, light and joyous despite a few tragedies along the way. I really liked Anna and her new band of friends, ‘the usual suspects’. How could you not warm to them all? The novel is based in a small fishing hamlet of Crovie in Scotland which really exists. It SO made me want to visit myself and perhaps stay a while. All in all a lovely read (despite being rather predictable!) for a holiday time or just because you want to be away on holiday!

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A quick and gentle escape read which I thoroughly enjoyed. Set on the Scottish coast in a tiny village, Crovie (which does exist and looks every bit as delightful as in the novel depicts) the story is a tale of community, escape, starting anew on many levels and several elements of love. Truly heartwarming and inspirational, well written descriptive writing of scenes and characters, even the grumpy ones, who are just so relatable in any small community, one can love them all except the intolerable 'ex'. The more I got into the book the more it captivated me and left me wanting more.

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Really enjoyed this tale of Crovie village under the cliffs on the Scottish coast.
Anna has bought a cottage under the cliffs after breaking up from a long relationship with well known tv chef Geoff, but when she arrived her cottage was tiny, has she made a terrible mistake?
The characters and stories behind them were all brilliant. Atmospheric, beautiful and totally gripping story.
Hard to put down once you start reading....just loved it!!
Highly recommended!! Planning some Scottish travels now and some cooking!
Thank you for the early read- very much appreciated.

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