My pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for The Girl Who Came Home to Cornwall by Emma Burstall. The fifth book in the Tremarnock series, it was published by Head of Zeus on 5th December, and is available via Amazon for kindle, in hardback and as an audiobook: it’s also available for Kobo, from Google Play, and via iBooks. My thanks to Vicky at Head of Zeus for the invitation to join the tour, and the ongoing support – I’m just rather kicking myself that I couldn’t fit in the reading.
Escape to the Cornish coast with a new heartwarming Tremarnock novel, perfect for fans of Jill Mansell and Philippa Ashley.
In the quaint Cornish village of Tremarnock, Chabela Penhallow arrives for a holiday and to discover more about her Cornish ancestors. But, as always with newcomers to the small seaside town, rumours start to fly about this beautiful stranger. Is there more to her than meets the eye?
Meanwhile, Rob and Liz Hart’s marriage is on the rocks, but only one of them knows the real reason. Once the secret is out, will they be able to handle the repercussions or will it destroy their life together?
For the residents of Tremarnock, the revelations will either bond or break them – forever.
So no review this time – but, with thanks to Head of Zeus, here’s an extract to give you a taster…
Chabela smiled to herself as she left behind the man with the funny grey beard and sideburns and strolled towards the beach.
She’d made quite an impression on him, that much was obvious, but it didn’t surprise her. She was accustomed to male admiration as well as female stares, though these weren’t always quite so friendly.
She was well aware that she was beautiful and it had certainly come in handy down the years, but she’d never allowed it to define her. Rather, she regarded her good looks as just one of many elements that combined to make Isabela Adriana Penhallow Maldonado, or Chabela for short, the woman that she was. Penhallow was her paternal surname, Maldonado, her mother’s and she used both, as was the custom in Mexico.
There was no rush, in fact she had all the time in the world, and after strolling past the public loos on her left, she stopped to admire the hanging baskets outside the Lobster Pot pub, which were stuffed with trailing blue lobelia and pink geraniums, just coming into bloom.
The pub door was closed and propped up against a wall inside the porch was a blackboard, on which someone had chalked: ‘Moules Frîtes – Hand Baked Cornish Pasty and a Pint – Potted Shrimps – Village Scrumpy. Come on in!’ Alongside was a rough drawing of a jolly farmer on a haystack.
Before long, Chabela guessed, the sign would be placed outside on the pavement and folk would start to wander in but for now, all was quiet.
It was so different from the dusty, densely populated street in the Colonia del Valle neighbourhood of Mexico City where she’d grown up, lined with tall, modern apartment buildings and row upon row of parked cars.
There, people gathered in cafés and restaurants from early in the morning till late at night, talking and laughing in loud, excited voices. Instead of hanging baskets, there were giant tubs of bougainvillea and violet-blue jacaranda, as well as palm trees, rubber plants and cacti.
Nostalgia nibbled at her insides, until she remembered that she’d come here to escape her old life, at least for a while. Savour the differences, she told herself. Enjoy the foreignness. You’ll soon be treading those familiar streets and seeing those same old faces again…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a series of loud bangs and she swivelled around sharply. A youngish, dark-haired man inside the pub appeared to be pounding on the frame of a small, lead-paned window, which suddenly flew open, nearly coming off its hinges in the process.
As the man stuck out his arm to pull the window back in and secure the metal fastening, he spotted Chabela just a few feet away and his jaw dropped. He looked so funny that Chabela couldn’t help smiling and his face lit up in a delighted grin, which made her smile even more.
It felt good to spread a little happiness, she thought, as she gave a wave and continued on her way. However, having had a mother whose beauty had bowled men over, but who’d been quite incapable of taking care of herself, Chabela had worked out long ago that you couldn’t get by in this world on looks alone. After all, a car with great bodywork but poor suspension, an unreliable engine and defective steering was no use to anyone, and even as a child she’d known that she wanted to contribute something to the world, although back then she wasn’t sure what.
While her mother had worked through a string of husbands, popping pills and drowning her sorrows in tequila in between, the young Chabela had focused more on her mind than her appearance. She’d strived hard at school, gained top results and won a scholarship to a good university in Mexico City.
After graduating with a First, she’d stayed on to do a PhD in Latin American studies, then ‘Doctora Penhallow Maldonado’, as she became known, took up the post of junior lecturer at the same institution.
‘A charming, warm-hearted read … Pure escapism’ ALICE PETERSON
‘The literary equivalent of a gin and tonic on a hot summer’s day … A delicious, delightful and decadent tale’ BOOKISH JOTTINGS.
About the author
Emma Burstall was a newspaper journalist in Devon and Cornwall before becoming a full time author. Tremarnock, the first novel in her series set in a delightful Cornish village, was published in 2015 and became a top-10 bestseller.
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