#Review: Under a Summer Skye by Sue Moorcroft @SueMoorcroft @AvonBooksUK @rararesources #blogtour #giveaway #newrelease #romance #RespectRomFic #TheSkyeSisters #UnderaSummerSkye

I’m delighted today to be helping launch the blog tour for the latest book from the wonderful Sue Moorcroft, Under a Summer Skye, and sharing my review. Published on 9th May by Avon Books, it’s now available as an ebook, in paperback and as an audiobook via Amazon in the UK and US – but you’ll also spot that lovely paperback cover on the shelves when shopping at the supermarket, or you can order it from your favourite high street or on-line bookshop. Thank you, as always, to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading e-copy, provided via netgalley.

I’m not going to even try to put together a “books I’ve loved” paragraph for Sue, as I often do – but you will find reviews of almost every book she’s ever written by typing her name into my search bar, and you’ll see that she’s been a firm personal favourite for as long as she’s been writing. She never disappoints with her two books a year, and her writing just gets better and better. Her characters are always so very real and easy to identify with – her stories beautifully told, with such well-drawn locations, that fine emotional touch, and engaging contemporary themes. But did you realise that she’s never before set out to write a series? Yes, I know we’ve ended up visiting Middledip a few times (well, it’s so lovely there…) – Nelson’s Bar too, and we had the chance to see Zia and Piero again while we were in Italy. But this latest is the first book in a planned trilogy, set on the Isle of Skye (always a setting I love…), and telling the stories of three sisters – and that’s something I was rather excited about…

Escape to the Isle of Skye this summer with the Sunday Times bestselling author, and lose yourself in the first book of the Skye Sisters Trilogy.

 

A Scottish island. A stranger from the mainland. A summer of possibilities…

 

A chance encounter is about to change everything for Thea Wynter.

 

The moment she arrived on the Isle of Skye, life changed for Thea. Running from a succession of wrong turns, she comes to the island in search of blue sea, endless skies, and mountains that make the heart soar. Here, she feels at peace.

 

As head gardener at Rothach Hall, life is exactly how she wants it, with her days spent working in the glorious clifftop garden and her evenings in the cosy village pub.

 

But an encounter with a stranger from the mainland brings with it an unexpected turn – and she is left wondering whether he is friend or foe.

 

It seems that even on Skye, life can catch up with you, and Thea is soon faced with the past she left behind – and with it, the family she’s never met…

 

From old lives to new beginnings, lose yourself on the beautiful Isle of Skye with Thea as she discovers how many possibilities life can truly hold if you look hard enough.

This book begins with a particularly intriguing and dramatic prologue – an introduction to Thea and a life-changing incident in Suffolk, nine years earlier – that immediately drew me into her story. We then find her having left her former life as a recognisable face on a TV gardening programme, travelling North together with sister Ezzie, now living a far quieter life while working as head gardener at Rothach Hall on the Isle of Skye – and this book’s sense of place is absolutely stunning, with the most beautiful descriptions of the setting that now nurtures her troubled soul.

We learn that she’s one of three sisters, all adopted, and that fact drives a significant – and tremendously engaging – part of the developing story, with that fine emotional touch that always distinguishes the author’s writing. But that’s not the only strand. A coincidence, an unexpected bit of drama and a touch of heroics brings Deveron into her life – a man who just happens to be in the right place at the right time, who takes up a seasonal gardening job at the Hall, and their friendship slowly develops – but he’s a man with a few hidden secrets, and when they surface it seems inevitable that the trust between them will be damaged beyond repair. But both of them have made mistakes in their lives, and need to handle the consequences – and I really liked the way the writing shared their separate perspectives and moral dilemmas, making them both immensely likeable and sympathetic.

The whole story is an emotional one, beautifully told – and it introduces a number of serious and complex issues, all so well researched and very sensitively handled, while never losing sight of the very real tenderness of the developing and perhaps ill-fated romance. The writing is just wonderful – their relationship was one I really believed in and I found their story compelling, entirely caught up by the unexpected twists and turns in their lives, desperately wanting them to have their happy ending.

There’s a strong focus on family and its many complications, which is something I always enjoy – and while Thea’s own story takes centre stage, I’ll look forward to getting to know the two other adopted sisters better, both particularly intriguing and well-drawn characters. But there’s plenty of lightness to this story too – gentle touches of humour, with much of it arising from the antics of the lovely four-legged Daisy, whose own story also brings a few touches of the unexpected.

I’ve enjoyed every book that the author has ever written, but this was one I loved – the story, the setting, the individuals at the story’s core and the emotional impact were all quite exceptional, and I really couldn’t recommend it more.

Giveaway

With thanks to Sue and Rachel, I’m delighted to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a signed copy of Under A Summer Skye, plus Sue Moorcroft pen and bookmarks (open to UK readers only).

Here’s the rafflecopter for entry:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

UK entries welcome. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

About the author

Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author and has reached the coveted #1 spot on Amazon Kindle UK as well as top 100 in the US, Canada and Italy.  She writes two books a year for publishing giant HarperCollins and has won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary. She’s the president of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and her short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.

For more information on Sue and her books, she has an excellent website, a Facebook author page, and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.