I'm very pleased to be part of the blog tour for Summer on the Little Cornish Isles by Phillipa Ashley. The book is out now and I shared a review of it which you can read here. I have an extract to share with you.
Heres' what it's all about:
One summer can change everything …
Poppy has always loved Cornwall – the crisp sea air, the welcoming community. So when her boyfriend Dan suggests they leave their office jobs and take over the Starfish Studio on the Isles of Scilly, Poppy doesn’t need asking twice.
But things don’t go to plan when Dan dumps her, weeks before they’re due to move. Determined not to give up, Poppy accepts the help of local photographer Jake, her landlord’s grandson. But Jake is distracted by a loss from his past.
Can they turn the crumbling gallery into a success in time for tourist season? And will a summer on the little Cornish Isles mend just the studio – or Poppy’s heart too?
Thank you to Phillipa for stopping by and sharing this extract with us today, happy reading!
Poppy sneaked a glance at him. He seemed to be almost as mesmerised as she
was, lingering by paintings and showing no signs of being bored. Relieved not to be hauled
outside, she carried on exploring.
Although the walls were peeling and the display cabinets showing signs of age, the
space still gave her the shivers – in a good way. Alongside Archie Pendower’s oils, there
was work by other artists and makers. Every nook and cranny was filled with copper fish
twisting through metal water, driftwood sculptures, bangles made of semi-precious stones
and pendants with silver shells and sea glass in jewel-like colours.
At the rear of the gallery, Dan was now deep in conversation with Archie himself.
Archie’s deep local burr was mesmeric and Dan’s voice was livelier and more animated than
she’d heard him for ages.
Clutching a pack of postcards featuring Archie’s work, Poppy joined Dan and told
Archie how much she admired his work. She hoped she didn’t sound like too much of a
fangirl but the Starfish Studio seemed to have worked its magic on both of them.
At one time, while she was studying English at university, Poppy had harboured
vague dreams about running a gallery. She’d actually spent one of her university summer
holiday’s earning a bit of cash by helping out in a gallery – more of a gift shop really – at the
craft centre near her parents’ house. She was well aware that an artist’s life was far from the
creative bubble customers liked to believe, but she was still in awe of those who made their
actual living being creative. She’d always enjoyed dabbling with crafts and spent far too long
in the bead shop in her town. She was wearing one of her own creations today: a bracelet
inspired by the colours of the sea.
However, when she’d left university she’d got a job as a PR assistant with a building
products company and risen to be the communications manager. She still made a few
pieces now and then, but work and a long commute meant she had less time than ever for
her hobby.
She might laugh at Dan’s obsession with budgets and bulldozers, but her own job
was hardly creative. On the other hand, it was how she’d first met him: at a construction
conference a couple of years before. She’d gone along, thinking that it would be dull as
ditchwater and almost decided to miss the final seminar on marketing on the first day. She
was so glad she hadn’t.
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