BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE VACATION HOUSE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is The Vacation House, by Jane Shemilt.

Book Beginning:

(Sofie) Paxos, 2003

The visitors were shocked into silence.  The first glimpse of the ocean through the pine trees was always shocking.  That blue came at you hard.  Close up there were other colours:  the crimson of Babas’s boat, black shadows under the cliff, silvery fish in the shallows, but at a distance the sea was as unbroken and garish as one of Nico’s wax drawings.

***

56:

He is playing a game.  He takes Lottie for the photography module of her art GCSE, so he knows how she is better than I do.

***

Synopsis:

Two women. Two secrets. One terrible night.

PAXOS, GREECE

The vacation house is a luxurious getaway for a wealthy English family, windows open to sun and the sea, a sparkling swimming pool, and a verdant garden. One hot summer night, while the parents and their friends drink wine and amuse themselves, a young woman—the teenage daughter of the Greek caretaker—ventures for a walk on their private beach. Her life will never be the same again.

LONDON, ENGLAND, TEN YEARS LATER

Julia is the perfect spouse and mother. Slender, blonde, expensively dressed, she’s the classic “yummy mummy” of high society: cook, organizer, arm candy, and speechwriter to her influential husband.

But behind her winning smile is a stifled woman trapped in a gilded cage, stricken with anxiety and perfectionism. When Julia meets Laurel, a therapist who promises to help her find fulfillment, Julia opens herself up to the hope of a different future.

BOUND BY THE PAST

What happened in Greece all those years ago that binds these two women together? And will uncovering the truth destroy everything… or set them free?

 

***

Would you keep reading?

***