The Girl at the Last House Before the Sea by Liz Eeles Review

The Girl at the Last House Before the Sea

Heaven's Cove #3

By Liz Eeles

Release Date: February 28th, 2022

Bookouture

Source: ARC provided by the Publisher

The girl stands on the clifftop, feeling the soft breeze lift her shining red hair and dry her tears. She can almost hear Ireland calling her home across the wild sea. But she can never go back. And in that moment, she swears no-one will ever find out why.

Freya is desperate for escape from her messy break-up when she’s offered a job caring for elderly Kathleen in the seaside village of Heaven’s Cove. Kathleen’s once-red hair is now a brilliant white, but there’s always laughter in her Irish lilt – until the day Freya finds her weeping, her gaze fixed on Driftwood House, perched on the cliffs above the village. She refuses to say what’s wrong…

Kathleen’s son Ryan, quiet with striking emerald eyes, resents that a stranger is caring for his mother. But as Freya presses him for answers on a long walk across a windswept beach, Ryan finally admits that Kathleen breaks down in the same way, on the exact same day every year – never telling anyone what is causing her pain.

Finding a photo of Kathleen as a young girl standing outside Driftwood House years before she says she moved to the village, Freya is determined to find the source of Kathleen’s heartache. But as she gets closer to Ryan, and to the sad, forgotten history of the house, Freya is faced with an impossible decision…

Should she share this heartbreaking secret with Ryan and risk their chance of happiness together? And will facing the truth bring Kathleen peace in her final years – or will it tear them all apart?

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

We are back at Heavenly Cove for book #3 and I have to say that I'm thrilled to be back and to see what stories the house before the sea has for us. Now this book can totally be read as a stand-alone, you do not have to read the story in order, as the author does an amazing job of helping you get to know everyone and everything.

When Freya arrives in Heavenly Cove after all of her life blows up, she needs a fresh start after the end of her marriage, even if it's close to her half-sister Belinda who is a huge busybody and gossip, and has always seemed to hate Freya for taking her father away, can they get past history to finally become sisters or will history be doomed to repeat itself all over again?

Yet again another beautiful book by author Liz Eeles, the tale she weaves around Heavenly Cove not only helps you to love the new characters that she introduces but helps you visit previous characters, just like you are good friends.

I give The Girl at the Last House before the Sea 5 stars

Liz writes funny, feel-good romantic comedies set in the Cotswolds and Cornwall, in the UK. She was brought up in Gloucestershire so the Cotswolds are 'home', and she fell in love with Cornwall during family holidays there as a child. She has happy memories of building sandcastles in the rain and listening to the foghorn - though the sun did come out sometimes.

Liz worked as a journalist for years and brought up a family on the south coast of England, all the while writing fiction in the quiet. After being short-listed in a couple of national novel-writing competitions, her dream of being a published author came true when she was signed up by Bookouture. 

When not writing, Liz likes walking by the sea, catching up with friends, and binge-watching box sets.