Ali McNamara

Book Review: The Summer of Serendipity by Ali McNamara

SummerofSerendipityI want to give a big, lovely welcome to Ali McNamara and the blog tour for her new novel, The Summer of Serendipity which has recently been released by Sphere. 

One summer, property seeker, Serendipity Parker finds herself on the beautiful west coast of Ireland, hunting for a home for a wealthy Irish client. But when she finds the perfect house in the small town of Ballykiltara, there’s a problem; nobody seems to know who owns it.

‘The Welcome House’ is a local legend. Its front door is always open for those in need of shelter, and there’s always a plentiful supply of food in the cupboards for the hungry or poor.

While Ren desperately tries to find the owner to see if she can negotiate a sale, she begins to delve deeper into the history and legends that surround the old house and the town. But for a woman who has always been focussed on her work, she’s remarkably distracted by Finn, the attractive manager of the local hotel.
But will she ever discover the real truth behind the mysterious ‘Welcome House’? Or will the house cast its magical spell over Ren and help her to find true happiness?

Serendipity Parker is a property seeker. Finding the perfect home for her client is her priority. When she finds herself in the small Irish town of Ballykiltara, she thinks her search is going to be easy. The Welcome House seems perfect. The problem is, no one knows who owns it.
As Ren begins to research the house and the myths and stories surrounding it, she wonders if she will ever find out who owns this house that seems to always be open to all who need it.

From the title alone, I knew I was going to enjoy this book. Serendipity is one of my favourite words and the title just conjured up the feeling of sun, adventure and romance (the cover lends itself to the romantic feeling of the novel.)

I’ve been a big fan of Ali Mcnamara since her first novel, Notting Hill with Love Actually. I also loved Breakfast at Darcy’s (if you’ve read that, Dermot and Darcy make a small reappearance.)

It was lovely to go back to Tara and the area I loved from that novel and to be honest, it all sounds so charming and picturesque, I am about ready to pack my bags and move there. I can tell that Ali has a real love with Ireland by the way she describes it. The prose is so rich.

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A Moment With…Ali McNamara

ali-mcnamaraDay twenty-seven of National Novel Writing Month and Ali McNamara joins us today to talk about returning to a character.

It’s lovely to write again about a bunch of characters you’ve got to know in a previous book. It’s like meeting up with old friends again, and that’s exactly how I feel when I return to Scarlett and her Notting Hill friends.

I’ve written about them three times now, and it becomes easier with every book. Both you and the reader already know so much about each character, that you know just how they’ll behave in every situation.

There aren’t many drawbacks – trying to keep a new reader who might not have read the other books in the series, up to date with what’s gone on in previous stories is probably the trickiest thing, as you don’t want to bore fans of the series with lots of information they already know. But hopefully I usually find a way to suit all!

I love writing the Notting Hill series, and I really hope to write more in the future.

 

Ali is the author of the Notting Hill series which include From Notting Hill with Love Actually, From Notting Hill to New York, Actually and her new novel, From Notting Hill with Four Weddings Actually which was released by Sphere in October. 

To find out about Ali and the fantastic Notting Hill series, visit her website: www.alimcnamara.co.uk

You can also follow her on Twitter @AliMcNamara

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