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Finding Mr Flood by Ciara Geraghty
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Release Date: 13th October 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from the publishers
Amazon Summary:

Dara Flood always says the most interesting thing about her life happened before she was born. Thirteen days before she came into the world, her father walked up the road and never came back.

Now in her twenties, Dara’s life has a careful routine. She lives in Dublin with her mother and sister Angel. She has pizza with friends every Wednesday, salsa class every Friday, and sees her boyfriend every Saturday. It’s safe and that’s the way she likes it.

Then Angel gets desperately sick and Dara’s ordered life falls apart. Neither she nor her mother is a compatible match for the kidney Angel needs. So Dara sets out to find the father who could be their last hope. But on the path to uncovering the truth about her father, Dara learns that to let life - and love - in, sometimes you just have to let go . . .

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All Over Again by Emma Heatherington
Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Release Date: 26th July 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from the publishers
Amazon Summary:

Thirty-something Natalie has never been like the other girls. A late developer, she was always the one men made fun of rather than made out with! But now she has Dougie, a handsome young widower and father of twins who can give her everything she needs everything, that is, except the one thing she wants more than life itself: her own baby. She loves him but can she settle for his ready-made family and live in the shadow of his late wife Susan?

Natalie’s childhood friend Michelle had her first baby at seventeen. Abandoned by the father, Patrick, she married wealthy architect Caleb on the rebound but has not found the contentment she craves. With her two children and a heart full of longing and regret, she has come back to the holiday resort where Natalie lives, to find herself. When Patrick turns up, wanting to meet his teenage daughter, Michelle’s old wounds are torn apart. For the two friends, is it time to start all over again?

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Love Always by Harriet Evans
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 23rd June 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

Natasha Kapoor’s life is at a turning point. Leaving London for the magical Cornish coast to attend the funeral of her beloved grandmother, this trip will reunite her with her large and complicated family. As she and her family sort through her grandmother’s possessions and prepare to sell Summercove, the idyllic coastal home that has been in their family for decades, Natasha is given the long-lost diary of her aunt Cecily, who died in a tragic accident at the age of fifteen.

Returning to her home in London’s trendy Shoreditch, Natasha must get back to normality – to her job as a jewellery designer and to her soon-to-be ex-husband. But how can she forget the tragic tale of love, rivalry and heartbreak that emerged from the pages of Cecily’s diary? And will Cecily’s words, though written forty years ago, inspire Natasha to take a chance on love?

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The Lingerie Designer by Siobhán McKenna
Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Release Date: 26th May 2011 (paperback)
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

Helen Devine is one of the UK’s most successful lingerie designers. Her luscious creations have spiced up the love life of many a grateful woman and sealed the deal on many a budding romance. So why is her own love life such a disaster? She’s a sexy, confident woman: surely the right man for her must be out there somewhere? Helen’s best friend Poppy, a great believer in Synchronicity, urges Helen to trust in fate. As a level-headed businesswoman, Helen prefers to trust in herself. Besides, she feels Poppy needs to practise what she preaches …

Then a series of strange coincidences during a business trip to Hong Kong and a once-in-a-lifetime holiday in Vietnam causes Helen to think twice. From the city lights of Hong Kong to the majestic rock-formations of Halong Bay and the smoky jazz clubs of Hanoi, it looks like fate might at last be lending her a helping hand in finding The One. Perhaps Poppy might be onto something after all? On the other hand, maybe the road to happiness leads back to where they started from …

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The House By The Sea by Santa Montefiore
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 21st July 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from publisher for review
Amazon Summary:

An irresistibly compelling from the internationally bestselling author Ten-year-old Floriana is captivated by the beauty of the magnificent Tuscan villa that overlooks the sea just outside her small village. She likes to spy from the crumbling wall into the gardens, and imagine that one day she’ll escape her meagre existence and live there. One day, Dante, the son of the villa’s powerful industrialist owner, invites her inside. From that moment on Floriana knows that her destiny is there, with him. But as they grow up they cross an unseen line, jeopardising the very thing they hold most dear. Decades later and hundreds of miles away, a beautiful old country house hotel on England’s Devon coast has fallen on hard times. Its owner, Marina, advertises for an artist-in-residence to stay the summer and teach the guests how to paint. Rafael Santoro is charismatic and wise, and soon begins to pacify the discord in her family. However, Rafa is not who he seems. He has his own agenda. Whether to destroy, to seduce, or to heal, it is certain to affect them all.

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