Coming Home to Holly Close Farm
Julie Houston's novels are heart-warming, full of joy and completely addictive.
Charlie Maddison loves being an architect in London, but when she finds out her boyfriend, Dominic, is actually married, she runs back to the beautiful countryside of Westenbury and her parents. Charlie's sister Daisy, a landscape gardener, is also back home in desperate need of company and some fun.
Their great-grandmother, Madge – now in her early nineties – reveals she has a house, Holly Close Farm, mysteriously abandoned over sixty years ago, and persuades the girls to project manage its renovation.
As work gets underway, the sisters start uncovering their family's history, and the dark secrets that are hidden at the Farm. A heart-breaking tale of wartime romance, jealousy and betrayal slowly emerges, but with a moral at its end: true love can withstand any obstacle, and, before long, Charlie dares to believe in love again too...
Perfect for fans of Phillipa Ashley, Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.
Julie Houston lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding's old junior school and her neighbour is Chocolat author, Joanne Harris. After university, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior school teacher. As a newly qualified teacher, broke and paying off her first mortgage, she would spend every long summer holiday working on different Kibbutzim in Israel. After teaching for a few years she decided to go to New Zealand and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to Britain. Julie now only teaches when the phone rings asking her to go in for supply work, but still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children. She has been a magistrate for the past twenty years, and, when not distracted by eBay, Twitter and Ancestry, spends much of her time writing. Julie is married, with two adult children and a ridiculous Cockerpoo called Lincoln. She runs and swims because she's been told it's good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger and a jolly good book – preferably with Dev Patel in attendance. You can contact Julie via the contact page, on Twitter or on Facebook.
Twitter: @juliehouston2
Facebook.com/JulieHoustonauthor