Anna moves to Crovie, a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth, for a fresh start. But when she arrives, she realises her new home is really no more than a shed, and the village itself sits beneath a cliff right on the edge of the sea, in constant danger of storms and landslides. Has she made a terrible mistake?
Beautiful, moving and utterly absorbing, The House Beneath the Cliffs is a novel of friendship and food, storms and secrets, and the beauty of second chances
Quite often when someone moves to a village in a book, it can take some time for them to be part of the community but this wasn’t the case with Crovie. There were a few exceptions but Anna was quickly welcomed into the community and although she was worried at first that she had made a big mistake, Crovie and her tiny cottage The Fishergirl’s Luck quickly grew on her and it grew on me too. I very soon felt that I knew all the residents of the village so well and they felt like friends.
Will Anna really be able to put down roots in this remote and wild village? Or will her fragile new beginning start to crumble with the cliffs . . . ?
The House Beneath the Cliffs is wonderfully warm book about second chances and finding home. With friendship, food and love in a gorgeous though sometimes dangerous setting, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to The House Beneath the Cliffs and fully intend to go Crovie in real life sometime. I’d like to think that Anna, Rhona, Auld Robbie, Pat and all the others will be waiting to welcome me with a smile and some wonderful food.
From the back of the book
Yet as she begins to learn about the Scottish coast and its people, something she thought she’d lost reawakens in her. She rediscovers her love of cooking, and turns her kitchen into a pop-up lunch club. But not all the locals are delighted about her arrival, and some are keen to see her plans fail.
For various reasons, I was later starting this book than I would have liked and I was a bit worried that I might not finish it in time for my spot on the blogtour. But I needn’t have worried as once I picked it up, I was caught up in Anna’s new life from the beginning and couldn’t put it down.My thanks to Sara-Jade at Simon and Schuster for sending me an early copy of the book and to Anne at Random Things Tours for the opportunity to take part in the tour. The House Beneath the Cliffs is available now in all formats and is available from all good booksellers.
About the AuthorA remote yet beautiful village. A tiny kitchen lunch club. The perfect place to start again.Sharon started her career as an entertainment journalist, writing non-fiction books about film and television. She is also the author of multiple children’s books. Sharon and her husband live in a small village in northern Cumbria. She can be found on Twitter @sharongosling
I couldn’t talk about this book without mentioning the food. Anna soon put her skills to good use, cooking first for her neighbours and then for the small lunch club she held in her garden. With the freshest of fish and seafood literally on her doorstep it sounded absolutely mouth-watering. I wasn’t surprised that word soon got out and people were beating a path down that narrow road to her door. I so wished it was real so that I could go too!
I’ve never been to Crovie, though as I was reading about it I remembered hearing about a remote village cut off because of safety worries about the only road in a few years back. When I went to look that up, I was amazed to find that it was Crovie! Sharon Gosling describes the tiny village perched right by the sea on a very narrow street so well but it’s only when you look at photos of the place you realise just how brilliantly she has done this. It’s most definitely off the beaten track and when chef Anna was looking for somewhere to make a fresh start, she could hardly have chosen anywhere more different from her previous life.
