When a little white
lie becomes the story of your life, what if the truth comes out?
For three woman, it's a
life-changing trip: one finds the man of her dreams, another discovers
inspiration amidst Italian food and culture, while a chance encounter with a
handsome local ushers in the ultimate life change for the third. But most
importantly, it's the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship between all
three.
Now years later, Kim
Weston - entrepreneur and owner of internationally successful Italian food and
lifestyle business, The Sweet Life - has bought and restored the tumble-down
villa to its former glory -- and plans to reopen Villa Dolce Vita as a
wellness/cultural retreat - a fitting honor to the root of her business
inspiration.
To celebrate the
villa's grand opening, she and her Italian business partners are throwing a
huge three-day party; flying a group of family, business and media contacts to
the Amalfi Coast to join in the celebrations. And most importantly, the (still)
close friends who started the journey with her: Annie and husband Nate, whose
love story began at the villa, and single mum Eva, whose son was the result of
an ill-advised Italian fling.
But in the run up to
the planned weekend in Italy, it becomes clear that not everyone is happy about
the party, nor are they on board with such ambitious plans for the location.
And, as Villa Dolce Vita's grand relaunch draws closer, old memories and past
secrets come to light, and the three old friends are forced to question if
anything that happened on that first fateful trip to the villa is at all what
it seemed.
BUY LINKS
Excerpted from The Summer Villa by Melissa Hill,
Copyright © 2020 by Melissa Hill. Published by MIRA Books.
Prologue
It was just a little white lie. A way to kick-start her
freedom.
And Kim Weston was now officially a runaway.
She couldn’t help but laugh at the idea as she stared out
the window of the airplane into the abyss around her. Thirty years old—an
adult—and here she was, running away from home.
She’d boarded a flight from JFK earlier and watched as the
sky turned from pale blue to black. They were already six hours into a
nine-hour journey and she was tired but couldn’t sleep.
There wasn’t a star to be seen, no way to discriminate the
ocean below from the sky above. Nothing but emptiness.
Ironic because it was exactly how Kim felt inside. She had
no reason to, or so everyone told her.
She had everything—the luxurious Manhattan apartment,a personal
driver to take her wherever she wanted to go, generous expense accounts at all
the best Fifth Avenue stores, and a black Amex to service every last one of her
spending needs.
She and her friends were the crème de la crème of New York’s
Upper East Side society set and partied with celebrities and VIPs alike. By all
accounts she had the quintessential dream life.
So why was she running away?
She could still hear her parents’ voices in her head and her
own guilt in her heart as she sat quietly nursing a vodka and orange juice.
Most of the cabin’s passengers were asleep, and the crew was
moving around less frequently, but Kim’s mind simply wouldn’t quit.
For once, she wasn’t playing the role she’d been allotted.
If she was expected to assume her part in the Weston family script for the rest
of her life, then she needed a chance to play the rebel, even if only briefly.
Everything was planned to ensure that her parents wouldn’t
find her—at least not for a little while.
Her destination (and certainly choice of accommodation)
wasn’t somewhere Peter or Gloria would ever think to look for her, since it was
so far removed from the kind of places the Westons usually frequented.
No five-star luxury hotel suite awaiting Kim when she
arrived. Instead she was staying at a tumbledown villa she’d found on the
internet, where she’d be sharing living space and possibly even a room with
other guests. She shuddered involuntarily.
Kim was roughing it, in as much as someone like her could.
The house had no on-site staff, apparently there was someone who’d come by
daily to tidy and meet and greet, but that was it. No concierge, butler,
in-house chef—nothing.
Read the full excerpt here: https://bit.ly/2UYOWFP
About the Author
MELISSA HILL
lives in south Dublin with her husband and daughter. A USA TODAY and
international #1 bestseller, she is the author of 13 novels, including The
Gift of a Charm and A Gift From Tiffany's. The Gift of a Charm
was a USA TODAY bestseller. Hailed "the queen of the big plot
twist," she combines all the warmth and humor of contemporary women's
fiction with plots that keep readers guessing from page to page. Melissa also
cowrites forensic thrillers with her husband, Kevin, under the pseudonym Casey
Hill, featuring crime scene investigator Reilly Steel. For more information, visit
www.caseyhillbooks.com.
Social Links
0 comments:
Post a Comment