I Received this book via netgally in exchange for an honest review There's an old Cornish saying: 'Save a stranger from the sea, he'll turn your enemy...'When her reclusive grandmother becomes too frail to live alone, Gabriella Blythe moves into the remote waterside cabin on Frenchman's Creek which has been her grandmother's home for decades. Once a celebrated artist, Jaunty's days are coming to a close but she is still haunted by events in her past, particularly the sinking of Lancasteria during the war. An absorbing read (i often lost a few hours up the garden reading this book!) the characters are interesting and you want to keep reading until the end a real page turner that i would recommend ( )

Dear Lord, save me from romantic novels! The characters are cliches, the plots formulaic and the romance flat. The titular Cornish stranger is Fin, and his personality is made up entirely of chiselled cheekbones and full lips. He washes up outside the cabin of the red-headed heroine Gabe - Gabriella - who has the voice of an angel but abandoned her operatic career after a Traumatic Incident. Gabe has returned home to Cornwall so she can look after her 92 year old grandmother, a talented artist nicknamed Jaunty - I kid you not - who is writing down her Dark Secret before she dies. Every last character and plot 'twist' bored me silly. I suggest reading The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, which is sort of the same story but told with far more imagination and a stronger sense of setting (I only borrowed the novel because of Cornish connection, but Liz Fenwick is an American author who now lives - possibly on a temporary basis - in Cornwall). Also, The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes is about a wartime romance similar in theme to Jaunty's Dark Secret, but fleshed out with sympathetic characters, convincing relationships and - oh, what's that other word? - emotion! ( )

Roman over de persoonlijke geschiedenis van een kunstenares, schilderes van Cornish landschappen en wat dit betekent voor haar kleindochter die, vlak voor haar dood, voor haar komt zorgen. Soms te schematisch opgetekend en te gewild romantisch. Maar wel mooie beschrijvingen van de invloed van de getijden, de natuurschoon, het licht en de vogels in Cornwall. ( )