Synopsis
Anything could happen when you spend summer in San Remo …
Running her busy concierge service usually keeps Cassie Travers fully occupied. But when a new client offers her the strangest commission she’s ever handled she suddenly finds herself on the cusp of an Italian adventure, with a man she thought she would never see again
Jake McQuire has returned from the States to his family-run detective agency. When old flame Cassie appears in need of help with her mysterious client, who better than Jake to step in?
Events take the pair across Europe to a luxurious villa on the Italian Riviera. There, Cassie finds that the mystery she pursues pales into insignificance, when compared to another discovery made along the way …
Book 1 – Riviera series followed by A Wedding on the Riviera.
Evonne Wareham
Evonne Wareham was born in South Wales and spent her childhood there. After university she migrated to London, where she worked in local government, scribbled novels in her spare time and went to the theatre a lot. Now she’s back in Wales, living by the sea, writing and studying a PHD in history. She still loves the theatre, likes staying in hotels and enjoys the company of other authors through her membership of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Evonne’s debut novel, Never Coming Home won the 2012 Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award, the 2013 Colorado Romance Writers’ Award for Romantic Suspense, the Oklahoma National Readers’ Choice Award for Romantic Suspense plus was a nominee for a Reviewers’ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews.
Evonne’s novels include: Never Coming Home, Out of Sight Out of Mind and Summer in San Remo
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A perfect summer read! It takes you from England to a lovely place in sunny Italy.
The story is fluently written. It is a feelgood book mixed with some humour and a hint of suspense.
You simply have to like Cassie and Jake. Cassie, the independent woman who acts tough to hide something else and Jake, the businessman with a heart of chocolate, but are they a perfect match? That is for me to know already and for you to still find out. So the only thing to do is to read the book and I promise that you will be in for a few nice hours.
Please, please, dear author, can you wrtie a sequel?
Read the full review here …
Evonne Wareham is such a clever writer, she writes thrillers and, in the case of Summer in San Remo, a romantic romp with a touch of mystery.
Cassie’s business is facing financial ruin, her ex-boyfriend has stolen most of the funds from her company, leaving Cassie with just one client’s fee to keep her company solvent. Unfortunately, this invaluable client has now disappeared. In her quest to trace him, she has to ask for help from Jake, her long lost boyfriend from her teenage years. Cassie’s finances are running out so she desperately hopes this will be a quick search, it seems that Jake has other ideas. Clues in the search lead them to San Remo, where Cassie finds it difficult to concentrate on her original quest and Jake is becoming more and more mysterious.
Childhood friends Cassie Travers and Benita Wells run a concierge service. With Cassie’s ex-Jason Fairbrook having recently absconded with the company’s money they’re currently in dire straits. However, a new job has just come in; one which seems fairly easy and pays extremely well. Unfortunately it requires Cassie to engage the services of someone to play her husband. After trawling through a list of probably, none of whom suit, Benita suggests using Kings, a local detective agency. The downside of this is it’s run by Jake McQuire. Jake was Cassie’s first love and left her to join his father in New York twelve years ago. He never wrote or phoned. He simply disappeared. But now he’s back, running Kings while his mother takes a recuperative cruise. Reluctantly Cassie allows Benita to contact the agency never once thinking Jake himself will turn up to take up the role.
As soon as Jake walked into Cassie’s office I was smitten. The man is totally gorgeous, something a shocked Cassie also appreciates. From that moment she finds she’s having a constant battle with her emotions as the job, far from ending with a trip to London, sees the pair heading for the Med and San Remo.
Summer in San Remo is a really entertaining read. Mystery, romance and comedy are all thrown into the mix and the chemistry between Jake and Cassie sizzles. Definitely one to download on your Kindle for the holiday.
I would like to thank Choc Lit for an ARC of Summer in San Remo in exchange for an honest review.
This book was a change of writing style for Evonne who usually writes romantic suspense novels and I, for one, am very pleased with the result.
This book is mainly focused on the two main characters Jake and Cassie however I’m pleased to say that despite this the book held my interest throughout and I found myself reading it at every opportunity.
Jake was Cassie’s first love but when he moved to America she didn’t hear from him again until years later when he walks back into her life and offers to help her with a job that a client of the Concierge Service that she owns has asked her to do.
This takes them to San Remo and the Riviera setting is beautifully described. I have to admit I did find Jake pretty irresistible too and could picture a very handsome, smartly dressed man, which fitted very well with Cassie who was described as beautiful and who clearly had been subject to heartache in the past but had picked herself up and appeared to be a hard working, though lonely, woman.
Cassie and Jake have to pretend to be a married couple which Jake seems more than happy with although Cassie has reservations, but agrees it makes sense to help them try to solve the mystery of what is the man up to who wanted her to deliver an envelope supposedly related to a house inheritance for a large amount of money. Is he who he says he is and what is he really up to? The added bonus of going to San Remo for Cassie is the opportunity to find her ex-boyfriend who ran off with the takings and left her Agency on the brink of going bust.
I loved the fact that all of the characters in this book were likeable and it had humour and romance in a wonderful sunshine setting.
My only slight criticism is that there were a couple of parts that seemed to jump from one scene to another and appeared unfinished however this is just a minor irritation for me and didn’t stop my enjoyment of the book.
I would highly recommend this book for pure escapism and very much look forward to the sequel.