I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

The characters are so well developed
The writing is beautiful.
This is a page turner and the romance within it was nice to read
A good book

I enjoyed The House Beneath the Cliffs immensely. It's a beautiful story about starting again, finding you and what makes you tick. All in a stunning setting, in a wild coast, where the weather and the storm play their own character.

It actually surprised me how much I connected with this story, I felt like I myself was part of the community at Crovie. I may actually google remote coast location in Scotland to find some friends like those :)

What a great book! I couldn't put it down!

'The House Beneath the Cliffs' is a story about new beginnings, second chances, passion, friendship, and community.

Anna is the main character, but Crovie, a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth, also plays a major role. Despite its beauty, Crovie is fully exposed to the sea. Consequently, the weather dictates the villagers' lives. Sharon Gosling's descriptions and sense of place bring it to life.

Crovie, its inhabitants and Anna became so real to me that I feel like I was part of the story.

I laughed, I cried, but most of all, I was left with a full heart after reading this story.

I looking forward to reading future stories from Sharon Gosling.

The House Beneath the Cliffs is the most uplifting novel about second chances you’ll read this year. Anna’s journey to the beautiful fishing village of Crovie is full of both adversity and hope. Her struggle to fit in and rediscover her love of cooking provides an inspiring backdrop as she finds out more about the inhabitants of the village and the land itself.

Throughout the novel, author Sharon Gosling illustrates the power of determination and second chances with rich and immersive prose. We follow Anna as she weathers storms and landslides and even gains an enemy or two on her way to setting up her lunch club. As the village slowly starts to open up to her and she uncovers a community of support beneath the cliffs, Anna is gradually able to make the village her home.

The House Beneath the Cliffs is a heart-warming story of overcoming odds, creating new beginnings, and gaining unexpected friendships. If you’re in need of some inspiration and optimism, pick up this delightful read!

I've never been to Crovie, but being Scottish and having lived near Inverness for a few years I know where the village is and how gorgeous (and wild) the weather can be there. When you live somewhere like that the weather becomes part of your life in a way it doesn't when you live inland and that was integrated into this story in way which made it part of it without it dominating.

I loved watching Anna adjust to her new home, start to live in such a unique place, and build a new life for herself. She's spent so much time following someone else's tune that it was lovely to see her re-discovering her own. The characters and sense of community were spot on, and between that and the location the book really came to life. Without revealing any spoilers there was some wild weather in the book and the writing had me thinking I was in Anna's home listening to the howling wind.

The other thing this book did well was showcasing the fabulous food that can be found off the Scottish coast. The meals that Anna made in her pop-up restaurant sounded amazing and I was so disappointed that they weren't there for me to eat there and then.

This is a fabulous book that will transport you. It's full of warmth, good people, good food and a bit of conflict (because all books need some conflict in them). It's an ideal read for any time of year, just make sure you're comfy, cosy and have a drink and snacks as once you start reading you won't want to be disturbed.

Chef cook Anna has recently broke up wit her longtime celebrity chef boyfriend Geoff. She has just moved to the little Scottish coast town of Crovie, where she lands in the Fishergirl’s Luck, a tiny cottage on the north coast of Aberdeenshire. It is just a simple cottage, but Anna is welcomed in the Crovie community before she knews it.(except for one grumpy old local who knows a lot about the history of her new house) She makes friends with the local B&B owners Pat and her husband, and a local fisherman and his son, Rob and Robbie.
In her new home she rediscovers her love for cooking, which results in a new local lunch club where she cooks and gets some lovely reviews. as well as even more appreciation of the local community. But then she finds out she is expecting Geoff's baby, and her new life takes a different turn again. But she decides to stay in Crovie. And she finds out that not all the locals seem so happy with her arrival in this little coast town, and it seems that someone is talking bad about her and posting bad reviews about her cooking. Did she make a big mistake in moving to this place? Or is this the place where she can forget her troubled past, move on, and find a new life with a new love as well?

I was pleasantly surprised by this beautiful book. I really like the atmosphere of the Scottish coastal town, and it was very different then everything I've read the past years, which I also really liked about this book. The cast of characters was also well crafted, I really liked Anna and how she tried to move on from her past and made a new life in the community. She truly fitted in and as a reader that makes you happy for her, Geoff made a short reappaerance in her live, but she knows that she doestn't want him back, and certainly won't move to New Zealand with him and her baby. I also loved how she set up the lunch club on her own and how it was received within the community.
This is truly a beautifully written book, with a great story, you certainly won't regret it if you pick up a copy of it! Recommend it!

This was a great with a set of amazing characters. I was hooked from start to finish and didn't want to let go as the final pages came around.

Anna is having to start again, and she ends up in Crovie a small fishing village in Scotland. Buying a property sight unseen might not be the wisest thing she has ever done, but there is something about the place that gets into Anna’s soul.

The property known as Fishergirl’s Luck is little more than a stone shed on the edge of a cliff. Perhaps the place to hide away and restart something, but not a home for forever. Anna finds this place the best to reset. Her neighbours and the majority of the locals are welcoming and warm. Embracing her into village life and friendship, apart from one who thinks his birth right has been taken away from him again.

As Anna stays longer, she starts to use the fresh ingredients to cook to help heal her soul and work out what she intends to do next. Through the cooking and the descriptions are mouth watering, she finds setting up a little lunch club is the prefects way to make some money until she can really decide what to do next.

However events take a different turn and there are many opportunities that Anna is presented with, not all of them to her liking and some that involve going backwards and not forwards. Surely the landscape and the community of Crovie will give her the answers.

Then on one fateful day, the elements decide to take the future and very much the present into its own hands. The community are effected, the future is now changing for a number of them and Anna really needs to decide where she wants to continue her life.

If you want a book full of descriptions of appealing food, wonderful scenery, epic weather events and a mix of wonderful quirky characters who all have their place it the community then this is the book for you. It has found a place in my heart as it was not wrapped up in providing the happy ever after that perhaps you think as the story progresses but focuses on the ups and downs of real life.

A beautiful read to be devoured just as the descriptive food within the pages, on a sofa as the elements batter your window but the heat of the fire and the heart of the story,warm you forever.

I look forward to reading more from Sharon Gosling and if this is the standard of work to except then I will not be disappointed.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I was surprised by just how much I connected with this story. It was so easy to feel as if I belonged with the community at Crovie.

Anna is a fabulous lead. Despite having lived under someone else’s shadow for so many years, her strength and determination shone through. I’ve adopted her mantra “say yes to as many things as you can” :)

I loved the history of the Fishergirl’s Luck and how a find from the past is used in the present. It felt like Bren was reaching through time and she still managed to influence the present (the epilogue! loved this).

The setting is magnificent and the volatile climate is a character in its own right. At one point I was sat on the edge of my seat as I read, willing the community to make it through. Having an emotional connection with all the characters (yes, even Douglas) meant tears but also in the aftermath, glimmers of hope and love.

The House Beneath the Cliffs was a quick read for me, those pages turning themselves. I can't wait to see what adventure Sharon Gosling will take us on next.

This book is just absolute perfection. This literally has it all, a gorgeous setting, a beautiful array of characters and a strong theme of friendship.

This is a novel that is completely relatable and has really captured my attention from the very beginning. I have devoured this book in just one sitting. It definitely doesn’t disappoint, I have been left smiling and wanting more.

This is gorgeously written and I do love a story where a character can start over. Gosling writes in a way that really transports you as a reader, I have felt as though I have been there with the characters.

This has been the perfect book to curl up with on a day that I’ve felt a bit gloomy. It’s improved my mood and been one I’ve been unwilling to put down.

A truly wonderful read, worthy of all the stars and one I will definitely be recommending.

I've just finished The House Beneath The Cliffs by Sharon Gosling and honestly I'm just a mess of joy and tears. It is such a gorgeous story, of finding your place in the world, community, grief, love and cooking and I just adored it so much.

Honestly, I was a little nervous about reading this one which is why it took me a little while to get to when I read Sharon's last book, the House of Hidden Wonders, on the same day it was announced! I love her MG, but an adult romance novel? Would I enjoy that as much?

I can honestly say that I was not disappointed at all. Yes, of course it is different from victoriana middle grade fantasy. But what talent! What beautiful writing! What amazing, brilliantly realised characters to fall in love with or to absolutely hate!

And there's so much drama! So many twists, moments where you fear the worst is about to happen, moments where it does, moments that make you scream with laughter, make your heart sing, make the tears flow yet again.

More than anything it makes me want to go back to the rugged and wild coast of the Moray Firth in Scotland. This is book that is very much of its setting, and such a beautiful, yet oft times inhospitable, setting. The sense of place is remarkable.

And positive representation is something I like to look for in my books. I honestly don't know the whole romance genre particularly well, but it's nice to see a woman pushing forty being depicted as a romantic heroine, starting her own career and finding her independence.

This book is amazing! A cast of wonderful characters who Anna befriends after moving to a little village in Scotland after a long term relationship break up.
The story drew me from page one and didn’t let go until the last.
The imagery and description used within the book made me feel I was there with them.
A real page turner not to be missed.

Chef Anna moves to Crovie, a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth, for a fresh start after the breakdown of a long relationship with a “celebrity” chef. When she arrives at her new home that was a bit of an impulse buy, she discovers that her new home is nothing more than a glorified shed, and the village itself sits beneath a cliff right on the edge of the sea, in constant danger of storms and landslides. She feels she has made a terrible mistake and vows to stay just one night before moving on and selling it.

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.

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 . . .?

This book has been on my TBR (to be reviewed!) list for a quite a while, but I knew that I had to be disciplined and read the others on my list before finally getting to this one. Well, it was worth the wait, it’s like ordering a mundane starter (other books) and knowing that the main course is going to blow your socks off because it’s exactly what you want. This book was a fantastic gastronomic three course meal, within a book cover!!! I wasn’t disappointed!! It was a truly wonderful read and it was so refreshing to read a book that wasn’t set in the Cotsworlds or Cornwall, which seems to be the trend at the moment.

I didn’t just read this book, for the short time that it took me to read it (as you will flick through the pages so quickly, wanting to know more!) I lived my life alongside the characters. I could feel the Scottish sea air on my face as I walked along the cliff path with Anna and every day I was always one of the lucky six to sit at her table and enjoy her food.

This book had everything, a sprinkling of heartache, a pinch of grief and a dollop of romance…for me, the perfect recipe for a remarkable, completely believable story

Please, please, please don’t let the story finish there though – I would love to revisit Crovie, perhaps at Christmas so we can see what has happened to the characters and how life has turned out for them.

I was drawn to this novel by Sharon Gosling by the blurb on NetGalley. I enjoy novels where a character has the bravery to start over, especially if the ‘before’ meant overcoming some sort of adversity. For Anna, a talented chef who decides to move to a tiny village on the coast of Scotland, it’s overcoming years of psychological abuse from her boss and partner, Jeff. They met at catering college and ever since Anna has been working under him in London, helping him to earn several Michelin stars over the years. However, Anna has never really acknowledged or even felt entitled to that success, because Jeff has always told her she needs a strong leader, she’s best in a supporting role; she hasn’t the talent to survive on her own. So, after their split, she moves to the other end of the country and to a bothy in a tiny fishing village on the Moray Firth. Crovie is a village that survives despite everything the sea can throw at it. Under a huge cliff, it has survived storms and landslides in the past. It has the remoteness that Anna is looking for, but as she first sets foot in her new home ‘Fishergirl’s Luck’ she wonders if she really can live in a place like this? However, whether it’s the sea air, the villager’s or a blessing from a previous single woman who lived there, Anna soon feels inspired. Could this be the perfect place for a foodie to start a new venture?

The setting was so beautifully rendered throughout the novel. There’s something forbidding about the position of the village, wedged between the cliff and the roaring sea. It’s so vividly portrayed I could almost feel the salt spray on my cheeks and the wind whipping my hair around. Anna’s connection with nature is unexpected and deeply inspiring. She clambers over the rocks, goes out on the boat to see dolphins and collects purslane and razor clams. The sea is both friend and foe, bringer of food and providing work for the fishermen, but also the force that batters the cliffs and erodes the very soil under Crovie. Then in complete contrast we have ‘The Fishergirl’s Luck’ and the way it feels so inhospitable at first, way too small to live in, let alone cook in. Yet, as soon as Anna starts to clean and turn it into a home, something warm and cozy emerges from the dust and grime. Just like the village seems almost pitted against nature, Anna has had to pit herself against the bothy. Now it feels like a shelter, somewhere that will keep her safe.

When she finds previous tenant Brenda’s recipe book and makes her hazelnut and raspberry shortbread, something connects the two women across time. This aspect was interesting because it seems as if Brenda used to receive the similar treatment from the local fishermen, that Anna has received from Jeff. Especially from the irascible Doug McKean who seems to think he was cheated out of the bothy by Brenda and intends to keep the grudge going through Anna’s time there. Brenda wanted to fish in her own right, something the men found ridiculous. She found and fished her own boat, maintained the cottage and named it. Something of Bren’s spirit gets into Anna and it’s like nothing can hold her back - even Jeff turning up all the way to life-changing surprises, she takes them in her stride. She also takes strength from wonderful neighbours like Pat and John, local potter Rhona, fisherman Liam and both young and old Robbie. She meets Liam while looking for fresh fish in hope of reviving her a lunch she’s planning. He brings her a table and bench for the garden that sparks an idea - what if she started a lunch club outside for the summer? Although she thought she’d bought the cottage from an elderly man, Auld Robbie, but he turns out to be younger than she expected and a widower with an adorable son. Young Robbie is obsessed with a pod of dolphins in the bay and their welfare is all important to him. Every day he checks them, and asks Anna to join them.

I loved watching her circle widen and her confidence beginning to return. Bren’s notebook is the re-birth of Anna’s love of food and it is her food. Away from any other influence she is now free to experiment and do things her way. I really enjoyed the foraging for ingredients and descriptions of her dishes, which sound delicious rather than fussy or refined. However, I was interested to find out whether she kept her confidence, particularly when old pressures and influences surfaced? There are a lot of books around where a woman makes a new start and often they’re too saccharin or unbelievable. This had it’s predictable moments, but every so often there was enough of a curve ball to to make it feel fresh. The author wasn’t above giving her heroine some mountains to climb here and there, both positive and negative. Anna is a brave woman though and not above taking risks - she’s bought a house without viewing it, started a lunch club in the open air in Scotland, taken on the local misanthrope and accepted the more unexpected surprises life has thrown at her. As a big summer storm approached I wondered whether the luck of the cottage would hold? If not, would Anna take the easy option and leave Crovie or will she keep fighting for what she wants? Blessed with charming locals, stunning scenery and an interesting history, Crovie was a lovely place to spend a few hours.

A gripping read a page turner some characters I did not like but I was hooked by their parts in the story great twist and turner a very good read

When Anna Campbell moves to the remote fishing village of Crovie she has high hopes to put all the troubles from her life in London behind her. She makes a somewhat spontaneous purchase of the Fishergirl’s Luck, but her initial happiness is soon squashed as some of the villagers are less than welcoming.

Thankfully some of the villagers befriend her, and slowly but surely help her to piece her shattered life back together, and when people realise that Anna is an exceptionally good cook, the Fishergirl’s Luck quickly becomes a haven for other food lovers.

What follows is a truly delightful story that captivates you entirely right up to the very last page. The setting is breath-taking and is brought to life in vivid detail by the author, allowing you to picture yourself walking alongside the characters and experiencing life from their perspectives too.

Each of the characters are well developed and have their own well fleshed out personalities and flaws that make them all the more relatable and realistic to the reader. Anna is a character that quickly nestles her way in to your heart as she evokes a connection with the reader from the start, something that grows deeper with every passing chapter.

Full of drama and truly heart-warming moments, this is a story I would urge others to read and fall in love with like I did.

Anna has just moved to Crovie, a small coastal village in Scotland, leaving behind her long – term abusive relationship with a well – known chef, Geoff Rowcliffe. They were together for 20 years but it’s only now that she has dared herself for this step. Her first impression of the village, neighbours and then the „house“ that she has purchased without seeing it is not as promising as she’d like, though. What now? The plan is to stay for a day or two… then for a week or two… Is the village and its inhabitants growing on her? She finally starts to feel like a part of community and can spread her wings, being an excellent chef herself and starting her pop - up lunch club, an idea that will turn out very popular. But as soon as Anna feels she has found her place and her people, something happens – something that can destroy everything she has worked for.

I absolutely adored the characters. They were so well drawn and they felt like living and breathing people. There was so much warmth in them all, this book was actually filled with good people, people who wanted to help and who were there for you no matter what. Yes, maybe it sounds cheesy, but the book didn’t feel like this at all, on the contrary, it was lovely, sometimes it’s all you need – to see and feel kindness, and this time it was really all I needed, the book made me feel warm inside and optimistic and I simply loved it.
Our main character might not see like this at the first glance, but she was feisty, quirky and had a sharp tongue and I loved it about her. She was down to earth and not too serious about herself and I so liked to see how she was all the time growing in confidence and regaining her faith in herself again.
The villagers are so friendly portrayed and you immediately feel like a part of their tight – knit community – they were welcoming and so open and it was lovely to see them welcoming Anna with their open arms. Not all of them, of course, it would be too nice probably, but this was also a great subplot in this book, interesting and well developed.

I must admit, I’ve googled Crovie. As much as I loved the descriptions, I couldn’t imagine the village, so I’ve turned to Google, yes, and wow, Crovie is real and it’s so gorgeous! It’s truly so remote, and set on a narrow street, right by the sea, and now that I can see it better I can even more appreciate the author’s descriptions. What I need now is only a photo with an arrow showing to Anna’s Cottage, The Fishergirl’s Luck. I am now even more captivated by this place, knowing it exists and is real.

What I also loved in this book is that the author doesn’t only show that life is a bed of roses but also the harsh sides of it. Living so beautifully, so close to see is a dream come true for some, but there is also the reality of nature that sometimes can be brutal and dangerous, and the author has portrayed it brilliantly. I think that the setting was a huge part of the story, always there in the background, featuring so often yet I couldn’t have enough of those descriptions of the cliff and the sea and the dolphins. Somehow, the place brought the characters even more together, I think, there was no time for misunderstandings and pettiness when the storm was coming.

It doesn’t happen often that the story flows by itself and doesn’t feel like reading at all, it feels like a part of life, and it was like this with „The House Beneath the Cliffs“. It was written with such ease, it feels human and close to life and it’s full of heart and it makes the reading experience so great. It was a tad predictable, but not in a bad way, and there were still some surprising twists and turns. Altogether, it was a brilliant, warm, and uplifting story about hope, second chances and starting over, filled with relatable and well drawn characters, set in a beautiful place and brilliantly capturing the atmosphere of the place. Humorous and poignant, with best one – liners, it reminds us that friendship and being a part of community is important and that it’s never too late to start again. And the descriptions of Anna’s food were absolutely mouth – watering – even if I’m not so into seafood, it still made me feel hungry. Highly recommended, a perfect escapist read!

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 no more than a shed, and the village itself sits beneath a a cliff right on the edge of the sea, in constant danger of storms and landslides. Has she made a terrible mistake? 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 for cooking and turns her kitchen into a pop-up lunch club. But not all the locals are delighted about her arrival, some are keen to see her fail.

Village life is portrayed just as I imagined it would be like living in a tight knit community and being an outsider. Anna's new neighbours Frank and Pat, try to make her feel welcome. Anna had moved to Crovie after an unhappy relationship. The story is descriptively written. It's an easy book to read that covers grief and manipulation. Of course there's a new love interest for Anna. This is a heart-warming read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #SimonSchuster and the author #SharonGosling for my ARC of #TheHouseBeneathTheCliffs in exchange for an honest review.