The House by The Sea felt like two completely different stories, but they come together at the end (like most of her books). In one story, we’re transported to Italy to the story of Floriana, Dante and their forbidden love. In the second story, taking place decades later, we’re transported to England to the story of Marina and her charming hotel. When her hotel stuggles to stay afloat, she hires an artist in residence, Rafa, to support attracting more travellers to the hotel. However, Rafa isn’t exactly who he seems to be; soon, past secrets slowly start to be revealed.
Loved the characters, the romance, and the mystery.

This book was quite enjoyable. I fell in love with the characters. It is a gentle romance, with nothing too explicit. And overall Montefiore's books tend to give a feel good vibe. They are a great destination read, with so much vivid description of places. There is a bit of mystery as well. The dual time line is also a favorite of mine. Highly recommend if you like anything by Susanna Kearsley and Genevieve Graham.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher
I struggled with this story, slow paced and did not keep my interest.
Slow read

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

The House By The Sea
By: Santa Montefiore

*REVIEW* 🌟🌟🌟
I am new to the author, and I anticipated to like The House By The Sea much more than I actually did. Told in dual timelines, the past and present connection seemed disconnected for a lot of the book. Granted, there are good touching moments about redemption, love and lose that encompasse us as people, but overall, I didn't love this story. It's an average but heartfelt read.

The House by the Sea is well written and I truly felt like I could see the Tuscany world the author created. Unfortunately I struggled to connect with the characters and plot. Others, especially fans of the author's work in general, will like this, but this one was not for me.

I tried my best to push myself to finish this one but at 40% I just couldn't keep reading. This book just didn't keep my attention.

1966 Tuscany- Young and poor, Floriana falls in love with an older boy of significant wealth, Dante. With a drunken father and no mother, Floriana has no hope of ever securing her relationship with him. When Dante moves to Milan to work with his father, she is heart-broken but assures him they will one day be together. Other forces are in the works to keep them separated, but they have a tight bond, one that will keep them attached for the rest of their lives.

Present day England-Martina is the owner of a seaside hotel, together with her wonderful husband by her side they have beautifully restored the hotel to perfection. Now, however, the hotel is struggling and they hire an artist-in-residence to attract more people. Rafa is the accomplish artist, but he has more personal reason to be at that seaside location. The very handsome Rafa, is instantly attracted to Martina’s step-daughter, Clementine, and a relationship ensues. With all the uncertainty of the hotel and with romance in the air, the town gossip is also centered around a thief who may know the area well.

The House by the Sea is a lovely story of love, loss, and redemption.

I am fairly new to Santa Montefiore, I did read The Temptation of Gracie earlier this year and loved it. So needless to say, I was very excited when this book popped up on NetGalley. The House by the Sea is a beautiful story that takes place in beautiful places - I just love books that take me around the world and that fact that it partly takes place in Tuscany is just icing on the cake. I look forward to exploring more of Santa Montefiore's titles in the future.
A big thank you to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for supplying a digital copy

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

Another wonderful novel by Santa Montefiore! I just love her books, they make me cry, they make me laugh and they always leave me smiling.

This book is dual timeline story, in the past (1966), where we meet young Florianna, whose mother has deserted her and left her with her alcoholic father; Florianna dreams of living at La Magdalena, an estate in Tuscany with glorious gardens and one day she meets and instantly falls in love with much older, Dante, the owner's son, who takes her in and becomes friends with her.

The present (2009) has Marina, the owner of a struggling hotel on the coast of Devon, trying to save her hotel and struggling to accept that she and her husband have not been able to have children together and that her step-children do not seem to like her that much no matter how hard she tries to win their love. She hires an in house artist for the summer and this changes everything.

It is quite a bit into the book before we see how the two story-lines connect and it was a lovely build-up to that realization. I really enjoyed all of the characters in the book, the background characters were great.

This is a story of love and longing, of friendship and family, of wrongs that are righted in the end, Sometimes happily ever after is too neat and too much, but this book was lovely and the characters much deserved their happy endings. cannot wait for her next book

I am a big fan of Santa Montefiore but I really and truly struggled with this one. I made it to 30% and cant continue. I will try again at another time (maybe) but for me, this is a DNF.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and #NetGalley for an advance digital copy of #TheHousebytheSea in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book I have read by this wonderful artist, Santa Montefiore, and definitely not the last. She writes in such vividly descriptive detail that the book comes alive in my hands and I'm transported to the world of her words. The characters become family with their plights becoming your emotional investments as well.
The story is told in blocks of the past and the present, the past occurring in Italy and the present in England.
The past follows the life of a young girl, Floriana, who is growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who has abandoned her, taking her little brother with her.
The present follows a woman named Marina who is struggling to keep her sinking country hotel from failing and decides to hire an in house artist to teach painting to her guests.
This artist holds the secret that connects Floriana and Marina.
By the big reveal I was crying so hard that the words blurred in front of me but I had to keep going. If as an author you can bring me to that kind of emotional state you automatically deserve a 5+ rating because it doesn't happen often.
In Santa Montefiore's case, both this book and #TheTempatationofGracie have accomplished this!

Unfortunately not for me, I had a hard time getting through this one and the characters irritated me to distraction. Not poorly written, just not to my taste - no connection to the content and it didn't invoke any strong feelings beyond impatience . My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review,

I want to start by thanking NetGalley for my eARC for my honest opinion. I will start by saying this is not normally the style of book I often read. I enjoyed it, It is written to pull you along in duel stories both set up with strong characters and plots. I became involved and walked into caring, therefore the pull on my cold male heartstrings was a surprise and enjoyment. I look forward to reading more Santa Montefiore books.

I didn't enjoy this book and will not be providing a review. I struggled with the language. I quit the book after a few chapters. It just wasn't for me.