Set
in the picturesque Sennen Cove, Cornwall, Abi’s
Neighbour by Jenny Kane is the sequel to her bestselling
Cornish romance, Abi’s
House.
It’s
time to catch up with Abi, Max, Beth, Jacob, Stan, and Sadie the
Labrador- and meet some unexpected new faces...
Blurb
Abi
Carter has finally found happiness. Living in her perfect tin miner’s
cottage, she has good friends and a gorgeous boyfriend, Max. Life is
good. But all that’s about to change when a new neighbour moves in
next door.
Cassandra
Henley-Pinkerton represents everything Abi thought she’d escaped
when she left London. Obnoxious and stuck-up, Cassandra hates living
in Cornwall. Worst of all, it looks like she has her sights set on
Max.
But
Cassandra has problems of her own. Not only is her wealthy married
lawyer putting off joining her in their Cornish love nest, but now
someone seems intent on sabotaging her business.
Will
Cassandra mellow enough to turn to Abi for help – or are they
destined never to get along?
Complete with sun, sea
and a gorgeous Cornwall setting, Abi’s
Neighbour is the PERFECT summer escape.
Abi’s
Neighbour can be read as a standalone novel, or as a follow up to
Abi’s House.
Excerpt
The
untidy, clipboard-wielding woman started talking as soon as she
climbed out of her Mini. ‘Hello, my name’s Maggie, and I’m from
–’
Cassandra
cut impatiently across the formalities. ‘Sennen Agents, obviously.
It’s written across your car.’
‘Oh,
yes. So it is.’ Maggie paused, ‘Anyway, I’m sorry I’m late, I
got stuck behind a tractor down the lane.’ She jingled a key ring
in front of her. ‘I have your keys, Miss Pinkerton.’
‘No,
you don’t.’
‘I
don’t?’ The estate agent frowned, looking away from the woman
that stood before her in expensive couture with crossed arms and a
far from happy expression. Flicking through the papers on her
clipboard, Maggie said, ‘I was instructed by a Mr Justin Smythe
that you would be accepting the keys on his behalf?’
‘I
meant, no, my name is not Miss Pinkerton. It is Ms Henley-Pinkerton.’
‘Oh.
I see.’ Maggie refrained from further comment as she clutched the
keys a little tighter.
Determined
to make sure the situation was clearly understood, Cassandra pulled
her jacket on, turning herself back into the sharp-suited
businesswoman she was. ‘In addition to your error regarding my
name, there appears to have been a further mistake.’
‘There
has?’
‘Mr
Smythe has not purchased this property. He has merely rented it, with
an additional agreement to sublet it as a holiday home. I am here for
two months to make the place suitable.’ Cassandra ran a disdainful
eye over the beautiful exterior stonework. ‘It would seem that my
work is going to be well and truly cut out.’
‘This
is a much sought-after street, Ms HenleyPinkerton. And this
particular property is in excellent period condition.’ Feeling
defensive on behalf of the old miner’s cottage, Maggie bit her
tongue and flicked through her paperwork faster. Extracting a copy of
the bill of sale, she passed it to the slim, angular blonde. ‘I
think the misunderstanding must be yours. Mr Smythe has purchased
number two Miners Row outright. It was a cash sale.’
Snatching
the papers from Maggie’s fingers, Cassandra’s shoulders tensed
into painful knots. Why hadn’t Justin told her he’d done this?
She was convinced she was right. And anyway, he’d never
deliberately make her appear foolish in front of a country bumpkin
estate agent… Yet as Cassandra scanned the document before her,
she could see there’d been no mistake. Closing her eyes, she
counted to ten, before opening them again to regard the badly dressed
woman before her, who was once again holding out the offending set of
keys. Failing to take them, Cassandra gestured towards the little
house.
‘Perhaps
you would show me around, after I’ve made a call to Mr Smythe?’
Maggie,
already feeling sorry for this unpleasant woman’s future
neighbours, took unprofessional pleasure in saying, ‘Good luck with
that call. The phone signal here is unpredictable to say the least.’
It
had taken a ten-minute walk towards Sennen village to get a decent
reception on her mobile phone, and then, when she’d been able to
connect the call, Justin’s line was engaged. When she’d finally
got through, she was more than ready to explode. ‘Justin! How could
you have done this to me without a word? You’ve made me look a
total idiot.’
Clearly
thrilled that he’d managed to buy the terrace for a knock-down
price – which, he’d claimed, was a far more economic use of their
funds, an investment that would make them a fortune to enjoy in their
retirement – he’d sounded so excited about what it meant for
their future together that Cassandra had found it hard to remain
cross. Assuring her that the situation remained the same, and that
she was still only expected to stay in Cornwall while he secured his
new position and got the wheels of the divorce in motion, Justin told
Cassandra he loved her and would be with her very soon.
Returning
to the terrace reassured, if lacking some of her earlier dignity,
Cassandra swallowed back all the words she’d have liked to say as
she opened the door and the gloom of the dark and narrow hallway
enveloped her. She was sure that awful Maggie woman had been laughing
at her. The agent had taken clear pleasure in telling her that if she
hadn’t stormed off so quickly she’d have found out that the phone
reception was excellent if you sat on the bench in the back garden.
Vowing
to never drink champagne in any form ever again, as it clearly caused
her to agree to things far too readily, Cassandra saw the next two
months stretching out before her like a lifetime. Letting out some
of the tension which had been simmering inside her since she’d
first seen the for sale sign, she picked up a stone and threw it at
the back fence, hard. Maggie had gone, leaving her reluctant client
sitting on an old weathered bench in the narrow rectangular plot at
the back of the house.
Playing
her phone through her fingers, Cassandra saw that there was enough
reception to make calls if she sat in this spot – but only in this
spot. One step in either direction killed the signal dead, which was
probably why the previous owners had placed a bench here. And
probably why they left this Godforsaken place! The Internet simply
didn’t exist here. When she’d swallowed her pride and asked
Maggie about the strength of the local broadband coverage, the agent
had actually had the audacity to laugh, before informing Cassandra
with obvious satisfaction that people came to Sennen for their
holidays to leave the world of emails and work behind them.
Breathing
slowly, she pulled her shoulders back, pushed her long, perfectly
straight blonde hair behind her ears, and took a pen and paper out of
her bag. It looked as if she was going to have to tackle this, old
school.
First
she would make a list of what she considered necessary to make the
house habitable for holidaymakers, then she would locate the nearest
library or internet café so she could source decorators and builders
to get the work underway. The sooner she got everything done, and
herself back to hustle and bustle of London, the better.
Deciding
there was no way she could sleep in this house, which Maggie had
proudly described as ‘comfortable’, ‘sought-after’, and
‘ready to be made absolutely perfect’, Cassandra hooked her
handbag onto her shoulder and headed back into the whitewashed stone
house. Shivering in the chill of the hallway, despite the heat of the
June day, she jumped in the silence when the doorbell rang just as
she bent to pick up her overnight bag. For a second she froze. It had
been years since she’d heard a doorbell ring. In her block of flats
back home she buzzed people in via an intercom, and anyway, people
never just dropped by. She hoped it wasn’t that dreadful Maggie
back with some other piece of unwanted advice.
It
wasn’t Maggie. It was a petite woman in paint spattered clothes,
with a large shaggy dog at her side. Cassandra’s unwanted visitor
wore a wide smile and held a bunch of flowers in one hand and some
bedding in the other. ‘Hello. My name’s Abi, I live next door.
Welcome to Miners Row. I hope you’ll be very happy here.’
About
the Author
Jenny
Kane is the author of the full length romance novels Another
Glass of Champagne (Accent
Press, 2015), Abi’s House
(Accent Press, 2015), the contemporary romance/medieval crime time
slip novel Romancing Robin Hood
(Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary romance novel
Another Cup of Coffee
(Accent Press, 2013), and its novella length sequels Another
Cup of Christmas (Accent
Press, 2013), Christmas in the
Cotswolds (Accent, 2014), and Christmas at
the Castle (Accent, 2015).
Jenny’s
sixth full length romance novel, Abi’s
Neighbour, will be published in May 2017.
Jenny
also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee and historical crime as Jennifer
Ash.
1 comment:
Hello, Jenny,
Good luck with the new release. I have to say you've made Cassandra sound like she's going to be the neighbor from hell!
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