New Beginnings at Rose Cottage by Erin Green
This novel has three women, from three different generations, who book into a shared vacation cottage on the coast of Devon. They all have something they are escaping or looking for. The advertisement for the cottage had promised friendships and home comforts, and although the women are wary at first at the possibility of making friends with women of a different age group, they find themselves growing close in surprising ways.
Emma has recently lost her job after the restaurant she worked at for years closed and the building sold to a new restaurant owner. She has decided to use her redundancy funds to start her own food business. She isn't sure what that will look like yet, so she is taking the time to weigh her options as well as think about her personal life. When an unexpected opportunity arises, she finds herself moving faster than planned, and faster than her new friends think she should.
Ruth is taking a much needed break from her life. She had dreams when she was young of a creative life, but an unplanned pregnancy and subsequent single motherhood made her rely on her mother, and thus abide by her mother's decisions around her life, and has had a long career as a bank clerk. More recently, she's also been the caregiver for her mother as the older woman has begun a cognitive decline. When she is drawn to a local art shop and begins painting, she finds herself experiencing new feelings.
Benni works through a temp agency, and tries to maintain a positive attitude despite the addictive behaviour of her mother and brother, whom she lives with. As she learns to listen to her body rather be shamed by it, she tries new activities and begins to gain confidence in areas that she never believed she would. She also learns something unexpected about her own family.
All of these women have interesting stories, and the vacation doesn't provide instant solutions, but it does open their eyes to different opportunities and create new contacts that also open doors they hadn't known about.
An enjoyable read.
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