The Lost Summers of Driftwood

Vanessa McCausland

HarperCollins

I found this one hard to put down as it was such an easy read. Set in Australia it deals with broken hearts, suicide, first love, infertility and jealously.

Following a failed marriage proposal Phoebe leaves the big city (Sydney) for her family’s abandoned riverside holiday cottage to regroup. However, she finds herself confronted with thoughts of her sister’s death a year before. How could she have drowned herself given her fear of the water?

As she grapples with this, she finds herself growing closer (once again) to childhood sweetheart Jez who has also recently returned to the small town with his wife and his own demons in tow.

A gentle, evocative tale of love, grief and secrets.