on October 1 2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 391
Amazon UK, Amazon US
Goodreads
Erin and Heather Douglas are struggling. Their mother’s death has left a void in their family and everyday life has side-lined their dreams.
Erin has buried herself away in the family home and left her stage career. By hiding away, she is evading the pain of returning to London and the acting world where her ex-fiancé is enjoying success and a new relationship. When she meets charismatic Texan Jackson McGee, she wrestles with her feelings for him. Should she trust another man?
Heather is juggling babies, work, a rocky marriage and running on wine. An overheard conversation makes her ask, would Mark cheat on her?
Can the sisters help one another to face their fears, dust off and revive those dreams and find joy in life?
Today we welcome Chrissie Bradshaw to my blog, she is the author of The Barn of Buried Dreams and we have an exclusive excerpt. Before we read it, shall we see what other bloggers are saying about the book?
Splashes into books says
This is a delightful family story and romance which I have no hesitation in highly recommending. If you want an indication of how much I enjoyed this story, my next move after finishing reading it was to buy myself a copy of the previous book by this author, ‘A Jarful of Moondreams’, and I’m really looking forward to reading it!
Dash Fan says
The characters are strong, believable, definitely relatable, they are beautifully written and you can’t help routing for them to suceed
Chrissie has a lovely writing style that’s full of warmth and charm. Her description was seamless and instantly drew me in.
The storyline flowed perfectly, it was tender and engaging, which made for a compelling and addictive read.
This is a cosy romance with alot of heart, a few intriguing twists, sibling drama, grief, and emotion. But it was a wonderfully warm and endearing read I couldn’t put down.
Chrissie has quite a formal writing style which is unusual in a book of this type in current times, but I actually really liked it and found it gave her a very distinctive voice. Her writing and the story flows very smoothly and is very easy to read and I am sure that anyone wise enough to pick up this lovely book will be carried along with it and close the last cover with the satisfaction that follows a pleasing read. Highly recommended.
Erin has left her stage career and travelled back home to care for her mother who is recovering from a stroke when she discovers that she is pregnant. Her fiancé, Damien, is working in London.
Lying in bed that night, Erin counted backwards to work out just how many weeks pregnant she was. She’d already done this a dozen times since taking the test and the answer didn’t change. She’d run out of pills soon after dashing home to look after Mum in November and hadn’t been too concerned because Damien had a busy filming schedule and was going to see his parents in Kent for Christmas. He wouldn’t be visiting for a while so there was no rush to renew her prescription when their only contact, video call or text, was a hundred per cent conception proof.
Damien had missed her over Christmas and arrived at the door of Magpie’s Rest to surprise her on New Year’s Eve with presents and champagne. She hadn’t expected this extra surprise… she really hadn’t. Just one careless night? Hell, she must be eight weeks pregnant.
She glanced at the time, waiting for Damien to call. Last night, he said if he didn’t get in touch by midnight, it meant he was delayed at the promotion event he had to attend. There was a minute or two to go but she was tired. She decided to ring him .
“Hi Damien are you still tied up with work?’
‘Erin! Hi babe. Yeah, can’t get away, I’m afraid.’
‘Never mind. It’s not long until the weekend and we can catch up then.’
‘Weekend? Oh…the weekend. Listen, I need to talk to you about that. Look, I can’t chat now, babe, but I’ll call in the morning.’
He wasn’t coming. She knew it. She could tell by the tone in his voice. Damien was going to cry off and use work as an excuse but really it was because he thought it was too deadly dull in Northumberland. He loved the bright lights and buzz of the city but she was here; wasn’t that enough anymore? Did he think she was dull too? Tears welled up and she turned her head into her pillow.
She was tired, she was shocked by that test result and her hormones were all messed up. Worries about the baby, Damien, Mum, and her career fought with each other for pole position in her racing thoughts. Her life seemed like shifting sand beneath her feet.”
She reached for her phone and called Heather. ‘Hi Sis, it’s me.’
‘What’s wrong? Is Mum OK?’ Heather’s voice was croaky.
Blast, she must’ve woken her up… never a good thing. ‘Yes, she’s in bed. It’s me, I’m not OK.’
‘What do you mean? You’re crying…Who has upset you? Is it Damien?
‘Sort of,’ Erin admitted.
‘Sort of?’
‘He’s trying to put off coming and I haven’t seen him since New Year. We’re growing further and further apart and I just need to see him. I want to go to London. Heather, could you take over here this weekend?’
‘No way. Archie has a party on Saturday and Mark’s playing rugby on Sunday. Sorry Erin, I know you miss Damien but, right now, it is up to him to make the effort to travel to see you. You know Mum comes first until she’s recovered.’
‘Of course, I do. But it’s all down to me at the moment. Fraser’s always working and you hardly vis—’
‘I was there last week.’ Heather jumped in. ‘No. maybe it was the weekend before. Anyway, this pregnancy is leaving me exhausted and I phone Mum every single day!’
‘That’s fine, Heather, but I do everything else. This arrangement was supposed to be weeks not months. There are three of us, you know.’
‘Come on Sis. It won’t be that much longer. Mum’s improving all the time. I can’t do the full weekend, but I’ll bring Archie over on Sunday afternoon.’ Heather sounded gracious like she was bestowing a favour.
‘That won’t help me to travel to London for an overnight stay, will it?’ She should have known better than to ask. Heather was always busy.
‘Shall I ask Fraser to look into getting a relief carer? He offered to sort it out right at the beginning but, oh no, you wanted to do it. You did, Erin.’ Heather was getting on her high horse and Erin wished she hadn’t said a thing.
‘I still do want to help out. I don’t want Mum to have a carer but I wish you or Fraser would come more often, that’s all.’
‘Erin, we both work and we both have families. Think about it… You’re the one with free time and no responsibility. God…look at the time! Can we please have this conversation when I’m not so bloody tired. Archie wakes me up at six, you know!’
‘OK. OK. Goodnight Heather. Sorry for disturbing you.’
‘Don’t get all ‘woe is me’, Sis. I don’t mind being disturbed if it’s a true emergency, I really don’t.’
‘Goodnight then.’
‘Goodnight.’
Erin sat up and searched for a tissue to dry her eyes. She shivered but it wasn’t the chill in the bedroom that wrapped icy fingers around her heart and left her desolate, it was the growing distance between her and Damien and an uneasy feeling that he wasn’t going to take this baby news very well.”
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