by Helena Halme
Rosa now stood up and began tottering around the empty living room, making bubbles with her mouth and hugging the doll close to her. Rosa had already been on an airplane several times during her short life, and loved being pampered by the Finnair air hostesses.
‘Gone?’ she asked, looking at Kaisa with her dark green eyes.
‘We are going soon,’ she said, and took the little girl’s hand. ‘Let’s just check we haven’t forgotten anything.’
Together with Rosa, Kaisa went slowly up the stairs and walked from room to room, all empty now, except the carpets and light fittings with their shades, which she’d agreed to leave behind.
She’d spent so many happy days with her beloved Peter in this house, but Kaisa knew that even if she wasn’t here, she would always hold the happy images in her heart. Whatever their love affair and marriage with Peter had been, it had been true.
All the misunderstanding, rows, secrets and infidelities didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had deeply and truly loved each other. And that heartfelt love had produced the little, beautiful marvel that Rosa was.
Kaisa carried her daughter down the stairs and as she did so, she heard the horn of a car outside. Ravi was getting out of his brand new BMW.
‘Your chariot awaits,’ he said and smiled.
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Is she too young to fall in love? A standalone read, The Young Heart is a prequel novella to the acclaimed 1980s romance series, The Nordic Heart.
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Turn the page for more books by Helena Halme
The Christmas Heart
Tall, dark and handsome, Tom is out to have some fun. With his beloved mother passed, he’s forced to leave his two teenage sons in Milan with his ex, and is looking forward to an uncomplicated Christmas skiing in the Swedish Alps.
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With her daughter Rosa away pack-packing in the Far East, Kaisa decides to take a rare winter break over the holidays with her best friend Tuuli. Now in her late fifties, Kaisa doesn’t think she’ll ever fall in love again. But when she sees Tom after some thirty years, her heart begins to beat a little faster. Kaisa knows, however, an affair with Tom will go nowhere. Years ago, they had a disastrous date, which neither of them wish to revisit.
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Yet, on the slopes and in the apres-ski bars Tom showers Kaisa with his attentions and she finds she cannot resist his intense eyes and passionate kisses.
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Can Kaisa trust this European Casanova, and her own sudden infatuation?
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The Christmas Heart is a seasonal story of grown-up love set in the beautiful snow-capped Swedish Alps. It’s the final book in the acclaimed Nordic Heart Series, but can also be read as a stand-alone story.
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Turn over to read the first chapter of The Christmas Heart.
Chapter One
The lift came to a sudden halt and Tom cursed under his breath. He hated anchor lifts, but the Scandinavians seemed to love them. In the Alps, where he usually skied, they had the good sense to invest in gondolas, in which you could ascend the mountains with some style and no effort. And it was so bloody cold. He'd seen from the large thermometer at the ski hire centre that it was -15C. His carefully groomed stubble was now white and brittle with frost, his lips dry, his cheeks burning from the chill wind cutting into the mountainside. The lift suddenly started again. Slowly, oh so slowly, Tom, perching alone on the two-seater bar, ascended the mountain. He cursed his old friend – why come to a ski resort for the holidays if you want to stay in bed half the day? When Ricky hadn't showed up at breakfast that morning Tom had sent him a WhatsApp. When Ricky replied – 15 minutes later – he said he was having a lie-in and would meet up with Tom soon.
Finally, at the top of the small mountain, Tom freed himself from the lift and skied towards the slope. He'd had the foresight to take a piste map from the hotel reception. Åre was different from how it had been in his youth; new slopes had been added and some of the old ones redesigned. He was on his way to one of the few pistes that was served by a proper lift.
There'd been a pretty blonde behind the desk of the hotel and he'd stopped himself from flirting with her just in time. She'd looked barely twenty, and more suitable girlfriend material for his sons than him. Oh, how drab and boring it was to be an old man. He thought about his family, the two boys, Luca and Marco, now 21 and 24, who were in Milan for Christmas with Emma, his ex, and her new husband. He was not welcome at that gathering. Truthfully, he would rather be here with the Nordic winds nearly cutting the nose off his face, and with a potentially embarrassing rendezvous on the horizon, rather than with his loud, disapproving in-laws and the oh-so-wonderful George. He missed his boys, of course, but he'd see them for New Year, when they'd promised to spend a couple of days with him in his new flat in Helsinki.
If only his mother hadn't been taken so suddenly six months ago, he would now be enjoying a luxurious celebration in her central Milan flat. How he missed her!
Oh, well, he thought, as he spotted Father Christmas, his red costume flapping in the wind, zigzagging at speed down the pathetic little mountain – a hill really. He'd go along to the date, have a meal with her, give her a kiss goodnight afterwards and then never see her again.
Coffee and Vodka
Eeva doesn’t want to remember. But now she’s forced to return to Finland and confront her past.
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‘In Stockholm everything is bigger and better.’
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When Pappa announces the family is to leave Finland for a new life in Sweden, 11-year-old Eeva is elated. But in Stockholm Mamma finds feminism, Eeva’s sister, Anja, pretends to be Swedish and Pappa struggles to adapt.
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And one night, Eeva’s world falls apart.
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Fast forward 30 years. Now teaching Swedish to foreigners, Eeva travels back to Finland when her beloved grandmother becomes ill. On the overnight ferry, a chance meeting with her married ex-lover, Yri, prompts family secrets to unravel and buried memories to come flooding back.
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It’s time for Eeva to find out what really happened all those years ago …
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Coffee and Vodka has it all: family drama, mystery, romance and sisterly love.
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If you like Nordic Noir, you’ll love this rich Nordic family drama by the Finnish author Helena Halme.
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‘Coffee and Vodka is a rich story that stays with us….with moments of brilliance.’ – Dr Mimi Thebo, Bath Spa University.
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‘Like the television series The Bridge, Coffee and Vodka opens our eyes to facets of a Scandinavian culture that most of us would lump together into one. I loved the way the narrative wove together the viewpoint of Eeva the child and her shock at arriving in a new country, with Eeva the sophisticated adult, returning for the first time to the country of her birth, and finding it both familiar and irretrievably strange.’ – Catriona Troth, Triskele Books.
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Pick up Coffee and Vodka to discover this brilliant, heart-warming Nordic family drama today! Tap here to get your copy.
About the Author
Helena Halme grew up in Tampere, central Finland, and moved to the UK via Stockholm and Helsinki at the age of 22. She is a former BBC journalist and has also worked as a magazine editor, a bookseller and, until recently, ran a Finnish/British cultural association in London.
Since gaining an MA in Cre
ative Writing at Bath Spa University, Helena has published nine fiction titles, including five in The Nordic Heart Romance Series.
Helena lives in North London with her ex-Navy husband. She loves Nordic Noir and sings along to Abba songs when no one is around. You can read Helena’s blog at www.helenahalme.com, where you can also sign up for her Readers’ Group.
Acknowledgments
I couldn’t have written this novel without the support of my long-suffering husband. The original Englishman is an excellent first reader, but even a better cook. I am also grateful for my editor, Dorothy Stannard, who tirelessly and patiently has worked with me on the many versions of this book. Thanks must also go to my naval expert, Adam Peters, for all his invaluable advice. It goes without saying that all mistakes intentional or not, are entirely down to me, or required for fictional purposes.
All characters and events featured in this book are entirely fictional and any resemblance to any person, organisation, place or thing living or dead, or event or place, is purely coincidental and completely unintentional.
Copyright
The True Heart ©2017 Helena Halme
Published worldwide 2017 by Newhurst Press
First e-book edition 2017
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All rights reserved in all media.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical (including but not limited to: the Internet, photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system), without prior permission in writing from the author and/or publisher. The moral right of Helena Halme as the author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Cover Design © Jessica Bell
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e-ISBN: 978-0-9957495-8-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-9957495-9-7
Also by Helena Halme
Love on the Island
The Island Affair
The Nordic Heart Romance Series
The Young Heart
The English Heart
The Faithful Heart
The Good Heart
The True Heart
The Christmas Heart
The Nordic Heart Series Books 1-4
Standalone
Coffee and Vodka
The Red King of Helsinki: Lies, Spies and Gymnastics
Watch for more at Helena Halme’s site.