The Transatlantic Book Club
Page 29
Told with heart, wry wit, and charm, The Library at the Edge of the World is an empowering story about the meaning of home and the importance of finding a place where you truly belong.
“A delicious feast of a novel. Sink in and feel enveloped by the beautiful world of Felicity Hayes-McCoy.”
—Cathy Kelly, bestselling author of Between Sisters and Secrets of a Happy Marriage
“A charming and heartwarming story.”
—Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of The Café by the Sea
“Engaging . . . sparkling and joyous.”
—Sunday Times (UK)
“Much like a cup of tea and a cozy afghan, The Library at The Edge of the World is the perfect book to hunker down with. Prepare to be transported.”
—LibraryReads
SUMMER AT THE GARDEN CAFÉ
by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
* * *
The Garden Café, next to Lissbeg Library, is a place where plans are formed and secrets shared, and where, even in high tourist season, people are never too busy to stop for a sandwich and a cup of tea.
But twenty-one-year-old Jazz—daughter of the town’s librarian Hanna Casey—has a secret she can’t share. Still recovering from a car accident, and reeling from her father’s disclosures about his longtime affair, she’s taken a job at The Old Forge Guesthouse and begun to develop feelings for a man who’s strictly off-limits. Meanwhile, involved in her own new affair with architect Brian Morton, Hanna is unaware of the turmoil in Jazz’s life—until her manipulative ex-husband, Malcolm, reappears trying to mend his relationship with their daughter. Rebuffed at every turn, Malcolm must return to London, but his mother, Louisa, is on the case.
Unbeknown to the rest of the family, she hatches a plan, finding an unlikely ally in Hanna’s mother, the opinionated Mary Casey.
Watching Jazz unravel, Hanna begins to wonder if secrets that Malcolm has forced her to keep may have harmed their beloved daughter more than she’d realized. But then, the Casey women are no strangers to secrets, something Hanna realizes when she discovers a journal, long buried in land she inherited from her great-aunt Maggie. Ultimately, it’s the painful lessons of the past that offer a way to the future, but it will take the shared experiences of four generations of women to find a way forward for Hanna and her family.
“Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s latest novel is a triumph. This is clear-eyed storytelling in a romantic setting, but it’s doing far more than weaving a beguiling tale. . . . This book and this journey spill across generations and the result is a deeper meditation on what divides us and what restores us to ourselves and each other.”
—Irish Central
“The landscape and the cadence of the villagers’ language leap off the page. Fans of Debbie Macomber’s Blossom series will enjoy this trip to Ireland.”
—Booklist
THE MISTLETOE MATCHMAKER
by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
* * *
The days are turning colder, preparations are under way for the Winter Fest, and everyone is hoping for a little holiday magic on the Finfarran Peninsula. And as Cassie Fitzgerald, fresh from Toronto, is about to discover, there’s more to the holidays on the west coast of Ireland than mistletoe and mince pies.
Enchanted by the small town where her dad was born, Cassie makes friends and joins local librarian Hanna Casey’s writing group in Lissbeg Library. But the more she’s drawn into the festivities leading up to her first Irish Christmas, the more questions she wants to ask.
Why does her sweet-tempered grandmother Pat find it so hard to express her feelings? What’s going on between Pat and her miserly husband, Ger? What happened in the past between the Fitzgeralds and Hanna’s redoubtable mother, Mary Casey? And what about Shay: handsome, funny, smart, and intent on making Cassie’s stay as exciting as he can. Could he be the one for her?
As Christmas Eve approaches, it’s Cassie, the outsider, who reminds Lissbeg’s locals that love, family, and friendship bring true magic to the season. But will her own fractured family rediscover the joys of coming home?
“The perfect winter heart-warmer.”
—Cathy Kelly, bestselling author of Between Sisters and Secrets of a Happy Marriage
“A delightful read filled with wintry days, cups of tea, and more than few tidings of comfort and joy, the pages of The Mistletoe Matchmaker weave together the lives and secrets of a family—separated by years and distance, but with deep Irish roots, and leaves the reader longing to spend Christmas in Ireland.”
—Nan Rossiter, bestselling author of More Than You Know
“Engaging . . . full of humour . . . plenty of lively characters to add spice to this charming story.”
—Books Ireland
Also by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
FICTION
The Library at the Edge of the World
Summer at the Garden Café
The Mistletoe Matchmaker
The Month of Borrowed Dreams
The Heart of Summer
NONFICTION
The House on an Irish Hillside
Enough Is Plenty: The Year on the Dingle Peninsula
A Woven Silence: Memory, History & Remembrance
Dingle and Its Hinterland: People, Places & Heritage
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE TRANSATLANTIC BOOK CLUB. Copyright © 2020 by Felicity Hayes-McCoy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Originally published in Ireland in 2019 by Hachette Books Ireland.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
Cover design by Sarah Brody
Cover photographs © RUNSTUDIO/Getty Images (woman); © Dean Drobot/Shutterstock (head); © grafxart8888/iStock/Getty Images (landscape); © maydays/Getty Images (landscape); © Ermak Oksana/Shutterstock (dotted path)
Digital Edition NOVEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-288951-5
Version 09112020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-288950-8
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-303739-7 (library edition)
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Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The Transatlantic Book Club