Paperback(Original)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Fashionable Sophie Mills was a corporate manager on a fast track to success. Then, in the space of a heartbeat — the time it takes for a car to crash — two little girls, Bella and Izzy, her best friend's daughters, change her life forever. Named as guardian in their father's absence, Sophie discovers that the soft touch of a little girl's hand can be far more precious than a closet full of expensive clothes or an exciting job. And when their father Louis returns, the word "family" takes on a whole new significance, as Sophie finds herself deeply attracted to this handsome, mysterious man.
Moving to Cornwall to be with Louis and the girls is a deliriously, frighteningly adventurous start to a whole new life for Sophie. When Louis proposes marriage, Bella and Izzy immediately vault into bridesmaid ecstasy, but Sophie is besieged by doubt. Is marrying Louis, who left one wife before, the natural next step...or a scary mistake? Can she honor her promise to the girls to be there always, forever, whatever? When startling news from Louis's past takes them all by surprise, can these individuals brought together by chance and tragedy make the commitment that a family is forever?
From the sensational Rowan Coleman, whose witty and deeply moving novels have won hearts on both sides of the Atlantic, comes a thought-provoking new tale of love, choices, and the true meaning of family.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781439155288 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Gallery Books |
| Publication date: | 09/29/2009 |
| Edition description: | Original |
| Pages: | 384 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.26(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.02(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Scones and clotted cream are the devil's work," Sophie said out loud as she inspected herself in her latest pair of jeans. Technically she was still a size ten, but if she was honest, the almost daily trips to Carmen Velasquez's Ye Olde Tea Shoppe had pushed her hips to the size's upper limit, something she'd have to sort out eventually, particularly if she really was going to wear quite so much denim.
Once, before Bella, Izzy, and their father had come into her life, Sophie had owned only one pair of jeans, which she hardly ever wore. She had been an occasion dresser, with a fondness for silk blouses on workdays and a rule that a heel should never dwindle below three inches. But since she'd come to stay in St. Ives, not only had she not bought a single pair of high heels, she'd collected four pairs of jeans, two denim skirts, an assortment of casual tops, and an anorak. Sophie loved her double-zipped weatherproof red and navy blue anorak, but it was a love that dare not speak its name, at least not when she was on the phone talking to her erstwhile secretary and good friend Cal about her outlandish new life in Cornwall.
"Have you got any wellies yet?" Cal would ask her without fail during their weekly chats.
"Me, wellies, are you joking? I have some standards," Sophie would tell him breezily. And then, hoping to change the subject, she'd try to engage him in some work talk. "Tell me what's new, do you have new accounts — are things as bad in the city as they say they are?"
Cal, who was never that fond of bad news, would ignore her. "Wellies mean you aren't coming back," Cal took pleasure in telling her. "Wellies are a sign of commitment to your new way of life. Wellington boots are the nearest that you, Sophie Mills, will ever get to an engagement ring."
"Thanks, Cal, thanks very much for boiling my entire romantic happiness down to rubber boots," Sophie would reply. "Besides, what would you, the king of commitment phobia, know anyway? I might get married one day — anyway, I was thinking that if the big corporations are cutting back on parties to show how sorry they are, why don't you target smaller firms? I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if the big guys haven't got any money, then the little guys certainly don't, but — bear with me — smaller events at discounted rates mean less work and less outlay — more accounts and only marginally reduced revenue. You should run that by Eve — you can tell her it's your idea if you like."
"Sophie, have you forgotten that you traded in the life of a corporate junkie to breathe in sea air and be fulfilled? I don't need your ideas, I have ideas. I'm going after the pink pound. I'm much more interested in the idea of you getting married — you!"
Trying not to feel hurt that Cal had rejected her idea so entirely, Sophie gazed out her bedroom window at the gray and stormy sea beyond the harbor below. Before she'd left London to come here, she had never once daydreamed about getting married or being a bride. But during the last six months she'd spent with Louis, she felt like a different person, no, a different version of herself, the self she might be if she were living in a novel or a film. The happy-ending self. And if you were the sort of person who believed in happy endings, then you knew they always came about with a wedding.
"To Louis?" Cal persisted.
"Potentially." Sophie's mouth curled into a smile meant only for herself. "One day, you know...when the time is right."
"Wellies first." Cal was adamant. "Once you've bought the wellies, then he'll finally know you're committed and he'll ask you. That's what he's waiting for."
But as of yet there were no Wellington boots in the wardrobe in Sophie's room at the Avalon B & B, and at six months she was the second-longest-staying guest, second only to Mrs. Tregowan, who had been there for nearly a year since her husband died and she had decided she couldn't bear to go back to her bungalow without him.
Sophie had arrived in the Cornish town of St. Ives in the spring. Fully experiencing the burgeoning season and embracing the renewal of life, she'd felt herself awaken to the unknown possibilities that the future might hold. On weekend mornings she and Louis had waded in the freezing waters of the harbor with the girls until her soft city toes turned blue, collecting interesting shells and bits of pottery. Sophie had let the cool, crisp sea breeze ruddy her cheeks and whip her fine blond hair into a tangle. As they climbed over the rocks and stones to the harbor wall, Louis would hold her hand in his, reviving her numb fingers with his body heat until she felt the blood tingle and throb in the tips.
She had stayed for the whole fickle summer, which had been a stretch of warm, rainy days occasionally studded with jewel-like ones bathed in sunshine. During the summer holidays, when Louis was working on building up his fledgling photography business, the girls gave her their own personal tour of the town they'd grown up in. Picnicking among the clover and daisies in the meadow above the whitewashed town that seemed to be perched so haphazardly on the rocky cliffs that tumbled to the sea, dodging the tourists for the roller disco that took place at midday in the guildhall, which Sophie found both exhilarating and humiliating in turn. They took her to the Tate Gallery and showed her the paintings that had been their mother's favorites, Bella lecturing her confidently about light and perspective. They led her in and out of the maze of tiny cobbled streets, showing her their favorite houses, their window boxes laden with geraniums. And in the evenings before bed, after Louis had got home from that day's assignment, they'd walk along the harbor wall until they found the family of seals that was always there, lounging on the rocks just out to sea as if they rather enjoyed their celebrity. Izzy would give the seals a new name every day and Bella would tell Izzy stories about them.
For most of that time, Sophie hadn't thought about the career she'd left behind. It was as if she had finally put her foot on the brake of her life, which had been careering recklessly toward a final goal that she had never been sure of, and taken a moment to look around and feel what it meant to be alive in the world. And then in the last couple of months she'd started to feel restless and irritable. For a while she'd worried that she wasn't madly in love with Louis after all, and that the whole escapade had been a terrible mistake. But then one evening as they'd strolled along the seafront, the girls bounding along ahead of them, Louis had turned to her and said, "You're not happy, Soph, and I know why."
"I am so happy," Sophie had replied, panicking. "Look at me. I'm delirious!"
"You're bored," Louis said, smiling while squeezing her fingers.
"Bored? How could I be bored with this, with you and those two?" She nodded at the girls, who were screaming in delight as the seagulls dive-bombed them, trying to steal their chips.
"Look, it's okay, you know. I mean I know that I am endlessly fascinating and deeply sexually satisfying and that holding a conversation with either of my daughters is just as intellectually rewarding as reading Shakespeare — but if you need something more in your life, that's cool. Something just for you. It doesn't mean you don't love us or want to be here. It just means you want to be you, and as it's you I love, I'm all for it."
"Something just for me," Sophie mused. "You mean something apart from cakes."
"Sophie, you're a doer — a woman with ideas who makes things happen. And I don't think that includes making beans on toast for the girls' tea. Look, there's no high-finance or six-figure jobs around here — but you should look for something to get your teeth into, like Carmen did with the tea shop. Think about it. I guarantee there is something in this town that needs Sophie Mills's magic touch. And I'm not just talking about my — "
"You're right!" Sophie had exclaimed in relief. "That's what's missing. I need a thing. A thing to do, that's it! Oh, but what?"
"I can't answer that, but I'm sure you'll figure something out," Louis told her.
"You really know me, don't you?" Sophie turned to him, tugging at his fingers to bring him a little closer. "I think you might be the first person ever to really get me."
Louis had smiled at her and kissed the tip of her nose.
"Well, someone's got to," he'd said.
Now it was late September and things had stayed more or less the same since the week she'd arrived, a charming mixture of novelty and routine combined with the kind of happiness she had never felt before and the sense that this wasn't really her life she was living after all. It couldn't be. She felt as if she were walking through the pages of a romance novel or had suddenly been given the lead role in a movie, because real life was never this easy.
She saw Louis and the girls every day. Since the new term had started, she'd been taking the children to school now that Izzy had turned four and joined the kindergarten at Bella's school. And every other afternoon she would pick Izzy up at 1:00 p.m. and they would go to Carmen Velasquez's Ye Olde Tea Shoppe for a snack before returning to school to fetch Bella at 3:15. Then they'd go for a walk on the beach, making sand castles and chasing each other with lumps of slimy seaweed if it was sunny enough, or hang out making things from dried pasta at Louis's house if it was rainy. And just occasionally they'd partake of a second snack at Ye Olde Tea Shoppe, as it didn't seem fair that Bella had missed out.
In the evenings, after the girls were in bed, Sophie and Louis would sit in front of the electric fire he kept swearing he was going to replace with a period fireplace to match the house's Victorian exterior and laugh and talk and share news and hold hands and do a great deal of kissing. And most nights the kissing would lead to touching and the touching would lead to the most wonderful and dazzling sex Sophie Mills had ever known. Louis's sofa had seen a lot of action over the last six months, and his rug had seen a great deal more. But to date, Sophie had never stayed the night.
"I am fairly sure you could sleep over if you wanted to," Louis had said one night as the two of them lay sprawled in front of the fire, which they had switched on for old times' sake even though it was August and one of those rare swelteringly hot nights. He traced a finger along the curve of her breast, which shimmered in the firelight. "I'd love to go to sleep with you, Sophie," he murmured. "And wake up with you. I'd like to see you in the morning with your hair all tangled and sleep creases in your cheeks. I'd like to have sex with you in the morning, while you're still half dreaming and biddable."
"Well, you'd be unlucky," Sophie told him as she stretched, wriggling because the rug was a nylon mix and a bit itchy on her skin. "Because I sleep like a princess and I never get tousled or creased. Besides, I am only ever biddable when I want to be, which might be right now if you play your cards right."
"Stay over," Louis asked her gently, kissing her shoulder. "Please."
"I can't, Louis. What would they think?" Sophie said, pointing at the ceiling. Bella and Izzy were fast asleep upstairs.
"They'd think you stayed the night and then, seeing Daddy in such a good mood, they'd wonder if they could score Coco Pops for breakfast two days in a row even though they're only supposed to have them twice a week," Louis said. "They wouldn't care, Sophie, I think they'd be happy about it."
"I can't," Sophie replied uncertainly. "It wouldn't be right. They aren't ready for that."
"They do know we're going out together, you know," Louis said wryly. "All the hand holding and 'I love yous' have given it away. I think you're the one who's not ready."
Sophie dropped her gaze momentarily. Perhaps Louis was right. Everything seemed so perfect, so wonderful now, that she sometimes felt as if her happiness was balanced on a high wire. She was afraid of changing anything lest the perfect peace she'd found here teetered and crashed. And staying the night, living here, meant letting real life creep in and she wasn't ready for that quite yet. Sophie eyed Louis from beneath her lashes. It was odd that she could lie here, naked, with him but wasn't sure she could tell him her fears about moving ahead with their relationship. She wasn't sure he'd understand.
"So we are going out together then?" Sophie teased him instead. "Only you've never formally asked me, so I did wonder. Look, it's just that the children are only seven and four. I can't possibly stay over — not when we're not..."
"What?" Louis had propped himself up on one elbow and looked at Sophie, his gaze traveling slowly up from the tops of her thighs, over her breasts, and finally meeting her eyes with the kind of look that made her blood fizz.
"We're not, you know...," Sophie said, her mouth curling into a smile as she wound her arms around Louis's neck and drew him down to kiss her. But his lips stopped short of hers by a hairsbreadth.
"Marry me then," Louis had whispered.
Instead of answering, Sophie kissed him hard, pushing him onto his back on the carpet and climbing on top of him with the kind of unbridled abandon that, had she stopped to think about it, she would have found rather embarrassing. But she didn't stop to think, because one of the best things about being in love with Louis Gregory was that when she made love to him, she didn't think about anything apart from how very wonderful it made her feel.
Still, as delightful a distraction as that had been, Sophie had not answered or even acknowledged Louis's question. And while it had not gone unnoticed, neither of them mentioned it because Sophie and Louis did not talk about much besides the children and that day's events. Sometimes the thought would creep into Sophie's mind that all she and Louis knew about each other, apart from the history they had shared through Carrie and her children, was how to make each other laugh and their bodies sing, but Sophie didn't dwell on it.
Then, as on most evenings, after spending a few minutes talking to her cat, Artemis, who had moved in with Louis on the very first day they arrived from London and lorded it over the resident ginger cat, Tango, with the ferocity and splendor of a feline Boadicea, Sophie would get in her car if she hadn't been drinking, or take the local taxi if she had, and go back to the B & B to sleep alone.
It wasn't that she didn't long to wake up with Louis's arms around her, because she did. It was just that before she moved any further along that precarious high wire, she wanted to be absolutely sure that what she was doing was the right thing and that she wasn't making a terrible, terrible mistake.
Sometimes she worried about how her relationship with Louis looked to people on the outside. She and Louis, essentially strangers to each other, had been thrown together by circumstance. People might think that, as fond as he was of her, Sophie was little more to Louis than a rather convenient replacement for his children's lost mother, one who'd come ready-made with his children's trust and love already assured. And because she was a person who had always been desperate for other people's approval, it was hard for her to throw caution to the wind and decide that she didn't care two hoots about what other people might think.
Although the general feeling of contentment and joy that had pervaded her daily life since she had come down to Cornwall supported a favorable outcome, Sophie was waiting for something, some tiny, indefinable piece of information to fall into place before she could know for sure she was meant to be here permanently. The problem was, Sophie wasn't sure exactly what it was she was waiting for.
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and she ran to hide in the closet.
"Aunty Sophie?" Bella called out as she pushed open the bedroom door. "We're coming to get you!"
"You is going to get got!" Izzy giggled as she galloped into the room with Bella, the two of them sounding like a herd of small elephants.
Sophie remained silent in the wardrobe, secreted between business suits and party dresses that hadn't seen the light of day since she'd arrived in St. Ives. Her job on the days Louis picked the children up from school and brought them round was to wait to be found. And even though she knew the girls knew exactly where she was hiding, she had to wait nevertheless. Sometimes Izzy wouldn't be able to stand the excitement and she'd open the closet door in less than a minute. On other days though, the game could take quite a long time and by the time she had been discovered, Sophie would have quite a crick in her neck and pins and needles in her calves.
"Is she...under the bed?" Bella's muffled voice suggested that she had crawled under there to check.
"Is she in the toilet?" Izzy's giggle bounced off the walls in the tiny bathroom and Sophie smiled to herself. Izzy had changed a lot in the last six months, but her devotion to toilet humor had never wavered.
"Is she up the chimney?" Bella called out.
"Or on the lamp shade?" Izzy suggested.
"Of course she's not on the lamp shade, Iz," Bella said matter-of-factly. "The lamp shade is tiny and small and made of paper and Aunty Sophie is huge!"
Sophie pursed her lips and silently swore off clotted cream and scones for about the seventh time that week.
"I think...," Bella said in the tone of voice that meant Sophie had to prepare to be discovered, "that she might be...in...the...closet!"
In the second that Bella flung open the door, Sophie leaped out yelling, "BOO!" at the top of her voice, an event that never failed to make both girls scream and giggle, and jump on Sophie and propel her in one very girlish heap onto one of the room's twin beds.
"You got me," Sophie said when she had got her breath back. "Where's Daddy?"
"Downstairs talking to Mrs. Alexander about sandwiches," Bella said, sitting up, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. Sophie brushed the child's dark hair off her forehead and, sitting up, kissed her on the cheek.
"You need a haircut again," she said. "Your hair grows faster than anything else I know."
"What about me, do I need a haircut?" Izzy wound her arms around Sophie's neck and rested her cheek against Sophie's.
Sophie wound one of Izzy's caramel curls around her finger. "You have hair just like your mother's," she told the younger girl, knowing how much Izzy liked to talk about Carrie. "You can cut it and brush it and wash it all you like but it will do exactly what it wants to do...which reminds me of the little person it's attached to!"
"I'm not little anymore," Izzy protested. "I go to school now, and anyway, are you coming for a cream tea?"
"Of course she is," Bella said. "Aunty Sophie always comes for cream teas."
"I can't deny it," Sophie said. "But today is absolutely my last one."
"You said that yesterday," Bella reminded her.
"I know something," Izzy said with big, round eyes and in a typically dramatic tone of voice. "A really, really specially secret thing that Daddy says I'm not to tell you!"
"Do you?" Sophie said, mildly anxious. The last major secret Izzy had had involved Artemis and an entire packet of smoked salmon that she had fed the cat under her bed in a bid to make Artemis love her more than Bella. What Izzy had failed to understand was that Artemis would never turn down food, not even from her worst enemy, and it was a miracle that she actively liked any human at all. Artemis had lived with Sophie for years in her flat in London and had barely ever spoken two words to her, so to speak. For some reason Bella was the only human Artemis loved, whether it was because the once mistreated cat saw something in Bella she recognized or because Bella was the only person on the planet who knew how to tickle Artemis behind her ears the way she liked it, Sophie didn't know. But she did know that all copious amounts of smoked salmon would achieve was piles of orange fishy vomit deposited all around the house.
"Have you been trying to make friends with Artemis again?" Sophie asked.
"No, it's even better than that!" Izzy said, giggling gleefully. " It's not really," Bella said firmly. "It's not anything at all. It's really best forgotten about."
"Yes, we are not to tell because Daddy says he has something very important to ask you but we mustn't say what it is," Izzy said, wiping her nose on the back of her hand and then her hand on Sophie's fuchsia candlewick bedspread.
"Izzy!" Bella hissed, digging her little sister in the ribs. "Shush."
She smiled at Sophie, a wide, toothy grin that Sophie had seen once before, when Bella denied using Sophie's steak knives as tent pegs to make a den out of her best and, for that matter, only leather coat.
"Oh come on, girls, what are you two hiding? Is your dad finally going to strip that hideous wallpaper in the living room?"
"It's much more exciting than that," Izzy told her. "It's the excitingest, biggest thing ever!"
"No it is not!" Bella tried to urge her little sister into discretion by waggling her eyebrows, which might have worked if her bangs hadn't been so long that they obscured them. "Daddy has nothing to say to you whatsoever." She pronounced the new, unfamiliar word with great care. "I expect he won't want to talk to you about anything of consequence at all."
"Except that don't forget he's going to ask her to...," Izzy began.
"Pay for the cake because he's lost his...money," Bella interrupted her.
"Or at least he hasn't got any monies left because he's spent them on this most beautifulest — "
"Hat," Bella finished for Izzy. "He's bought a completely enormous hat."
Sophie looked from girl to girl. It could never be said that she was the world's most intuitive woman. It had taken her a rather long time to realize, for example, that Louis loved her back and that the feelings she had for him weren't just an unrequited, slightly psychotic, and rather ill-advised crush. Yet here was Izzy seething with secrets, talking about something exciting and big that Louis wanted to ask her, and there was Bella gamely trying to cover up with a tale of lost money and an enormous hat. A few months ago Sophie would have been wondering what on earth Louis wanted with an enormous hat, but she had changed from that blunt black-and-white woman, and these children had helped her do it. That and the fact that they were dreadful at keeping secrets led her to believe that unless she was very much mistaken, what the girls were trying not to tell her was that their father was going to ask her to marry him. Again.
Only this time she wouldn't be able to pretend she hadn't heard him, and there would be no opportunity for distraction sex right in the middle of Ye Olde Tea Shoppe.
Copyright © 2009 by Rowan Coleman
Reading Group Guide
This reading group guide for The Accidental Family includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Rowan Coleman. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
About a year ago, Sophie Mills’s life was turned upside down when her childhood best friend died and left Sophie in charge of her two young daughters. A true city girl, Sophie surprised everyone, including herself, when she moved to the country to be with the girls and their father, Louis—her best friend’s widower.
But adjusting to life as a semi-permanent mother in a small town isn’t as easy as Sophie imagined. She can’t quite make that final commitment to move in with Louis and the girls—she’s on her way to becoming the longest-paying guest of the local bed-and-breakfast.
Just as Sophie starts to feel secure, Louis’s first love resurfaces with some shocking news. Now Sophie can’t help but wonder: Can Louis take responsibility for his past as well as his present? And can she fulfill her solemn promise to be there for two frightened little girls “always, forever, whatever”?
Questions for Discussion
1. The prologue to The Accidental Family takes place six hours after Sophie shows up at Louis’s door in Cornwall, and the first chapter begins six months later. What has changed over those six months? How has Sophie and Louis’s relationship evolved, and how has it remained the same?
2. The night that Louis proposes, why does Sophie insist that he is asking her permission to go on a surfing trip to Hawaii? What other miscommunications does this scene foreshadow?
3. Sophie complains to Cal, “Why do you have to sum up my entire life like it’s a tabloid headline” (page 210)? What are some of the more tabloid-worthy moments of The Accidental Family? Which plot twist shocked you the most?
4. What were your first impressions of Wendy Churchill, Louis’s first love? Did she meet your expectations in the end? Why or why not?
5. With four husbands in her past, eighty-nine-year-old Grace Tregowan has plenty of stories about love and loss. Which stories and pieces of advice seem to affect Sophie the most, and why?
6. Consider how Bella and Izzy handle the turmoil in their family. How does each girl cope with fear and uncertainty? How are their reactions similar, and how are they different?
7. Sophie feels she can relate to Seth’s sense of loss and confusion: “She knew what it was like to live without a father and she also knew how shocking it was to discover that your whole life, everything you’ve believed to be unalterable and true, could be turned on its head in a second” (page 156). Why doesn’t Seth seem to respond to Sophie’s sympathy? Could Sophie have done more to help Seth? If so, what?
8. Discuss the reappearance of Jake Flynn, Sophie’s former love interest. Does Jake seem happy with his fiancée? Is his kiss with Sophie purely for “scientific research,” as he says, or does he really want Sophie back? Explain your answer.
9. Iris shares the story of how she and Sophie’s father met and fell in love. Compare this story to Sophie and Louis’s. What do these romances have in common? How are they different?
10. Sophie has a broad support network, from sensible Iris to irreverent but loyal Cal to sexy, practical Carmen. Among Sophie’s friends and family, which character is your favorite, and why?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Plan a dream vacation to Cornwall, England! Pretend you and your book club will be spending a long weekend in this coastal region. Where would you stay, and what would you want to see? You can research Cornwall tourism at www.visitcornwall.com.
2. Treat your book club to a proper English tea! If there is a teashop in your town, hold your book club meeting there. Or if you’re hosting at home, you can find recipes for scones, cakes, and other Sophie-approved delights at www.joyofbaking.com/EnglishTeaParty.html.
3. Follow the example of Iris, Sophie’s mother, and volunteer at your local animal shelter. You can search for a shelter that needs help by entering your zip code on this website: www.pets911.com/organizations/volunteer.php
4. Take a peek into Rowan Coleman’s world by reading her blog at www.rowancoleman.blogspot.com.
A Conversation with Rowan Coleman, Author of The Accidental Family
1. You open The Accidental Family with a bedtime story recounting the adventures of Princess Sophie, Prince Louis, Bella, and Izzy. Why did you choose this fairy-tale format to bring readers up to speed on the events of the previous novel, The Accidental Mother?
I wanted new readers to be able to pick up The Accidental Family and read it as a stand-alone book, but I was aware that at least some of Sophie and Louis’s life from The Accidental Mother was really pertinent to this book. At first I tried to weave the events of the past into the main text, but most of the time I found that it slowed the book down and got in the way of the narrative flow. I had the idea for the bedtime story one evening while telling my daughter a made-up bedtime story in which she was the heroine. I realized how much children love to hear about themselves and that this is exactly what Sophie would do, not only to help the children understand what had happened but to help her understand it too.
2. The promise “Always, forever, whatever” plays a central role in The Accidental Family. How did you come up with this key phrase?
I have known my best friend, Jenny, since we were children, and during the course of our friendship we made each other many promises of loyalty that we have kept. We have always been there for each other through all of life’s ups and downs. Although we never used the “Always, forever, whatever,” when I thought about how to sum up the kind of friendship we had, that was the phrase that kept coming to mind. Best of all, I get a lot of mail from readers who tell me they have adopted it as their very own friendship motto.
3. Wendy is a complicated character; Sophie sometimes struggles to hate “that Wendy woman” when she considers the hardships of a single mother. Was it hard to resist creating a truly evil rival for your heroine? Why did you make Wendy’s motivations so complex?
Life is complicated and I feel that the majority of people try their best to get it right, even if they don’t always achieve it. Wendy makes life very difficult for Sophie; she manipulates Louis and her son—but only because she is looking at Louis and Sophie and the life she might have had if she had made different choices. Jealousy and regret are powerful emotions, and all of us have been overpowered by irrational feelings at some point in our lives. Apart from anything else, I try to write characters that are identifiable and realistic, and things are rarely ever as simple as “good” and “evil.”
4. The cliffs and breezes of Cornwall really come alive in this novel. How does this part of the world inspire you?
I love Cornwall with a passion. I first visited as a child and have fond memories of roaming its sandy beaches, climbing over rocks, and fishing for crabs in rock pools. Over the years I have become more and more attached to it, particularly St. Ives when I discovered the artist colony that grew up there and I found out more about the artists’ lives and work. During the summer it’s so packed full of tourists that you can barely move, and in the winter it’s wild and empty and full of untold stories—but all year round it never loses its charm for me. If you can visit, do!
5. Sophie takes quite a few romantic risks in this novel, from accepting Louis’s proposal to kissing two other men. Do you think risk is necessary for romance—or at least for a good love story?
I think in Sophie’s case the risks she takes are due to her uncertainty about the way her life is heading. Everything has changed very quickly, as she hasn’t had a moment to catch her breath and think about it. Although she loves Louis and the children, she is still testing her own sense of commitment. From a wider point of view, when it comes to writing a romance or a love story, risk and complication are definitely necessities. I really hate putting my characters through some of the things I do. Part of me would like them to have a nice life, meet a nice partner, and settle down—but that doesn’t make for very compelling reading!
6. Sophie and Carmen experience the madness of a wedding fair, overwhelmed by the cake samples and dress exhibits. Have you experienced this kind of wedding fever firsthand? Do you think it takes an event planner and a pastry chef—like Sophie and Carmen—to navigate the chaos?
I have been a bride, so I understand the fever that takes hold of wives-to-be! It can become the sole focus of a woman’s attention in the months leading up to her wedding, and everything else fades in comparison. Unfortunately, I think the obsessive side of wedding planning can detract from the joy and pleasure of the actual day.
Do you need a wedding planner? Probably not—but hiring one might help everyone stay sane.
7. Iris is able to guess almost instantly that her daughter Sophie is pregnant. Do you believe in a mother’s intuition? Do you think many women worry that they lack this instinct, like Sophie does?
As a mother, I have to say I do believe in mother’s intuition. Often it is a mother who knows first if her child is ill or unhappy—sometimes even before they do. And I don’t think that changes as the child grows into an adult. No one knows me better than my mum. She guessed I was pregnant before I knew about it. Before the birth of my first child I worried and worried that I wouldn’t be a natural mother, that I wouldn’t be able to get it right. I realized eventually that there is no such thing. All of us learn from page one starting on day one—there is no shortcut to learning how to bring up a child, and I don’t think you ever stop learning. I do think that you gradually develop the kind of knowledge of your child and the depth of love for your child that becomes intuition.
8. Sophie seems to be in limbo between high-heeled shoes and wellies—glamorous London life and muddy coastal life. Are you more likely to step out in heels or boots, yourself?
I love a pair of high heels, I love to be glamorous, period. Like Sophie, I am an occasion dresser. But I also have a dog and very beautiful woods near my house, so muddy wellies come out of the closet regularly too.
9. Which book did you find more challenging to write: The Accidental Mother or its sequel, The Accidental Family? Why?
It’s hard to say. Both books had their challenges. With The Accidental Mother I was starting from scratch with new characters and I had to work hard to give the story credibility and an edge of reality. But on balance I’d say that writing The Accidental Family was harder because I knew that so many readers really loved The Accidental Mother and had been waiting a long time to find out what happened next, and I didn’t want to let them down.
10. The story of this “accidental family” seems far from over, as Seth joins the family and Sophie looks forward to her first baby. Can readers look forward to another book in this series? What does the future hold for Sophie and her family?
I honestly don’t know. I always like to finish a book without all the loose ends tied and an unknown future laid out for my characters to inhabit, but I don’t always feel the urge to write about it. The Accidental Family came about because so many readers asked me what happened next to Sophie and Louis and because once I started thinking about it I couldn’t stop! I might very well revisit them in the future, but for now I have new characters and new ideas that I am working on.