First Line Friday on Saturday

Happy weekend & welcome to the First Line Friday post! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m delighted to feature Pumpkin Cottage by Anna and Jacqui Burns, a mother daughter team.

329 pages Allison & Busby publisher September 19, 2024 publication date

FIRST LINES

Pippa lets out involuntary shriek as she spots the sign, ‘Welcome to Riverdean.’ She has arrived. She follows the road as it bends sharply to the right, and her Audi is plunged under a canopy of trees. The brilliant blue of the sky peeks through the green and mustard leaves, as though even the sky is promising good times to come. And boy, does Pippa need good times. It’s been one hell of a year, filled with grief, job stress and break-up angst.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Pippa Mason is ready for a fresh start. She has bought Pumpkin Cottage in the picturesque Wye Valley village of Riverdean, where her late mother grew up, and plans to renovate a run-down bed and breakfast. Despite the complications of the project and a very surly builder, Pippa is settling into village life and starting to fall for the charms of local, outdoorsy Jake when problems start coming thick and fast …

Jenny Foster has plenty on her plate. It’s busy enough running Riverside Lodge but now her husband Phil has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia. With doubts about how long she will be able to keep running the business, Jenny didn’t need the threat of another B&B on her doorstep and the newcomer worming her way into the community.

When the spat between the rival businesses escalates and an autumn storm brings matters to a head, Pippa and Jenny will have to see if Riverdean is big enough for the both of them.

THE AUTHORS

Jacqui Burns is a lecturer and one half of a writing team with her daughter Anna Burns. They write their novels while living over two hundred miles apart, emailing chapters back and forth, focussing on strong but relatable women at the centre of families and communities. Love at Café Lompar was shortlisted for the RNA Debut Novel Award.

Anna Burns is a psychiatrist and one half of a writing team with her mother Jacqui Burns. They write their novels while living over two hundred miles apart, emailing chapters back and forth, focussing on strong but relatable women at the centre of families and communities. Love at Café Lompar was shortlisted for the RNA Debut Novel Award.

I hope you are doing well today. Happy Weekend!