A story about losing your way and finding your life. Book 1 of 3.
Elizabeth Lara built a perfect life as San Francisco’s top divorce attorney, but when she loses her great-aunt Mags, the woman who raised her, she boards a plane and leaves it all behind.The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for thirty-five years. Devastated and now alone in the world, Beth tries … alone in the world, Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon, but peace isn’t what fate had in mind. Almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon. A man with light brown hair, ice blue eyes and a secret of his own. He’s gorgeous, grieving, and completely unexpected.
With the help of Mags’ letters, the colorful townspeople of Dingle, and Connor, Elizabeth might just find a way back to the girl she lost long ago and become the woman she always wanted to be.
A Note From Jules:
Be forewarned you might not want to start this book late at night—several readers have reported “gobbling it up” and going on to the next book immediately. This book is literary women’s fiction, it is not a traditional romance, per se.
“If you enjoy Nora Roberts, you’ll like Juliet Gauvin. The Irish Cottage is a fresh take on women’s literary fiction, sometimes light and scrumptious and other times quite profound in its observations on life, love and loss.” -Amazon Review
“A book that conveys the true feelings of Ireland when you visit…it’s a bit of a romance, history, travel, and mystery neatly tied into a book well worth reading.” -Amazon Review
“I started this book and couldn’t put it down. It brought me to Ireland and I never wanted to leave.” -Amazon Review
The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth is an international women’s literary fiction romance novel with three books in the novel series. Other themes include: romance literary fiction, women’s sagas, love stories, and second chances at life.more
This is a wonderfully written story of self-rediscovery, suspense, and romance all set in Ireland. The characters are so well written that you can almost touch them. It’s a true page turner. I read all three of the books in less than two weeks and I’m a slow reader. I can’t wait until her next set of books.
Loved this book set in scenic Ireland. The main character needs to grieve and re define her true identity, letting go of some of her old habits. The book ends abruptly, however, without closure. That seems to be a common trick to make you buy the next segment.
Drawn to the idea of a lengthy getaway and staying in an Irish cottage myself, I couldn’t wait to dig in and begin reading. I loved Elizabeth and Connor’s characters. They were complicated individuals toting around emotional baggage from their pasts. Their meet-cute is…umm…exciting and memorable. Most of us ladies could be so lucky to happen upon someone like Connor in the fashion that Elizabeth did. (I don’t want to spoil it. You’ll have to read the story to find out. Let me just say…yowza!) After a verbal tussle, it becomes clear they’re in for some rough spots, although you get a sense of chemistry for them at the same time. The author didn’t disappoint with the character and relationship development. Elizabeth and Connor are both confident and strong, but some insecurities are revealed too. The sensual love scenes add depth and flavor to the story. Elizabeth and Connor fall in love and some healing takes place as well. Their journey together is far from over. And I look forward to book #2 in the series.
Interesting characters, some mystery in family histories in plot line. Easy enjoyable read. Having recently visited Ireland,I especially appreciated the setting and the local characters described in the book.would recommend.
You almost feel like you are in Ireland, right there with the characters, as their story unfolds. So with this book, you get not only a story but also an adventure abroad in a vibrant, beautiful, and romantic land.
It is a great book, very informative and interesting.
I usually do not include spoilers, but for this review I am so don’t read if you don’t want to know anything about the plot.
This was the first time I read a book by this author. I enjoyed the writing style so much. I enjoyed the story up until about 2/3 of the book. Then I was getting to not like it so much. I gave the book a 3 star rating since I really did like most of it, but here are the things I did not like.
The story revolves around letters a great aunt leaves (after she dies) for the niece she raised when her parents were not in her life anymore. Going from memory now, I think it was 17 letters. This book only reveals 7 of the letters. I am not opposed to “series” stories, but this sort of disappointed me. I am not that interested to continue reading the rest of the series to find out what the letters contain. I did become engrossed in the story and the lives of the two characters, I would just have liked the story to end in this book.
This is a romance book, so of course the main characters in the story fall in love. I get that they will have sex. I do not necessarily want to read about every time that they do have sex though. Once in a book is enough for me. After the second time, I just fast forwarded through the sex scenes. I think there were at least 2 more, could have been more.
While I also get it that in a romance book things are not “real”, but for the aunt that loved the birth mother (her niece) to just let her leave and not still have contact with her, when she definitely had mental health issues is just something I can not believe. That I am supposed to believe that the great aunt Mags, is such a good person to raise great niece, Elizabeth when both her parents are gone, but yet believe that she let her niece leave in a very unhealthy situation to never see her again? I can’t go along with that. Sorry.
Overall I did enjoy the book, it just left me with some issues that are going to prevent me from continuing to read the rest of the books in this series.
This is a story of a woman finding herself. Elizabeth Lara has the help of a series of letters from a beloved great aunt. It is about finding what is important and finding color and listening to important voices. It is about friendship and love and, sometimes, relying on fate. Warning: this is a part of a series. Our lady is still on her journey at the end of the book but progress is seen and curiosity fired as to what is next in her journey. I am rooting for Connor, another wounded soul finding his own journey.
I didn’t like anything about this book, in fact this might be one of the worst books I’ve ever read. The first two chapters hooked me but from that point it just got worse. The characters are boring, lacking depth and personality, a set of skills IS NOT A PERSONALITY, bc off course they’re not only physically perfect but skilled in arts, studies, sports etc. A cheap romance full of poorly written sex and unnecessarily explicit. Honestly this could be a smut fanfiction on wattpad that’s the level this book is honestly on, at least there you get warned about the content.
This was a simply lovely book which I enjoyed from page one right until the end when there was an ending that left you hanging–wanting more!!
Elizabeth was a powerful attorney who always won her cases. She was trying to get back at her Mom who left her and her father who deserted them. She was brought up by her great aunt who kept some secrets from Elizabeth. As she was dying she wrote Elizabeth 7 letters to try and tell her the truth and to get her to go back to the girl she once was.
She rents a cottage and figures she will stay alone mostly and attempt to acclimate to being totally alone now that her great aunt has died. However that was not to be as you will read! I could almost feel the way the people decided she needed friends and help–especially her landlord. You could not meet a bunch of better people if you tried!
You may laugh at some, grimace at other parts and the tears may fall as well. It is definitely the story of a woman re-discovering who she was truly meant to be.
Loved it!
The title intrigued me but sadly I was not impressed, and cliff hangers are a no-no for me.
Love stories that include letters written to the main character.
Read book 2 of this series; it was a bit slow, but had more fun characters added.
The author’s description of Ireland make me want to travel there.
Good story ruined by unnecessary sex
Enjoyable to read.
Good read but ends abruptly ready for a sequel.
It was nothing no real ending I could write a better book and I am not a writer Not worth reading on an ipad .
I loved this whole series. Great writing style!
trite, predictable, soap opera style
Entertaining and hopeful!