Jenny Harper is back with the fourth instalment in her popular Heartlands series.
People We Love will be on tour for the next few weeks, visiting some of the best and brightest book blogs for reviews, guest posts and a colourful giveaway!
A year after her brother’s fatal accident, Lexie’s life seems to have reached a dead end. She is back home in small-town Hailesbank with her shell-shocked parents, treading softly around their fragile emotions.
As the family business drifts into decline, Lexie’s passion for painting and for her one-time mentor Patrick have been buried as deep as her unexpressed grief, until the day her lunch is interrupted by a strange visitor in a bobble hat, dressing gown and bedroom slippers, who climbs through the window.
Elderly Edith’s batty appearance conceals a secret and starts Lexie on a journey that gives her an inspirational artistic idea and rekindles her appetite for life. With friends in support and ex-lover Cameron seemingly ready to settle down, do love and laughter beckon after all?
Issues we Face
Guest Post by Jenny Harper
The inspiration for People We Love came from a number of sources. My parents used to live in a small village in rural Perthshire. One day, they told me that an elderly neighbour with dementia had walked all the way from Crieff – a town some twelve miles away – in her nightie, and climbed in the kitchen window of the house where she used to live.
What powerful instinct had led her there? The story was irresistible, and although I wasn’t writing when they told me about it, I’d obviously stored it up somewhere in my head.
So that was one part.
The second was a piece of photo journalism I spotted in one of the Sunday supplements. It was simply a series of photos of shoes worn by women fleeing from South Sudan. They were battered, flimsy and totally unsuitable for hard walking. Some were even just flip flops. I found the images of those shoes deeply moving, and I realised that shoes can tell stories – which is exactly what Lexie, the artist heroine of People We Love comes to understand.
Lexie is an artist, but she has put her career on hold to support her parents through their grief following the death of her brother in a car crash. While the main story revolves round the mystery of why he was driving while drunk, the family begins to find its way out of grief through Edith Dorothy Lawrence, the elderly lady with dementia who climbs through Lexie’s window.
And, of course, there’s romance too – in this case, a love triangle.
I loved writing People We Love. I hope you enjoy reading it just as much!
Author Bio:
Jenny Harper lives in Edinburgh. She is the author of four books about Scotland and Scottish culture, a history of childbirth, and The Sleeping Train for young readers. When she isn't writing, she enjoys walking in the Scottish countryside or anywhere warm, and travelling to Europe, America and India.
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Enter via the Rafflecopter below to win:
1st Prize: 1 x Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour Sketchers Pocket Set and an E-copy of People We Love by Jenny Harper
2nd Prize: 1 x Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour Sketchers' Pocket Set
Giveaway is international. Jenny Harper and CandleLit Author Services reserve the right to cancel or amend giveaway details at anytime and without prior notification. Booky Ramblings of a Neurotic Mom are not responsible for the picking of winners or the sending out of prizes.
Oh, I'm liking the sound of this, Jenny. Loving that cover too! :) x
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