Secrets of Santorini by Patricia Wilson - A Passionate Romance with a Totally Gripping Mystery

Main photo from Santorini.net

It didn't look as if I'd be going on my holiday to the Greek Islands this year, so I bought Secrets of Santorini by Patricia Wilson instead and I've really loved it!
It is a passionate romance with a totally gripping mystery, told in turn by Bridget, and Irini, her daughter.
In about 1990, Bridget, an archeology student, in Dublin, falls in love with her professor, Tommy McGuire who is fifteen years older. Because such an affair isn't acceptable, he resigns and goes to Santorini to do some research on finding Atlantis. Bridget then gives up her course and flies out to join him and they get married.
On the day that they find Queen Thira's dragonfly necklace which could be the key to solving the mystery of Atlantis, he has an heart attack and Bridget has to sell the necklace to pay for his operation and hospital stay. At the same time, she find out that she's pregnant.
At night, her dreams are full of Queen Thira who rules Atlantis with her ten kings and her battle with Poseidon for some land in Crete where they can escape to when the volcano that Atlantis sits on erupts.
In the present day, Irini, Bridget and Tommy's daughter, has never felt loved and wanted by her parents. At the age of five, she was shipped back to Ireland to boarding school. Now her parents have returned to Dublin, but her mother cannot stay away from Santorini, so she goes back.
Tommy is ill, but Bridget is now also seriously injured in hospital in Crete so Irini goes there to try find out why her parents have always been so distant, and to see her mother one last time. At Heraklion airport, a Greek man rescues her suitcase from the carousel and clumsily, she drives her trolley over his foot. Later, in her hire car, she knocks a man off his bicycle, breaking his arm, and it's him! He's called Angelo, and after this very shaky start, they fall in love and he helps her with her quest.
Why have Irini's parents always been so distant?
Why was Bridget compelled to go back to Santorini?
Why were Bridget's dreams full of the story of Queen Thira and her daughter, Oia?
What happened to the dragonfly necklace that Bridget sold?
This unputdownable novel is told against the very realistic backdrop of Santorini and Crete, nestling in the blue Aegean Sea. Even a neighbour noisily mowing his grass, couldn't pull me away from this story. Fantastic!

And even more fantastic, another book by Patricia Wilson, Greek Island Escape is out on April 2nd 2020!

A Nice Cup of Tea by Celia Imrie - An Adventure, A Mystery, A Comedy and A Delightful Romp

A Nice Cup of Tea by Celia Imrie is a perfect book to relax with and dream that you are sunning yourself on the French Riviera. So pour out that tea, or a nice glass of wine and enjoy!
I haven't read the first two books about the group of retired expats who buy a restaurant in Bellevue-sur-Mer, although I have read Sail Away which I loved, so I certainly will read the others now.
This one begins when they are hoping La Mosaïque will be saved by the sale of a valuable mosaic thought to be by Picasso, but that all falls through at the last moment and Theresa, Sally, William, Benjamin and Carol are left trying to save their restaurant with hilarious and surprising results.
This book has everything from a stalker who seems to be following Theresa;  a runaway, Theresa's granddaughter, Chloe; bankruptcy, La Mosaïque; the glamorous world of filming, Sally; sailing, Sally again; the French Rivera, a beautiful backdrop to the story; and drugs, don't ask!
It is an adventure, a mystery, a comedy and a delightful romp with a cast of wonderful characters which I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope that you will too.