This was definitely a decent summer beach novel but I felt lacked the emotional connection for me. I loved the pretty cover and the premise, which was what made me request this novel. I enjoyed Radford's prior novels before this and hope her next book is better than this one. I am sure other readers will enjoy this more than I did.

Thanks to Netgalley, Cherry Radford and Head of Zeus Aria for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 7/14/22

The gorgeous cover immediately caught my attention.

Marina and her family spent many happy summers at their holiday home in Spain until her father had a fatal boating accident. Ten year old Marina was alone with her father when this happened and had to sail their boat back to the marina by herself.

20 years later Marina's mother decides to sell their holiday home, Casa Palmito, and persuades Marina to go to Spain to sort out the house and make it ready for selling.

For the first time since her father's death, Marina will return to Cala Turquesa, somewhere that hold memories of happiness and great sadness.

Whilst the plot was interesting and well written, the descriptions of Cala Turquesa and the surrounding areas were so vivid and enticing that I was longing to join the Turquitos.

Effortless reading with a satisfactory end.

Thank you Head of Zeus, Aria and NetGalley for the ARC, this review is my personal, unbiased opinion.

I love, love this book. Engaging story and characters whom you know!
Set the scene, feel the warmth of the sun, smell the sea.
Many twists in the history, keeps your eyes reading.
Great holiday read.

The story
Marina is a piano teacher living in London. Her flatmates drive her nuts and her love life is in the doldrums. When her mom suggests she go to Spain to pack up the family’s holiday house and put it on the market she isn’t sure at first but circumstances change and she and her best friend Polly decide to go. When they get there, the road to the house on the cove has washed away, three young guys are renting the house and the memories of happier and sad times with her late father are strong.

My thoughts
I loved reading Cherry Radford’s first book in this series and was so excited when the publisher reached out with an ARC of this story. I love how in the story, the Spanish setting is such a strong influence. The sea, Marina’s late father’s boat La Mari, the isolated cove with leftover hippies all bring some blue magic to the story. Friendship is a strong theme, finding connections that allow Marina to bond with the town and find answers to long held worries. And some handsome Spanish potential love interests don’t hurt either. This all makes for a lovely, entertaining read 🇪🇸❤️

This book unfortunately was just an okay book for me. I think it is very possible that other readers will love it.

I found it extremely slow moving in the plot, and honestly the part of the story that drove me to finish reading was the mystery surrounding Marina's father's death. (This is not a spoiler, it is clearly written in the book summary that he is dead.) This is a tragedy early in Marina's life at age 10, and has been a focal point of her decision making throughout the last 20 years of her life. Also, it has been a cloud of doubt of the type of person she always thought her dad was for the last 20 years. I do not want to write a spoiler, but I will just say that the handling of the situation was difficult for me to think would be the actual result if a person finally found out the truth. I know this is fiction, but...

The rest of the book was a lot of boating, swimming, music and eating. I never did have a connection to the characters. The description of the scenery was beautiful and I looked up pictures on the internet to experience the glorious views.

Thank you to Head of Zeus, Aria and NetGalley for allowing me to read the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

I received this book via NetGalley and give it my honest opinion.

Another fantastic read by Cherry Radford, perfect for taking on holiday and reading by the pool or on the beach!

Full of love, loss, romance and sunshine. A very easy read that you will not want to put down. The characters are believable and lovable, the scenery delightful.

Well written you will not want to put it down.

This is a lovely story, it is quite sad in places but there is also humour, and romance, and very much a feeling of place - you can really visualise the area of Andalusia where the story takes place. Marina, a piano teacher, lives in London in a rented shared flat. She is completely fed-up with her flat mates, they are noisy and messy, and she longs to escape! Her best friend is Polly, she also lives in London but she is Spanish, from Madrid. They have decided that they will both leave London and find apartments in the Shoreham, Sussex area, from where there is a fast rail service to get back to London if their jobs require it. It will be a lot cheaper than London! Marina’s mother, who lives in Brighton with her second husband, has offered to help her buy somewhere, if she will first go to Andalusia and sort out and sell their summer home by the sea. Marina hasn’t been back there for twenty years, ever since her father had a catastrophic accident on their boat La Mari when she was a little girl. Just the two of them had gone out for a trip, and she had to drive the boat back to the harbour with her dead father beside her. She is frightened of the memories the trip will stir up, but Polly agrees to go with her and help as well as make a holiday out of it, and the deposit for a home of her own would be nice … so she agrees to go.

When they arrive at the villa they find there are already paying guests, three young men who have been renting it for a few summer weeks for several years. After some discussion they agree to share the Villa, to give Marina the time she needs to sort everything out and put the Villa up for sale. As she thought, sorting through the locked cupboard, deciding what to keep and what to give to charity keeps bringing up memories. She eventually finds out the truth surrounding her father’s accident, very different to how her mind had translated it, and it brings her peace of mind at last.

During the course of their stay both Marina and Polly find the man of their dreams, Marina with one of the Spanish men staying in the villa, and Polly with a young Englishman who is staying in a hippy commune along the beach from the villa. Unlike Polly, Marina isn’t someone to have a holiday fling, so her romance takes a long time to ignite, even though they can both acknowledge that their feelings for each other are strong.

This is a heart-warming story, well worth reading.

If you are looking for a summer holiday read, then be prepared to whisk yourself away to the heat of Spain. A nice story with nice characters and easy reading. Just didnt blow me away.

Thanks to Netgalley for the book. This is a lovely addition to the “Spanish” sequence of books that Radford has written that evokes a wonderful sense of place, giving any reader a wonderful holiday in a sun soaked setting. The story revolves around Marina who must return to the family holiday house on the Spanish coast to assess it for sale. It’s an action she takes with reluctance, unwilling to return to the scene where a tragedy had occurred twenty years earlier. She travels there with her best friend to discover a mix up in the booking and are compelled to share the house with three men. When the men discover her plans to sell the house they are less than pleased, especially the handsome vet, Mati, whose relatives have drawn him here since he was a young teen. But it’s through Mati that she learns to face her fears from her past and decisions about her future.

The story unfolds in the colour and vibrancy of the music and culture of the region, with an occasional flare in the storyline. Though the dialogue and brief narrative interjections that move the story rather than draw in the reader may not give it the fullest richest treatment it requires, in my view, it is a great summer read to add to the pile.

Cherry Radford lives in the area of Spain featured in her novel and her love for this parched stretch of the south eastern coast is obvious in her writing. Marina is a 30 year old piano teacher whose family own a small holiday villa in remote Cala Turquesa. When her mother asks her to clear out and sell the villa she is torn between the wish for one last holiday in the Spanish sun and the memories which being back there could make resurface. Luckily Marina's best friend Polly, who is actually Spanish, is able to go with her.

All is not as expected when the women reach their destination as, firstly, there has been a rock fall blocking the only road in, then secondly the villa is occupied. As Marina deals with sorting out the villa and having a bit of fun as well, we gradually learn more about the events of 20 years earlier when her father died.

"The Spanish Cove" is a very readable novel and just right for the summer.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

I really enjoyed this perfect beach read which whisked me off to Spain! I thought the story was well thought out, well written and I particularly liked the tidy round up at the end! Head to the beach and settle down with this book..

Marina is a piano teacher whose mother has offered to help her buy a house. However, in order to be able to provide that assistance, it requires the family holiday home in Spain to be sold. Marina hasn’t been back there since being caught up in a tragic accident that killed her father many years ago. However, she does go back and learns not only the truth surrounding the accident, but also about herself and making new friends. She falls in love with the place and people all over again.

The setting was fabulous and I enjoyed the writing style. It felt like a friendly hug each time I picked the book back up. I particularly enjoyed the part of the story involving turtles, and it led to me doing my own further learning about the fabulous creatures

I had read one of this authors books before, which I liked, but I enjoyed this one even more.

Copy provided by Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

Hugely enjoyable English Spanish book set on a turquoise cove. The perfect summertime read!!
Marina's life in southwest London needs to change, when the opportunity to return to the cove of happy childhood memories with her friend Polly, but also to face a particularly traumatic day she can't speak about, from twenty years ago.
Beautifully atmospheric, I felt whisked away to a gorgeous Spanish holiday home, boat trips and swimming in the sea!!
Great characters, great friendships, family secrets, and the perfect mix of Spanish and English!! I enjoyed the development of friendship and relationships, and characters involved. Great music too!! There is a list to check out on Spotify!!
Looking forward to the next book from Cherry Radford!!!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read early, loved it, perfect summer reading!!!

In this book we meet Marina Meyer who is a piano teacher, whose mother has said that she will help Marina to buy her own place in London
in order for her to start a new life. But this means that she needs to go back to spain and put her old life behind her. Settling up and selling her old home.

The place that Marina lived in, in Spain sounds really beautiful and the author did a great job bringing Carla Turquesa to life. But for Marina it just holds painful memories of Marinas father. Who sadly died in a boating accident.

But is Carla Turquesa all bad? While here Marina meets Mati. Who is trying to help save the turtles who live and call Carla Turquesa their home. But she Marina quickly finds herself in a love triangle when she meets Agustin who is a real estate agent.

Both have their sights set on Marina buy which one will be the lucky man? And what really did happy to Marinas father all those years ago?

This is a very well written book. It is part mystery, part love story, part romance, part learning to find out who you are.

I quite enjoyed this book but felt it didn’t quite get going and there could’ve been so much more to it. The main characters weren’t very convincing romantically and the death of the main character’s father could’ve been a real turning point in the book but it was all a bit lacklustre. As a gentle story with great descriptions of the islands and seashores it was pleasant but I wish there had been that bit more to it x

I really love every book based in Spain and I think the author makes a splendid portrait of Andalusian culture without falling into offensive stereotypes. The descriptions are amazing, especially when you are reading this book while on a beach in la costa brava.
There is a part of the plot about the recovery of turtles that warmed my potato heart.
There is some romance in this book, but it pales with some more important things in the plot, like Marina and Polly's friendship and Marina's grief for the death of his dad. And finding the truth about what really happened.

Let yourself be whisked away to sun-drenched Spain for a holiday you won't forget. Absolutely brilliant… I just wish I could give it more than five stars! Got me from page one and I couldn’t stop reading till I found out how it would end!

Okay so to start off with, I loved the general plot of this book, anything set in warmer climates immediately appeals to me, especially if there’s romance thrown into the mix. But when I got into the book, the romance just wasn’t there for me, the relationship between Marina and Mati just seemed very platonic, and there wasn’t any connection between the two of them. It didn’t build well and when they eventually became an item, the part where they were intimate for the first time, really was a let down and quite cringy.
The synopsis also let me to believe that there was an aspect of murder mystery in the book too, Marina’s father died in a boating accident and there was a secret she had kept for so many years, and when the secret came to light, it was disappointing, there was potential for it to really shock the reader and it just didn’t do that for me personally.
The book seemed to jump around in locations a lot, I found it hard to keep up where the scenes where taking place and whom was there. There was also a lot of minor characters, in which at times they’re names were hard to remember.
Unfortunately the ending was a little lacklustre for me too, the epilogue wasn’t very clear on where the characters lives are now, it was never mentioned how Marina and Mati’s relationship works, and if they’re living together, it just want made clear to me.
I really wanted to like this book, there are some good aspects that I absolutely loved like the general plot, the location, the mention of preservation in the cove and the turtle project! But some parts just fell short for me unfortunately

Oh my. Read in an afternoon loved it. The secret that led the book I did not expect the outcome. Setting amazing. The turtles were lovely. The food descriptions . The perfect friendship for Polly and Marina. Also two may be 3 love elements . Just have to read it.