Sixteen-years-ago Ashley Moon had a one night stand whilst on a girls holiday in Ibiza. The guy left early to catch his flight home leaving just his phone number, which turned out to be bogus. All Ashley knew of this lad was that he was called Haydon, oh and that he was the father to her daughter Molly who was the result of that one night stand.

Present day and single mum Ashley has been persuaded by her Mum and Step-Father Maurice to travel with them to the South of France to a little place called Saint-Raphael, for one of Maurice’s relatives 100th birthday.

Haydon is now a successful music teacher and divorced father to Elle aged fourteen. Ella’s Mum and Step-Father are planning on moving to live in London and Haydon is not happy. After being offered the chance of a cheap holiday from one of the parents of a boy he tutors, Haydon decides to take his daughter and have some father-daughter time in the South of France.

After sixteen years apart Ashley and Haydon end up holidaying in villas next-door to each other. But will Ashley have the heart to tell Haydon who she really is and more importantly that Molly is his daughter?

I have read a lot of Tilly Tennant’s books so when I heard she had another book, The Summer Getaway, out I jumped at the chance to read it. Her books have always had great settings to them and this was no different. Saint-Raphael sounds like a gorgeous part of the world. Old style villas surrounded by wildflowers and wall to wall blue sky above.

For me, the first half of the book was where the magic happened. Getting to know the characters and enjoying spending time with them individually. Once they met it became a waiting game to see how long it would be before Ashley told Haydon that Molly was his daughter. If I’m perfectly honest I feel that this was strung out a little bit. I could feel myself tensing up every time Ashley had the chance but never took it.

The characters were all unique and far from perfect, whilst they were a joy to spend my time with they were also quite annoying at times. Ashley moaned too much and was so pig-headed. Haydon thought the sun shone out of his daughter’s back-side and everything was always someone else’s fault and don’t get me started on Ashley’s mother.

That’s the beauty of books though, getting emotionally involved with them. Yes, the characters were annoying at times, but so are people in everyday life, which to me showed how realistic Tilly Tennant has written her plot.

The Summer Getaway is a lovely summery read that would be perfect to settle down on your sun-lounger with and enjoy spending your time in the most glorious place.

About the Author

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing. She wrote a novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.

Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn was her debut novel; published in 2014 it was an Amazon bestseller in both the UK and Australia. In 2016 she signed to the hugely successful Bookouture and is currently working on her next Tilly Tennant novel. She also writes as Sharon Sant, where she explores the darker side of life, and Poppy Galbraith, where things get a little crazier.