Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse
Katie is desperate to leave her stressful job, so she doesn’t think too hard about moving to Devon to run a B&B, even if it means uprooting her family. She is certain that she and Jason have a strong and loving relationship which can weather any storm.
Hooked by the beauty of Torringham with its quaint harbour and stunning coastline, they purchase Flotsam Guesthouse which needs more than a lick of paint to keep it afloat. Soon, Katie finds that renovating and running a guesthouse is taking its toll, especially when dealing with challenging guests and madcap neighbours, Shona and Kim. Katie comes to learn that trouble is afoot whenever Shona begs a favour.
However, when her adored daughter moves back to their old hometown, she wonders if they’ve made a huge mistake, especially when cracks begin to show in her marriage.
Her seaside idyll is crumbling along with her relationship. Should she let Flotsam Guesthouse founder while she salvages her marriage? Katie needs to decide where her priorities lie. The only issue is, she doesn’t know.
Hooked by the beauty of Torringham with its quaint harbour and stunning coastline, they purchase Flotsam Guesthouse which needs more than a lick of paint to keep it afloat. Soon, Katie finds that renovating and running a guesthouse is taking its toll, especially when dealing with challenging guests and madcap neighbours, Shona and Kim. Katie comes to learn that trouble is afoot whenever Shona begs a favour.
However, when her adored daughter moves back to their old hometown, she wonders if they’ve made a huge mistake, especially when cracks begin to show in her marriage.
Her seaside idyll is crumbling along with her relationship. Should she let Flotsam Guesthouse founder while she salvages her marriage? Katie needs to decide where her priorities lie. The only issue is, she doesn’t know.
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Read an excerpt!
Katie, owner of Flotsam Gueshouse, hears a bang and rushes downstairs to find a man has somehow perched his car on their squat external wall. Jason, her husband, isn’t impressed to find the man is trying to pass the blame onto them.
I galloped down the stairs and out to the driveway where a small crowd had formed. Somehow the driver had managed to embed his car on the small slate wall that separated our drive from the narrow lane which led to Moreton Hill. The car’s rear wheels were about a foot in the air, while the metal pole, from which the sign for Flotsam Guesthouse had hung just five minutes before, jutted from beneath the bumper. Our poor sign had been launched into the lane.
Jason stood by the driver’s side door, helping an elderly man out of the SUV, while on the passenger side two women aided a frail woman who clutched a hankie to her forehead.
The man’s crooked fingers grasped Jason’s arm for support and his voice trembled. “I don’t know what happened.” He pressed the heel of his palm to his eye. “I just don’t know. I only got the car yesterday.”
Jason ushered him inside to the day room, while I salvaged our wrecked sign from the roadside. After tucking it by the side of the house, I brushed the splinters from my palms and headed over to the women helping his companion, telling them to bring her inside. They cradled the woman between them, patiently mirroring her feeble steps. Now she’d removed her hankie, I could see an egg-shaped mark, the colour of veins, on her forehead. Someone would need to look at that.
Panic-stricken, Kim dashed over as I led them into the hallway. “Martha!”
“Is she your guest?”
“Shona’s auntie.” Holding out her arm she whispered ‘thank you’ to one of the women and took her place.
“Are you okay, Martha?” Usually Kim had a husky low voice, but she spoke loudly as if to a child. “Not hurt?”
“No, no,” Martha’s voice wobbled. “Just a bit of a shock, that’s all.”
While Kim settled Martha down beside the elderly man in the day room and inspected her bruise, I rushed off to get them all a cup of tea. When I came back with the pots of tea, mugs and biscuits on a tray, two paramedics were kneeling by Martha. The two women who had helped her from the car loitered by the bookcase chatting, while Jason and Kim stood beside the elderly man.
“That wall’s dangerous. I couldn’t see it,” the man told Kim.
“Well, it hasn’t moved in over a hundred years,” Jason said. “But if it makes you feel better, we’ll blame the wall.”
Turning her back to the man, Kim rolled her eyes and mouthed to Jason, ‘Don’t worry, he’s always moaning.’
“Now Derrick,” she raised her voice. “You can’t blame a wall when it’s in someone’s driveway.”
His gnarled fingers clutched the arms of the chair. “I can and I will. It’s too low. Something needs to be done so it can be seen.”
Jason folded his arms. “Maybe we should put up an eight-foot-high sign just like the one you knocked down.”
Author Bio
While 'Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse' is fictional, I am a guesthouse owner. Thankfully, we have been blessed with lots of amazing and kind-hearted guests, who are nothing like some of the characters featured in this novel and the subsequent books in the series. I would be a lot greyer if they were.
Likewise, Jason is quite different from my husband, who I sometimes nickname Victor Meldrew. He is lovely though and has a fab sense of humour, although some of his dryness has rubbed off on Jason.
Bedlam & Breakfast is set in South Devon, in the fictional town of Torringham, which is loosely based on Brixham. If you've been to Brixham you may recognize some of the local features, including the seals, fishing industry and the fantastic lifeboat crew, but the businesses, people and a number of settings are fictionalized.
The same applies to the B&B owners featured. Many guesthouse owners undertake work when they move into a property and our current B&B was not an exception. While, thankfully, our previous owners were nothing like Jim and Maureen, this also means we don’t get to live next door to the fabulous Shona and Kim. But we do have many lovely B&B friends. B&Bers are a wonderful and hardworking bunch, although the ones we know have a penchant for parties in the low season. That's why I had to end Bedlam & Breakfast at a party.
Likewise, Jason is quite different from my husband, who I sometimes nickname Victor Meldrew. He is lovely though and has a fab sense of humour, although some of his dryness has rubbed off on Jason.
Bedlam & Breakfast is set in South Devon, in the fictional town of Torringham, which is loosely based on Brixham. If you've been to Brixham you may recognize some of the local features, including the seals, fishing industry and the fantastic lifeboat crew, but the businesses, people and a number of settings are fictionalized.
The same applies to the B&B owners featured. Many guesthouse owners undertake work when they move into a property and our current B&B was not an exception. While, thankfully, our previous owners were nothing like Jim and Maureen, this also means we don’t get to live next door to the fabulous Shona and Kim. But we do have many lovely B&B friends. B&Bers are a wonderful and hardworking bunch, although the ones we know have a penchant for parties in the low season. That's why I had to end Bedlam & Breakfast at a party.
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(Kensington) is set for release in June 2017. Non-fiction in the form of informational brochures and workshop materials treating the winery industry were his forte along with an extensive background and experience in construction that started with his service in the U.S. Navy and included vocational school classroom teaching.
