The publication of The Lonely Hearts Beach Club, came at the same time as I was watching ‘Britain’s Best Beach Huts’ and I found myself comparing the ones they highlighted on TV, with Hattie’s beach hut in the book. Hattie’s won every time. Who wants a beach hut that is actually a sauna, or one that costs half a million pounds?! Nope, give me a proper, old-fashioned hut on a promenade any day of the week!
After her husband passes away, Hattie needs some company, despite protesting that she wants to be left alone, and her daughter Olivia has the best idea! Let’s rent out the deckchair in the beach hut, which has been left behind by Jesse, Hattie’s husband. However, advertising the deckchair opens more cans of worms, both for Hattie, Olivia and Olivia’s daughter Beau. Can past secrets stay in the past or not?
The Lonely Hearts Beach Club is a beautiful story, sad and touching, but also funny. The characters that Hattie meets will make you smile, I promise. I would love to sit and chat with Hattie on the beachfront, and this is making me wonder whether there are people like her where I live. Just whiling away the time on their deckchairs, waiting for someone to talk to. I might have to investigate!
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review The Lonely Hearts Beach Club.
Book Description
Hattie gazes at her husband’s empty green-and-white-striped deckchair, the fabric blowing in the breeze. Blinking away tears, she clutches her own chair’s wooden frame with trembling hands. ‘What will I do without him?’
Olivia’s heart breaks watching her mother Hattie withdraw after her husband’s sudden death. Without him, she’s never been lonelier. Every morning, Hattie places a pair of tired old deckchairs looking out to sea. Staring at the empty chair beside Hattie, Olivia comes up with a plan: One deckchair for hire! Must bring good conversation and have own flask.
Posting the advert in a beachfront café, responses from other lonely locals start flooding in. There’s psychic medium Miriam who, besides talking to the dead, finds it therapeutic to belt songs from musicals. Glamorous Glenda has a penchant for teapot wine and skinny dipping. And even a reluctant Hattie can’t resist the endearing quirkiness of Jacob, walking the south-west coastal path in memory of his wife.
Everyone who sits in Hattie’s deckchair has a little pearl of wisdom to share, each bringing a tiny bit of the familiar sparkle back to Hattie’s eyes.
But as more and more visitors take up residence in Hattie’s deckchair – and her heart – will Hattie ever find a way to return to the woman she once was? And in the process, can Olivia also learn a lesson or two about reopening her own heart to love?
The Lonely Hearts Beach Club is an absolutely heart-warming story about the power of the mother-daughter bond, family secrets and second chances, perfect for readers who love Jojo Moyes, Faith Hogan and Sheila O’Flanagan.
Amy Miller is the pseudonym of Amy Bratley, who started her writing life working on magazines and newspapers. She has previously written three women’s fiction novels published by Pan Macmillan, the first of which was a bestseller in Italy. Her day job is being a freelance managing editor of both a vintage interiors magazine and a food magazine, two subjects she’s passionate about. Amy lives in Dorset with her husband and two children.
