Forty-year-old Nicola Rhys-Jones is a woman in hiding. Fleeing an abusive husband—fleeing, indeed, a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse—she has found refuge in Boscastle, a tiny village on the stormy coast of Cornwall, England. Andrew Stratton, an American professor of abstract architectural theory, has never built a building. Shocked out of his academic bubble when his ambitious wife leaves him, he signs up for something real and tangible: a weeklong course in the art of building traditional dry stone walls—in Boscastle. From the moment they meet, Nicola and Andrew are drawn to each other but also are at daggers drawn. Nicola, sexy but also thorny and sarcastic, is an expert at fending off men, but in Andrew she meets her match: quick-witted, funny, yet gentle, he gives as good as he gets. It takes a nine year-old sprite who calls herself “Lee” to make them see the truths about themselves. And it takes a cataclysmic flash flood for Nicola and Andrew to risk a second chance at love.

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.