Ten years ago, my husband Haydn took me to the most amazing hotel, Wrea Head Hall in Scalby near Scarborough, for my birthday (which is at Christmas).
I still vividly remember walking in through the big, old, Victorian entrance doors and feeling as though I’d literally stepped back in time. I stood at the entrance, held my breath and mouthed the words, ‘Oh my word…’ as I searched the walls for the exact spot where I felt sure that the history was seeping out of.
I was in awe, the house was sympathetically decorated, each room had the most beautifully decorated Christmas tree and Christmas music was piped around all of the communal rooms. I felt breathless and excited all at once. This house had a story that was waiting to be told and after getting permission from the current owners, I knew that I just had to be the person to tell it.
A woman on the run and a house with a shocking secret
Madelaine Frost is living with her partner Liam. He’s controlling, manipulative and whenever he’s at home, her daughter Poppy becomes distant and quite often refuses to eat. Knowing that it’s time to move on, and with nowhere else to go, Madelaine goes to her estranged father and to Wrea Head Hall, the hotel he owns.
Here she meets Bandit, a former marine, who is the gamekeeper at the hall. He’s charming, good-looking and protective of Poppy, but Bandit has a few secrets of his own, secrets that he doesn’t want to share.
Madelaine has left her relationship with Liam behind. But he isn’t a man to let go… he makes it very clear that he wants Madelaine back, leaving her with no alternative but to reassess everything. Because when Liam wants something, he gets it – no matter who he hurt in the process…
While writing this story I wanted to give each character a strong personality and a good back story of their own. I stepped in and out of history, wrote it as a dual timeline and made sure that all of the stories intertwined in a way that I hope you, the reader will love.
I worked on the theory of ‘six degrees of separation’. I firmly believe that most people can be connected in more ways than one and that if you delve into their connections, family and friends, somewhere you would find someone that connects you both and of course, once I’d finished writing this story, I was constantly asked the question, ‘What happens next…?’ and at first, I couldn’t answer the question until eventually, I wrote a sequel to The House Guest, called The Safe House. Which of course, I hope you love too…
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Happy Reading!
Lynda x