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Book Details
Celebrations at the Beach Hotel
Sisters Alice and Annie have always been close but will a man come between them?
Annie and Alice love their life working at the Beach Hotel together and each is thrilled to have finally found a sweetheart. Yet the path of true love never did run smooth, and they soon find themselves facing conflict and strife. Could love come between them and the bond they share?
Meanwhile, as men start to come home from the war, the women have to work out how to keep their jobs, although they are delighted to be back with their beaus. Soon, wedding bells ring out in Littlehampton.
Will everything be made right in time for Christmas?
Extract: Celebrations at the Beach Hotel by Francesca Burgess
(15th January)
Scullery maid Alice Twine has always had a soft spot for Jasper Jupp, but she’s loath to admit it, even to her sister, Annie. Even when he comes home from the war, she doesn’t think she has a chance with him, so she’s not pleased when she finds out what Annie’s been up to when planning her afternoon off…
‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ Alice asked Annie as she reappeared in the scullery after lunch on Thursday with her coat in her hand. She’d changed into her second-best dress.
‘A trip to the pictures to see The Narrow Trail. It’s a western.’
‘What, on your own?’
She didn’t have time to reply before the two young scullery lads, Finn and Lucas, entered from outside, chatting and laughing.
‘Good, you’re on time,’ said Annie. ‘Now go and hang your jackets up and come straight back as there’s a pile of washing up still to do.’
They exited into the stillroom, which led to the staff corridor, just before Jasper entered.
‘Ah, you’re ready,’ he said.
Alice glanced from one to the other. ‘What’s all this then?’
Her sister was looking down as she put her coat on and seemed rather embarrassed. ‘I told you, it’s a trip to the pictures.’
‘A cousin of mine went to see The Narrow Trail a couple of days ago and reckoned it was very good,’ said Jasper.
‘So, you’re going together?’ Alice kept her face deadpan, displaying no emotion either way, as she picked up a plate to dry.
‘That’s right,’ said Jasper. ‘Oh, I nearly forgot my cap. Do excuse me while I fetch it. It’s rather wet and blowy out there.’
As soon as he was out of earshot, Alice said, ‘What on earth are you doing, going out with Jasper? I thought you liked Lorcan.’
‘I’ve never said that. And you said you didn’t like Jasper.’
‘I never said that.’
‘You said, and I quote, he was “all right, nothing special”.’
‘I didn’t mean it like that.’
‘Anyway, we’re just going to the pictures as a couple of friends. All right by you?’
‘Friends?’ Alice put the plate down on the worktop. ‘Since when have you been friends who do things together?’
‘Since now. This is the first trip we’ve had out together. It’s just for the afternoon.’
Alice picked up another plate, rubbing it roughly with the drying-up cloth. ‘You’ll be twenty-four next month, so you can do what you like. It’s not like I’m the bossy big sister telling everyone what to do.’
‘That’s not very…’
‘Here it is,’ said Jasper, coming back in, flinging his cap onto his head.
Annie picked up her handbag and they headed out, as Finn and Lucas walked back in, still chatting merrily.
‘Right, Finn, you carry on drying and Lucas, you finish the washing up,’ said Alice. ‘There’ll be plenty more in soon, so I’m going to boil some more water.’
‘Crikey, you sound like your bossy sister today. You’re usually the cheery one, what makes us laugh.’
‘That’s enough of your cheek, Finn. When Annie’s not here, I’m head scullery maid.’
She noticed the two lads pull faces at each other as if to ask what on earth had happened to her. What indeed? She picked up a metal bucket and filled it from the tap in the second sink. Surely, Annie spending time with Jasper, whatever the relationship, was as good a way as any for her to get over him. But she’d only wanted to do that because she’d thought he wouldn’t look twice at her. What if it grew into something more than friendship, between Jasper and Annie? What if they ended up getting— No, she couldn’t even consider it. But if he was prepared to spend time with Annie, then she might as well have set her own cap at him.
What a fool she’d been, taking this tactic. But even if she’d carried on being nice to him, he’d probably have preferred Annie, with her golden-brown hair and her big green eyes, not her, silly Alice in Wonderland. She probably seemed like a little girl next to Annie.
‘Hey, the bucket’s overflowing,’ Finn called.
‘What? Oh, yes, so it is.’ She turned the tap off, then tipped a bit of the water out, so she could lift it without spilling any.
‘You was miles away.’
‘Yep, that’s me.’ Silly old Alice in Wonderland, she added to herself once again, as she lifted the bucket onto the stove.
Purchase Link:
Amazon https://amzn.to/4gTi5fj
Kobo: https://bit.ly/4765y3M
Author Bio
Francesca Capaldi has enjoyed writing since she was a child, largely influenced by a Welsh mother who was good at improvised storytelling and an Italian father who loved history. She is the author of historical sagas, short stories and pocket novels.
The first novel in the Beach Hotel series, A New Start at the Beach Hotel, won the Romantic Saga Award at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards in 2024. The first novel in the Wartime in the Valleys series, Heartbreak in the Valleys, was shortlisted for the Historical Romantic Award in the RoNAs in 2021.
Francesca was born and brought up on the Sussex coast, went to London to do a history degree, but has lived for many years in Kent with her family and a cat called Lando Calrission.
Social Media Links –
Facebook: @ FrancescaCapaldiAuthor
Twitter: @ FCapaldiBurgess
Instagram: @francesca.capaldi.burgess
Tiktok: @francesca.capaldi.author
Website: francesca-capaldi.com
