Sea of Lost Love: A Novel [Paperback]

Santa Montefiore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

Escape to this bestselling storyteller's world "full of mystery, romance, and suspense"* in this unforgettable and uplifting new novel about family secrets and the triumph of love.

Celestria Montague always spends her summers at Pendrift Hall, the rambling, shabby mansion adorned with wisteria and clematis that has been home to the Montague family for generations. It is 1958, and the family is celebrating her father's fiftieth birthday at a lavish ball. The celebratory night ends in death and tragedy, however, and young Celestria learns that the family may lose Pendrift Hall. Her grandfather urges Celestria to play detective, to solve the mysteries surrounding the night's events, and to save the ancient mansion if at all possible. Her quest takes her to Italy's rugged and beautiful Puglia, and into the dark, cool cloisters of the Convento di Santa Maria del Mare. Here Celestria meets an enigmatic stranger and confronts unwelcome truths about her family -- and herself.

Sea of Lost Love is Santa Montefiore at her very best -- sensitive, sensual, and complex.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young woman finds love and sudden maturity in this charmingly melodramatic romance from the author of The Gypsy Madonna. Tragedy strikes an upper-class English family at its Cornish manor house in 1958: Robert Monty Montague has vanished, leaving behind a pile of debts, a pair of shoes washed up on the beach, a drifting motorboat bearing his gold pocket watch and a note in a bottle that reads, Forgive me. His spoiled daughter, the impossibly beautiful 21-year-old Celestria, is forced out of her shallow complacency to discover why her father, whom everyone loved and assumed to be so happy, apparently drowned himself. She follows a trail of bank statements to a seaside Italian convent converted into a family-run hotel. There, she encounters Hamish McCloud, a surly Scotsman who loathed Monty and, after a rocky start, develops a very different feeling toward Celestria. The prose is florid and fitting for the ridiculously, deliciously escapist whirlwind romance that envelopes Celestria and Hamish as the over-the-top revelations about Monty come to light. (May)
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From Booklist

Set in 1958 England, Montefiore’s novel follows the fortunes of the Montagues, a wealthy English family with an estate in Cornwall. The extended family meets for idyllic summers at the estate, but their perfect world is shattered when Robert Montague drowns in what appears to be a suicide. His beautiful, vain 21-year-old daughter, Celestria, is as shocked as the rest of the family but is unwilling to simply accept his death and move on. Instead, she begins to go through his papers and is surprised to discover that he was sending the family fortune to a lawyer in the small Italian town of Puglia. Celestria takes off for Italy, where she learns her father was keeping more than a few secrets from his family. Celestria finds more than she bargained for in the form of an angry widower who seems to hate her for no reason. Readers who enjoy family drama, romance, and mystery will find it all in this lush and absorbing novel. --Kristine Huntley

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Product Details

• Paperback: 437 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416543732
• ISBN-13: 978-1416543732
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in England in 1970. My father is a farmer. When I was born he had grown a very successful crop of winter barley called Senter barley, so he suggested they name me Senter in celebration. My mother is Anglo Argentine and naturally thought it a terrible idea, so suggested Santa, which means saint in Spanish. Growing up I wanted to be called Jane. There isn't a joke I haven't heard. Now I rather like it, combined with my husband's name Montefiore, which means mountain flower in Italian, I think it's rather colourful. I always wanted to be a writer. There has never been a time when I haven't written. I spent a year in Argentina when I was nineteen and that changed my life in so many ways. I loved who I was when I was there. Speaking another language, not being boxed by class as we are in England, being free to be the person I chose rather than being dictated to by expectation. I fell in love with the pampa, the flat, fertile plains, the smells of gardenia and eucalyptus, the expressive, passionate people I met there. I wrote my first novel Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree, inspired by the country I had fallen in love with. My first four novels are based in Latin America. They're not sold in the USA yet. Here's hoping! My other four are published by Simon & Schuster. I live in London with my husband, the historian and novelist Simon Sebag-Montefiore, and our two children, Lily and Sasha.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Novel, February 2, 2009

By 

Chris Panagos - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sea of Lost Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Sea of Lost Love is an amazing book. I randomly shuffled through an 'end of the year sale' bin at a local book store and was pleasantly surprised. The author describes everything in so perfect of detail it doesn't seem like you're there, you really are. I absolutely loved how she described Italy. Also, her characters are the most developed I've seen and are so complex on many levels. Santa Montefiore is an amazing writer and I am definitely going to read her other works in the future. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a mystery along with romance.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sea of Lost Love, June 28, 2010

By 

M. Helper (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sea of Lost Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Slow, boring story. The author has too many trivial descriptions of what several characters are doing. This does not develop any reader interest in any of them. The story line is not new, but rather predictable. (father disappears, makes it look like he drowned at sea, his poor, pouting wife feels dejected, their daughter chances to meet the other wife, but at first believes it is the father's business partner's wife... blahblahblah) I felt too many of the characters were flat, uninteresting, and unreal. The main character, Celestria, is silly. She gives away her virginity in a trashy moment and not once does she worry about an unwanted pregnancy but she doesn't like the boyfriend. Maybe the '60's were "carefree" but this is not believable. I couldn't finish the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a Word... Inimitable, August 7, 2010

By 

Mo "Bibliophilist" (Camden, NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sea of Lost Love (Kindle Edition)

This is my second Santa Montefiore novel. I must say that like, The French Gardner, Sea of Lost Love is absolutely wonderful. The plot is explosive -- continuously catching you off guard with interesting twists and turns. The characters are portrayed so clearly and with keen realism. There is great closure with the protagonists -- especially the ending! In all honesty, I was sorry when I finished the book. At the same time, I have to say also that there is one small flaw. I don't want to give anything away, so, I'll just say that the falling in love parts occurred too quickly and too often. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed it -- so much so, I'm getting ready to purchase another one of her books, The Perfect Happiness.