Sea of Lost Love: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Sea of Lost Love, Santa Montefiore, Father Dalgliesh (more...)

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: 464 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416543732
• ISBN-13: 978-1416543732
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #542,212 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 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)

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.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, October 12, 2009

By	Carole K. Hargraves - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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

I enjoyed the story and the writing, although not as much as The French Gardener.