It’s never too late to rewrite your story…

It’s always been Emily Cotton’s dream to own her own bookshop. But sitting among shelves of haphazardly stacked books in a damp old barn, the reality feels a little different

Kate Vincent hasn’t been back home in six years. But when she receives a desperate email from her childhood best friend begging for her help she doesn’t stop to think. Scenes of idyllic holidays with the Cotton family dance in her mind and she books a one-way ticket home to Wigtown.

But life for the Cottons isn’t all as she remembers and the secrets which once drove Kate and Emily apart are finally threatening to come to the surface. Now as the pair work together to save Emily’s failing bookshop - can they too begin a new chapter of their friendship?

Previously published as Summer at Bluebell Bank

The Bookshop of New Beginnings

Jen Mouat

ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES

Copyright

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2017

Copyright © Jen Mouat

Jen Mouat asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © August 2017 ISBN: 9780008252786

Version: 2018-03-22

JEN MOUAT

was born in Edinburgh and fell in love with books at an early age. She soon began to write her own stories which she kept in a suitcase under the bed. She studied Illustration and Printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design before doing a Postgrad in Education and embarking upon a successful career as a primary school teacher. Idyllic childhood summers spent on holiday in Dumfries and Galloway inspired her love of the Solway Coast, the setting for her writing. She now lives near Edinburgh with her husband and their Border Collie. This is her first novel.

For Chris:without you life would be just a series of random wanderings

and

for Brittany, my pushy American: you made this happen

Getting my first novel published has been such an exciting journey. I would like to thank all the people who helped to make it happen; especially Brittany Dundas, my best friend and first reader, who encouraged me when I wavered (which was often) and helped me to finally do something with my story.

Thanks also to my agent, Jenny Brown, and my editor, Victoria Oundijian at HQ Digital, for their encouragement, insight and for often knowing what I was getting at when I didn’t know it myself!

This book would never have ventured out into the light if not for The Big Pitch, at the Wigtown Book Festival. I am so grateful to the organisers of the festival – not only because it’s one of my absolute favourite places to be, but also because without them I’d never have had the awesome and terrifying opportunity of pitching my novel to Jenny.

My family have been a fantastic help - Crows and Mouats alike – as I tried to write, edit and teach all at the same time – and I’m very grateful for the unending support of my husband, Chris, who always believes in me. He took me back to the Solway to propose and unwittingly rekindled my love affair with the place too.

Thanks are definitely due to Midge, because who doesn’t love to be interrupted in the writing process by a gorgeous little dog pawing the laptop? I wrote this book despite her best efforts to distract me, and I’m just sorry there aren’t more dogs in it– I packed in as many as seemed plausible.

Finally, I owe my love of words to Granny Hendry – my very own Lena – who taught me to play Scrabble and once wrote a book of her own, only to burn it. I only wish she could have lived to see mine in print.

Contents

Cover

Blurb

Title Page

Copyright

Author Bio

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Epilogue

Copyright

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