Life Begins At The Cornish Cottage (Sandpiper Shores Book Two) by Kim Nash.
Published 31st October 2025 by Boldwood Books.
From the cover of the book:
When life gives you heartbreak 💔, sometimes it also gives you a second chance… 💕
When Tom Sullivan returns to the quiet village of Sandpiper Shore, Emma can hardly believe her eyes. She hasn’t seen him since they played Romeo and Juliet in their school play – a lifetime ago, before real heartbreak, and long before she ever imagined life as a widow.
The last thing she wants is to relive the past, especially with someone who once made her teenage heart flutter. But when Emma agrees to put on a charity pantomime to raise money for the air ambulance service that helped her late husband, she’s thrown firmly back into Tom’s path.
As rehearsals begin and the local community rallies around her, Emma finds unexpected joy in bringing people together – and a surprising connection with Tom that feels far too real to ignore. Maybe it’s time for Emma to become the leading lady in her own life, not just for the show, but for herself.
Full of warmth, humour and heart, this is a story about letting go and discovering that it’s never too late to take a chance on love.
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Emma is slowly negotiating the heartache that has come with the loss of her husband, Ben, with the help of her close friends and the community of Sandpiper Shore. But her world is rocked when Tom Sullivan, the man who broke her teenaged heart when they were cast as Romeo and Juliet in their school play years ago, returns to the quiet little village that is her haven.
She is unwilling to rake up the past, but when she is reluctantly persuaded to take on organising the local amateur dramatic panto, in support of the air ambulance service that helped Ben, Emma finds she cannot avoid Tom as she had hoped. As rehearsals get underway, she is unable to ignore the connection that still thrums between them..
This uplifting story is the second book in the Sandpiper Shores series, but can easily be read as a standalone.
Emma is picking up the threads of her life, following the fatal heart attack of her husband Ben, and, having done lots of good work supporting others with the events she has arranged for The Lonely Hearts Club, Nash now weaves a tale that gives her her own second chance at love.
Enter stage left silver-fox Tom, who sends Emma into a spin, torn between the torch she clearly still holds for him, even with the unforgettable pain of disappointed first love; and the lingering grief for Ben that holds her fast. Against the background of pantomime shenanigans, raw emotions, and the awkward presence of an unexpected love rival, the plot weaves tenderly around the couple, as well as their friends (big praise for the lovely friendship between Emma and her pals Jo and Michelle), family, and the community as a whole. Themes of loneliness, loss, and relationship trauma are handled with sensitivity, particularly around the way Nash has Emma and Tom reflecting on their past marriages - and I loved how Emma rediscovers herself and her confidence after all she has been through.
The panto at the heart of the story injects plenty of Christmas magic, making it a perfect festive pick, and the enchanting snowy ending ticks the heart-warming spot nicely. Always good to see older protagonists taking centre stage too!
Life Begins at the Cornish Cottage is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Compulsive Readers Blog Tours for sending me an e-copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this epic collaborative blog tour with Random Things Tours, Rachel's Random Resources Tours, and Zooloo's Book Tours.
About the author:
Kim Nash is the bestselling author of uplifting, heartwarming, romantic, feel-good fiction. She has wanted to write books since she was a little girl. Her other dream, is to live in a home that has a view of a golden sandy beach and the sea sparkling in the sunlight. Until that dream comes true, she’ll continue to write second chance romances about women who live or move to the seaside on her behalf. She is published by Boldwood Books.
One of her greatest writing achievements is to be nominated for the Kindle Storyteller Award in 2020, and she was delighted when Claudia Winkleman had read her book and said it was 'Totally warm and absolutely lovely.'
She lives in Staffordshire with her son Ollie and English Setter rescue dog Roni, is Author Community Director for publisher Bookouture (a division of Hachette UK) and, as an avid reader, started her career in the publishing industry as a book blogger.
When she's not working or writing, Kim can be found walking her dog at Cannock Chase, reading and binge-watching TV. She's also quite partial to a spa day, lemon drizzle cake and a gin and tonic (not all at the same time!).
Kim also runs a book club in Staffordshire and organises local and national reader/author events.
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