A large collection of multi-national, mostly retired couples, invest in a new development of luxury apartments, La Joya, in Andalucia on the Costa del Sol in Spain. We follow a securely married Irish couple with a demanding family, an American mother of twin girls with a serial-womanising husband and a Spanish control freak with a wife who is attempting to find inner peace. Frequently visiting the complex is a German interior designer and letting agent married to a Spanish property developer and a highly efficient female Spanish community manager who looks after the place. In clean strokes the author paints their portraits in swift, interlocking sections, you get to know them all very quickly. All appears blissful until the Spanish economy plummets and the Irish euro hits rock bottom. Problems ensue both financially and emotionally with many a twist and surprise thrown at you. This is lively, sensitive and insightful, a big novel with plenty to get your teeth into. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
In a beautiful southern Spanish town, where the sea sparkles and orange blossoms scent the air, the gates of a brand new apartment complex, La Joya deAndalucia, glide open to welcome the new owners. Anna and Austen MacDonald, an Irish couple, are preparing to enjoy their retirement to the full. But the demands of family cause problems they have never foreseen and shake their marriage to the core. Sally-Ann Connolly Cooper, a feisty Texan mother of two young teenagers, is reeling from her husband's infidelity. La Joya becomes a place of solace for Sally-Ann, in more ways than one. Eduardo Sanchez, a haughty Madrileno, has set out with single-minded determination to become El Presidente of the complex's management committee. But pride comes before a fall. Jutta Sauer Perez, a sophisticated German who aspires to own her very own apartment in La Joya, works hard to reach her goal. Then the unthinkable happens. As their lives entwine and friendships and enmities develop, it becomes apparent that La Joya is not quite the haven they all expect it to be...
Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. Some of her bestsellers include Apartment 3B; Finishing Touches; Foreign Affairs; Promises, Promises; Mirror, Mirror; City Girl; City Woman; City Lives; Francesca's Party; Two for Joy; Double Wedding; Divided Loyalties; Forgive and Forget; and Winter Blessings, a collection of quotes, blessings, poems, and reminiscences. Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the Open Door series. She also teaches creative writing to second-level students and is involved in adult literacy.