Escape to the sun-drenched shores of Lake Como in the irresistible and gripping new novel from the million-copy bestselling author of Thursdays in the Park, The Anniversary and The Lie

On the glamorous shores of Lake Como, Connie meets Jared.

She’s married. He’s young. But that doesn’t stop the heat rising between them.

And so begins a long, hot, intoxicating summer where Connie succumbs to temptation – breaking her marriage vows.

At the end of summer, Connie returns to her husband, ready to put the affair behind her.

But Jared has other ideas . . .

Absorbing & Appealing!

I’ve been a big fan of Hilary Boyd’s writing ever since reading Thursdays in the Park and this is another book which rises to the high standards she easily maintains.

Connie is a tour guide; the job she loves takes her away from home from time to time. When on tour, she meets a man – younger than her – and there is a definite spark. With a very happy marriage to Devan, she would never have fallen for any man’s approach, but since her husband retired, things have changed and Connie is feeling unloved and rejected and she succumbs to Jared. When he turns up again and again, there is no doubt they are involved in an affair. But then the summer ends and she returns to her home and her marriage only Jared isn’t letting go quite so easily . . .

I don’t think I’ve come across any other writer who can get inside a marriage quite like Hilary Boyd. There is a clarity to her words which makes every scenario totally plausible. An emotionally charged story, this is also completely believable with realistic characters. Beautifully written, I was gripped all the way through and couldn’t have said how it would end but I do know that it was very fitting. As with all her novels, this one really got under my skin and there isn’t anything about it I didn’t like. Absorbing and appealing, definitely recommended, and one I’m happy to give all five stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: women’s psychological suspense

• Format: ebook, paperback, audiobook
• Size: 400 pages
• Publisher: Panguin – Michael Joseph UK
• Publication Date: 10 June 2021
• Book Links:
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55963432
• https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Hilary_Boyd_The_Affair?id=HjoEEAAAQBAJ
• https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-affair-escape-to-lake-como-this-summer/9781405943901
• https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/the-affair-escape-to-lake-como-in-this,hilary-boyd-9781405943901
• https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-affair-72
• https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/the-affair/hilary-boyd/paperback/9781405943901.html
• https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-affair/hilary-boyd/9781405943901
• https://wordery.com/the-affair-hilary-boyd-9781405943901
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Affair-Hilary-Boyd-ebook/dp/B08LKM99GR

Author Details

I’ve had a chequered career… I trained as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital – the best training for life you could wish for. I went on to marry Don and have two daughters. Work included marriage guidance, running a small cancer charity, working for an online vitamin company and getting an English degree from London University when I was 36.

Then I had a stroke of luck in my sixties. After many failed attempts at publication with various novels, I got a publishing deal for my novel Thursdays In The Park. Which, amazingly, turned out to be an international bestseller. The film rights have been acquired by Charles Dance, who will be directing and starring.

I’m an incurable romantic. I don’t think there’s an age limit for falling in love. But my older heroines often have to negotiate a complex family dynamic, because women of all ages are labeled ‘wife’, ‘mother’, ‘daughter’, and ‘grandmother’. But we are also just US!

If you’d have told me, even ten years ago, that I would be a bestselling novelist with my work translated into 23 languages, I would have laughed in your face. I absolutely love what I do. And I believe with all my heart, as my books show, that romantic love can strike, at any age. I think it’s so important to have older people – women – represented in fiction. Not just as granny figures, but as vibrant, useful, sexual beings.

• Website: https://hilaryboyd.com/
• Twitter: @HilaryBoyd
• Facebook: @hilary.boyd.9