Cookies & Eggnog from Welcombe Bay

By Kate Darroch

Description:

The prequel to Kate Darroch's award-winning first novel in the Sweets By the Sea series, "Thanksgiving in Welcombe Bay". In this novella set at Christmas time, we learn why Lily is so afraid of her estranged husband, Gary, (whom she is trying to divorce when "Thanksgiving in Welcombe Bay" opens), and how she came to be in the situation she is in when that series began. We learn how newly eighteen year old Lily meets Gary and how he establishes his ascendancy over her. We feel for Lily's pain and confusion as she tries to work out what her duty to her husband is, and how to find herself through the Christian faith which had been so important to her before Gary began to swaddle her in a false reality. We watch her grandmother's love reach out to reclaim her for God, and Nina, her vicar's wife, remind Lily what is, and what is not, her Christian duty to the man she married. We see God's love operating in her life despite her wavering faith and her bewilderment, leading up to a crucial moment when Lily recognises that she must reach out to reclaim what is important to her through the support of a caring Christian community. Can Lily come to terms with the pain and contradictions in her life? Can she find grace?

Book Takeaway:

Life is full of subtle traps for the unwary, but God in His infinite love for us always gives us a way back to His grace, if we reach out for it.

Why the author wrote this book:

Many readers of "Thanksgiving in Welcombe Bay" (which is essentially Eric's recovery journey although Lily figures largely) wanted to get to know Lily better, and to try to understand why she finds it so hard to break free from her ex-husband Gary. Domestic abuse is an important issue, especially when it takes the form, as here, of a stonger personality's mind-control of the victim. The topic is too often treated melodramatically, or even worse, glossed over. I wanted readers to be able to understand and sympathise with Lily's contradictory emotions and mental confusion, her inability to "join up the dots". To realise that this is a serious affliction affecting many, many women, who need help and understanding, not - as sadly is too often their lot - contempt and condemnation. One critic describes Eric's journey as "incredibly relatable" and I wanted to make Lily's journey equally relatable.