by Lynda Stacey
Find out more about Lynda and her novels next including a preview of Tell Me No Secrets.
Thank You
Dear Reader
Thank you so much for reading my debut novel House of Secrets. I really enjoyed writing this book and do hope you enjoyed following Madeleine and Bandit through the smiles and heartache that they both went through to find true love and I’m sure that you’ll agree, they both deserved it.
I’d like to think that anyone reading this book would want to go and stay at Wrea Head Hall themselves. Experience the hotel in all its glory, see Bandit’s gatehouse, the greenhouse that stands in the grounds and take a hike through the woods to go and find the summer house, or sit on a cold winter’s night by the inglenook log fire. (Just as I do many times a year.)
I always get really excited (yet nervous too) when I know that someone is reading my work and I always love that feeling when I hear that someone has not only read my book, but also that they’ve enjoyed it. They’ve taken the journey with my characters, empathised with them, cried with them, loved or hated them and more than anything else, believed in them.
As an author and like all other authors, I’ve been on quite a writing journey that has taken many years and I still find it surreal that my novel is now real, that’s it’s ‘out there’ and available for readers to buy. With that in mind, I’d love to know your thoughts and I’d be delighted if you’d take just a few moments to leave me any feedback that you can. Reviews are so important to an author, they’re a lifeline that not only helps them to improve, but inspires them to do better, to be disciplined and to keep going at times when it would be very easy to do other things. If you do have the time to leave me a review on the retail site where you purchased this novel or Goodreads, you’d make my day and I’d be forever grateful.
Please do feel free to contact me anytime. You can find my details under my author profile, or come and look for my author page on Facebook, I’d always be happy to hear from you.
And … if you enjoyed my book enough to want to read more, then please keep looking for me.
Once again, thank you for reading my debut novel, it was a pleasure to write it for you..!
With Love
Lynda x
Read about Lynda next …
About the Author
Lynda, is a wife, stepmother and grandmother, she grew up in the mining village of Bentley, Doncaster, in South Yorkshire.
She is currently the Sales Director of a stationery, office supplies and office furniture company in Doncaster, where she has worked for the past 25 years. Prior to this she’d also been a nurse, a model, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor … and yes, she was crazy enough to dive in the sea with sharks, without a cage.
Following a car accident in 2008, Lynda was left with limited mobility in her right arm. Unable to dive or teach anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby she’d followed avidly since being a teenager.
Her own life story, along with varied career choices helps Lynda to create stories of romantic suspense, with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances) very happy endings.
Lynda joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and in 2015, her debut novel House of Secrets won the Choc Lit & Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star competition.
She lives in a small rural hamlet near Doncaster, with her ‘hero at home husband’, Haydn, whom she’s been happily married to for over 20 years.
Read about Lynda’s novels next …
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More Choc Lit
From Lynda Stacey
Tell Me No Secrets
Can a secret be worse than a lie?
Every time Kate Duggan looks in a mirror she is confronted by her guilt; a long, red scar reminding her that she was ‘the one to walk away’ from the car accident. Not everyone was so lucky …
On the surface her fiancé Rob is supportive – but the reality is different. He’s controlling, manipulative and, if the phone call Kate overhears is anything to go by, he has a secret. But just how dangerous is that secret?
When Kate begins work at a firm of private investigators, she meets Ben Parker. His strong and silent persona is intriguing but it’s also a cover – because something devastating happened to Ben, something he can’t get over.
As Kate and Ben begin their first assignment, they become close. But, what they don’t realise is how close to home the investigation will bring them, or who will be hurt in the process …
Read an preview here.
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
House of Christmas Secrets
Sequel to House of Secrets
This year we’re just going to have a nice, normal Christmas…
Last year’s Christmas at Wrea Head Hall didn’t quite go to plan which is why Jess Croft is determined this festive season will be the one to remember, for the right reasons. And she has plenty of reasons to be hopeful, she’s going to marry the man of her dreams, Jack Stone, seven days after New Year’s Eve.
However, as family secrets are revealed in hidden letters and two unexpected guests turn up on the doorstep, Jess is left wondering whether her life will ever be the same again.
Can Jess and Jack still experience a peaceful festive season that they had imagined or are there some problems that even Christmas can’t fix?
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
READ ABOUT CHOC LIT NEXT …
Introducing Choc Lit
We’re an independent publisher creating
a delicious selection of fiction.
Where heroes are like chocolate – irresistible!
Quality stories with a romance at the heart.
See our selection here:
www.choc-lit.com
We’d love to hear how you enjoyed House of Secrets. Please leave a review on the retail site where you purchased this eBook. Alternatively, visit www.choc-lit.com and leave a Customer Review. Reviews on retail sites really do help the author. Thank you!
Choc Lit novels are selected by genuine readers like yourself. We only publish stories our Tasting Panel want to see in print. Our reviews and awards speak for themselves.
Could you be a Star Selector and join our Tasting Panel?
Would you like to play a role in choosing which novels we decide to publish? Do you enjoy reading women’s fiction? Then you could be perfect for our Tasting Panel.
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See a sample of our selection next …
More Choc Lit
If you enjoyed Lynda’s story we feel sure you’ll enjoy the rest of our selection.
Here’s a sample:
You Think You Know Me
Clare Chase
Book 1 – London & Cambridge Mysteries
Sometimes, it’s not easy to tell the good guys from the bad …
Freelance journalist, Anna Morris, is struggling to make a name for herself, so she’s delighted to attend a launch event for a hip, young artist at her friend Seb’s gallery.
But an exclusive interview isn’t all Anna comes away with. After an encounter with the enigmatic Darrick Farron, she is flung into the shady underground of the art scene – a world of underhand dealings, missing paintings and mysterious deaths …
Seb is intent on convincing Anna that Darrick is up to no good but, try as she might, she can’t seem to keep away from him. And as she becomes further embroiled, Anna begins to wonder – can Seb’s behaviour be explained away as the well-intentioned concern of an old friend, or does he have somethi
ng to hide?
Find out more and purchase on your favourite eBook store.
Visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Where Dragonflies Hover Me
AnneMarie Brear
Sometimes, it’s not easy to tell the good guys from the bad …
Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House – a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it.
Whilst exploring the grounds she stumbles across an old diary and, within its pages, she meets Allie – an Australian nurse working in France during the First World War.
Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters. In the lonely nights that follow, Allie’s diary becomes Lexi’s companion, comforting her in moments of darkness and pain. And as Lexi reads, the nurse’s scandalous connection to the house is revealed …
Find out more and purchase on your favourite eBook store.
Visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Never Coming Home
Book 1 – Dark Secrets
Winner of the Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award
All she has left is hope.
When Kaz Elmore is told her five-year-old daughter Jamie has died in a car crash, she struggles to accept that she’ll never see her little girl again. Then a stranger comes into her life offering the most dangerous substance in the world: hope.
Devlin, a security consultant and witness to the terrible accident scene, inadvertently reveals that Kaz’s daughter might not have been the girl in the car after all.
What if Jamie is still alive? With no evidence, the police aren’t interested, so Devlin and Kaz have little choice but to investigate themselves.
Devlin never gets involved with a client. Never. But the more time he spends with Kaz, the more he desires her – and the more his carefully constructed ice-man persona starts to unravel.
The desperate search for Jamie leads down dangerous paths – to a murderous acquaintance from Devlin’s dark past, and all across Europe, to Italy, where deadly secrets await. But as long as Kaz has hope, she can’t stop looking …
Find out more and purchase on your favourite eBook store.
Visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Read a preview of Tell Me No Secrets by Lynda Stacey next …
Preview
Tell Me No Secrets
by Lynda Stacey
Chapter One
‘How many times do I have to tell you, don’t phone me here.’ Rob’s voice echoed up the stairs, making Kate jump out of bed. He sounded angry and Kate didn’t like it. She crept onto the landing, where she stood and waited, not knowing whether to go down, stay put or go back to bed. ‘Not a chance. I’m not doing it. Now, you stick to your plan, and I’ll stick to mine.’ Kate held her breath as she heard the kitchen door quietly close and the mumbled voice continued.
‘Rob,’ she shouted. She inched her way down the stairs. ‘Rob, is everything okay?’ Her feet were cold and she hopped from foot to foot, wishing for just a moment that she’d thought to put her slippers on as she’d jumped out of bed. ‘Rob?’
The door handle snapped down and the kitchen door jerked open. ‘What?’ he bellowed, making her jump backwards.
‘I … I heard you on the phone, is all okay?’ she questioned, and nervously pulled at her pyjama top. She’d heard whispered conversations like this before. Each one had been in a hushed voice. Each one as secretive as the one before and each one had showed her a side to Rob that she didn’t like.
‘It’s just work. Go to bed, I’ll be up soon.’
‘Okay.’ He was lying to her. That was obvious. ‘Come on, Rob, how long will you be? It’s just … I start my new job tomorrow …’ She tried to play on his conscience. ‘… You have remembered that, Rob, haven’t you? I could do with an early night, and I hoped you might join me.’ She pushed for an answer knowing that the phone was still in his hand, hidden behind the door.
‘Kate, stop nagging and go to bed.’
The kitchen door slammed shut in her face and Kate pouted. She wasn’t nagging and what’s more, she wasn’t stupid; she’d heard his words and knew that he was up to something, but once again, she didn’t know what.
Sighing she went back upstairs, climbed into bed, and picked up her unfinished glass of wine. She took a sip and looked over at the impeccably positioned photo. It stood on her bedside table, silver framed, perfectly polished. The photo had been taken the year before, at their engagement party in September, a time when they’d both been happy. Rob was hugging her so close and looked so good. But then, Rob always looked good. Why wouldn’t he? He always seemed to have the perfect tan, an amazing body, figure-hugging shorts and a smile that could be seen for miles. Unlike her, who in comparison was far too scrawny, with long auburn hair and pale freckly skin that burnt far too easily.
Everyone had said that opposites attract, but Kate still wasn’t sure. Of course, she’d thought so at first. Things had moved quickly, Rob had bombarded her with romance, love and affection and all at a time when she’d needed it the most. But recently, he’d changed. He’d become distant, cold and, dare she admit, just a little on the aggressive side. It was as though from the moment she’d agreed to him moving in with her, he’d become far too comfortable and seemed to do or say whatever he wanted, in whatever tone he liked. And the normal politeness of a new relationship had disappeared overnight.
A million questions ran through her mind. Who had been on the phone? Was it a girlfriend? Had he met someone else? Did he regret meeting her, or was it that he’d simply stopped loving her? She wouldn’t have been suspicious if there had only ever been one call, but there hadn’t and now her mind was working overtime.
Kate shook her head. She wouldn’t blame him if he’d found someone else. After all, what man in their right mind would want to love someone who looked like her? A single tear dropped down Kate’s face as she closed her eyes and tried to decide what to do. Did she go down, confront him, ask him the questions that were spiralling around her mind, or did she go to sleep, curl up in the duvet and once again pretend that she didn’t care?
It was seven o’clock when her alarm clock burst into life. Its constant buzzing drove her insane, but she didn’t dare switch it off. She couldn’t sleep in; not today. But she was struggling to wake herself. She knuckle-rubbed her eyes and finally slapped the alarm clock into silence as she slid her leg over to the left-hand side of the bed, her toes searching for Rob.
His side of the bed was cold. She should have known he wasn’t there due to the lack of snoring, but for a few seconds her hand inched across to where her fiancé should have been sleeping.
The empty space in the bed encouraged her eyes to finally open. She peered at the duvet. It was perfectly straight, even the decorative cushion still lay where she had left it the night before and she slumped back against her pillow, knowing that once again he’d slept downstairs. Kate closed her eyes, punched the duvet and sighed, suddenly remembering the phone call, the secrets and lies of the night before.
‘This isn’t getting you to work, Kate Duggan.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Get up, you have a new job to go to.’ She threw back the duvet and launched herself out of bed. But as she did so, her stomach turned and the nervous nausea began.
It would be the first full-time job she’d taken since the accident just over a year before. Thirteen months since her whole world had fallen apart. Everything had been such a mess, most of her family had both blamed and needed her in equal measure. But then she’d met Rob. It was just a few weeks after the accident, a time when she’d really needed to be loved. He’d worked, provided for her and, at that moment in time, she’d been happy to let him. She hadn’t thought about what he did for a living. How a personal trainer worked, or how often he’d end up spending days, if not weeks, working away from home. All s
he’d cared about was that someone actually loved her.
Was it any wonder they’d grown apart, just as quickly as they’d got together?
Flinging open the wardrobe door she scoured inside and without hesitation selected a black pencil skirt, new white blouse and high-heeled black patent leather shoes. Everything was easy to find. All the clothes were colour coded and set out in two distinct sections. There were tops and blouses on one rail and skirts, trousers and gym clothes on the other. Rob may have a problem sleeping with her, but that didn’t mean she’d let her appearance or standards slip for the rest of the world to see.
She laid each item on the bed so she could check them carefully. There were to be no creases, no marks or loose seams. Appearance was everything, especially today. She just had to look perfect.
She scanned the perfume bottles on her dressing table. All stood in a row, all were in size order. All perfectly lined up without a millimetre to spare. She carefully selected the bottle of Vivienne Westwood’s Boudoir and put it on the bed, beside her clothes. She liked everything to be there, just ready to put on. Satisfied with her choices, she padded through to the bathroom at the far side of the cottage.
Intense, bright, early morning sunshine bounced off the glistening white tiles, hurting her eyes. She turned down the blind and waited until she’d stopped squinting, before allowing the bathroom to come into focus. There was a splatter of toothpaste, which had imprinted itself across Rob’s bathroom mirror. He’d left towels on the floor and a toilet that desperately needed attacking with bleach. These were all signs that told Kate that Rob was awake and had already been in the bathroom. She heard herself tut. They’d been together for just over a year and she’d repeatedly asked him to clean up after himself, but still it was always left like this. Even though he knew she hated it. Kate opened the cupboard, pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, and picked up the bleach.
Once she was satisfied that the bathroom was once again perfect, she began to take in her reflection in the mirror.
‘I doubt I’d want to sleep with you either,’ she mouthed as she splashed cold water onto her pale, freckled, scarred face. Her finger drew a line along the long red puckered scar that had been engraved into her jawline, a constant reminder of the accident and a day that had tormented her dreams every night since.
