The Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

'FOR SALE: a rare opportunity to purchase a beach hut on the spectacular Everdene Sands. "The Shack" has been in the family for fifty years, and was the first to be built on this renowned stretch of golden sand...' Jane Milton doesn't want to sell her beloved beach hut, which has been the heart of so many family holidays and holds so many happy memories. But when her husband dies, leaving her with an overwhelming string of debts, she has no choice but to sell. THE BEACH HUT follows the stories of the people who own the beach huts, families who come to Everdene each year, people who fall in - or out of - love, remembering their pasts, or trying to forget them...Veronica Henry has brilliantly drawn together the comings and goings of life at the beach huts over one long, hot, lazy summer .....

When i picked up The Beach Hut i was expecting a book full of short stories, each story being about one of the beach huts, however, as i continued to read each story through the book i found the individual 'stories' all intertwined with each other.
The setting for The Beach Hut sounds gorgeous, a real British seaside, with a row of colourful beach huts owned by individuals who would spend their holidays living beside the seaside. I was unaware that people would 'live' there for a week, i thought they were glorified changing rooms where the owners would stay in hotels or bed and breakfasts at night.
The characters in the book were from many different lifestyles and each had their own story to tell; alcohol addiction, illicit affairs were just two of the reasons the beach huts were so popular. I felt I was a part of the Everdene community, learning about each family, their way of life and the problems they had and may be hiding.
i love veronica Henry's books and have read a number of her back catalogue and enjoyed this one just as much, however, i found the style of this book to be different from her previous books.
The book is a lovely holiday read and i could see myself sitting on a beach or in the sunshine reading it.

i am now looking forward to veronica Henry's new book being released in October 2o10.