The Summer of Serendipity by Ali McNamara

Publisher: Sphere
On Sale Date: February 6th 2018
Pages: 368

Serendipity (''Ren'') Parker is quite a succesfull property seeker. Her portfolio includes some very wealthy clients. This summer, she gets a request from a very wealthy client to find him the perfect home on an island on the west coast of Ireland, where she finds herself soon landed in the small town of Ballykiltara, where she and her best friend stay in a charming small hotel run by a few members of a close knit family and where she soon feels herself very welcome.

After doing some field work, she finds a house that is completely unlocked, but with food in the fridge. It seems to be the perfect house for her client, but after doing some research, she finds out the house doesn't seem to have an owner, or he is just very, very hard to find, how can that be? The owners of the hotel tell her that she stumbled upon the Welcome House, a house that is never locked and open for everyone in need or on the run to stay in it as long as they think neccessary. To figure out how she can find the owner she delves into the history of the house with the help of one of the hotel owners, finn. She learns more about the Chaelic heritage of the house and finds herself soon in secret cellars hidden behind bookshelves and amidst celtic crosses that have a part in all this. And she learns also that there is some kind of mysterious force helping her, as the local priest unveils that there is an old historic paper that declares that someday a woman with red hair would come to the town to change things for the Welcome House, could it be her?and is it just her fate to reveil the mystey of the Welcome House? 

This book took me completely by surprise!! I had it on my ereader for quite some time, and I was browsing for my next read, decided to give it a try! The story is quite wonderfull, it really has some very good mystery in it, and it keeps you turning pages till you find out the answers that Ren is looking for during the book. The tone of the book is just fun and very uplifting, which I loved. There is also a nice cast of side characters in the book, like Serendipity's best friend Kiki, who joins her in her search for the perfect house, she was just hilarious and really added to the story, as did the owners of the hotel, Finn and his dog, who get's lost a few times to uncover some hidden secrets for Serendipity, and there is this black bird that pops up everywhere to ''tell'' her to go somewhere for the next round of secrets wanting to be uncovered.
It all was very entertaining, and I loved the Celtic culture and mystery the author added to the book, it really was something different then usual, and I hope to read more books by her in the future!!