Neave, scatter-brained but beautiful, always goes for the one-night stands. Her sister, Connie, wants her to settle down with a real man. She sets Neave up on a blind date with Jeffrey, the respectable and comfortable friend of Connie’s husband. Jeffrey takes Neave to Spain for a getaway, but she ditches him to flee to Morocco with Enya, the daring and bohemian “Queen of the Harbour”. Neave finally has what she’s always wanted—freedom and adventure on the high seas. What kinds of trouble can these two women of the sea get into?
Find out in “Queen of the Harbour”.
My review:
An early developer, Neave has always been a sexual woman. Beautiful, a hit with the boys, Neave doesn’t listen to her friend’s advice, who tells her she has the world her feet, that she could have her choice of men, but that she should choose wisely. Instead, Neave finds herself pregnant at sixteen and married to a local poor fisherman. Love, though, is in short supply and Neave finds herself running scared of the abusive man she married so young. Her children are now grown and trying to cast off her old life, Neave leaves for a holiday in Spain, allowed the use of her friend’s apartment. Her friend has not only supplied the apartment, however. She’s fixed Neave up with a ‘more suitable man’, who actually turns out to be anything but. Penny pinching and moody, Jeffrey’s controlling ways ring warning bells for Neave, but she is trapped, reliving her nightmare marriage, albeit for a short time, with a bully. Enter Antonio, a local fisherman with decadent brown eyes. Will Neave make the same mistake again, become entangled with the ‘degenerate fisherman’ as Jeffrey refers to him? Might she find true love? Or will her adventures on the high seas allow her to find herself? I found this a very enjoyable read with touches of real humour and lovely evocative descriptions of the Spanish landscape. I was rooting for Neave (and Antonio). I think you will be too.
Ursula has kindly popped over (via the high seas!) to share a little about her book, QUEEN OF THE HARBOUR, published by Safkhet Publishing.
I wrote this story many years ago, as often is the case, and I was beginning to wonder if it was going to get old fashioned. Yes!, even writing about the nineties can be old fashioned, would you believe? Anyway, I wrote this when I was, let’s say, mooching about Spain. I was in my early forties and spending a lot of time there, meeting so many wonderful, colourful people. It was a magical time and when I speak to friends today who knew those times, they say “it’s not the same anymore”. So when I was back at home, I wrote the story, about the place, those times and, of course, the romance I experienced. It brought back fond memories and only a few days ago found myself looking up old photos and thinking about those romantic times… Oh well, it’s nice to dream again, but no names mentioned.
I delved into my imagination as well as my past experiences to tell the story of the Queen of the Harbour. The character of Neave, perhaps she is someone we would all like to be like, for she ran away and ended up living the life she wanted. Something I don’t think many of us have the courage to do. In my story we see a courageous girl, who handles a storm at sea and helps bring back the two girls from Morocco to a better life. Unlike me, Neave can handle a boat. She can also swim like a mermaid. So perhaps you would like to see how she arrived at her destination of attaining her heart’s desire, for she is in the prime of her life, beautiful and the world is her oyster.
When I wrote about the sea, I did not know one end of a boat from another, but on picking up a book at a second hand shop, I found it was written by a man called Tristan Jones (born at sea aboard a British ship off the island of Tristan da Cunha). The book was entitled “The Incredible Voyage”. He had crossed the Atlantic eighteen times under-sail, nine times alone. Reading his story taught me about boats and the winds at sea and I was able to write about the storm as the girls sailed their cabin cruiser across the Gibraltar Straits. In my story there are three women, going to fetch back from Morocco two young girls and we see the many dangers they experience. Although Neave finds Romance, she will no longer let any man hold her down. For she was a downtrodden women, who has broken free and is happy to be a Queen of the Harbour.
About Ursula:
Ursula spends quite a bit of time in Kent, and in her garden she has a shack with a blue plaque on it, as her mother was the author Lena Kennedy and she sometimes used to write there, even under candlelight. These days, Ursula writes there and on her laptop.
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