Some might call it running away . . .
But after a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The...
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Sep 03, 2011
Natasha
rated it: 
Blythe Barton is an American production designer. After she divorces her unfaithful, English, director husband, she travels to Cornwall, England for a month of healing and peace. There she rents a cottage by the sea on a family estate that might or might not have ties to one of her ancestors. During a visit to the main house one night she touches the old family genealogy chart and has a strange vision of another Blythe Barton who lived hundreds of years before. As she continues to have visio
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Apr 23, 2011
Marsha
rated it:
"Cottage By the Sea" is an interesting tale of betrayal,healing, forgiveness and renewal. Where is the paranormal twist? Well, it is definitely in the storyline.
Blythe Barton is divorcing her Hollywood Director husband of eleven years after discovering him in bed with her very own sister. On the final hearing of their divorce, Blythe boards a plane to an area of England, Cornish that her grandmother had spoken so of so fondly for all of her life. She stays at a little cotta More...
Blythe Barton is divorcing her Hollywood Director husband of eleven years after discovering him in bed with her very own sister. On the final hearing of their divorce, Blythe boards a plane to an area of England, Cornish that her grandmother had spoken so of so fondly for all of her life. She stays at a little cotta More...
Aug 12, 2010
Jennifer
rated it: 
Blythe decides to spend her summer, alone in Cornwall, in order to sift through her thoughts and emotions regarding her recent public divorce and humiliation at the hands of her now ex-husband (the cheeky bastard). Blythe picks Cornwall because her Grandmom always said she had roots there. Turns out to be true and apparently things did not go well with Blythe's ancestors either. They also had some trouble in the love department, to put it mildly. Without giving the story away, Blythe realizes yo
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Apr 11, 2011
Katherine
rated it: 
I didn't make it all the way through.
I hung on through the anti-feminist "you stole my man, ho" opener, replete with every negative cliche a romance novel can take. I really don't enjoy having the first ten pages hit you over the head with how beautiful/famous/wealthy/tragic the main character is. THIS book hits you with ALL FOUR.
I read books like this to go on vacation in my mind. To go to a place where people don't have to work lousy jobs for low pay to e More...
I hung on through the anti-feminist "you stole my man, ho" opener, replete with every negative cliche a romance novel can take. I really don't enjoy having the first ten pages hit you over the head with how beautiful/famous/wealthy/tragic the main character is. THIS book hits you with ALL FOUR.
I read books like this to go on vacation in my mind. To go to a place where people don't have to work lousy jobs for low pay to e More...
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Jun 18, 2010
Laura
rated it:
Blythe Barton Stowe has just endured a terrible Hollywood divorce, made more terrible by the fact that her famous director husband cheated on her with her sister Ellie while she tended to their dying grandmother back in Wyoming. Determined to put the past behind her, Blythe travels to Cornwall to find out if she is connected to the past of a Blythe-Trevelyans manor home, which is currently owned by Luke Teague. Once at the manor house, Blythe finds herself attracted to Luke and also experienci
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Apr 12, 2011
Lazu
rated it: 
What a load of codswolop!
Seriously. In the end I was only reading it so that I could complain about it, I'm glad it was a free ebook and I didnt pay for it. If the writer ever visited england I'd be damned surprised. several times "English Phrases" were translated for the American, phrases that, being English I've never heard in my life! There was something about "bill of quality", but what they REALLY meant was an estimate... and 'sacked' from school, what?!
Se More...
Seriously. In the end I was only reading it so that I could complain about it, I'm glad it was a free ebook and I didnt pay for it. If the writer ever visited england I'd be damned surprised. several times "English Phrases" were translated for the American, phrases that, being English I've never heard in my life! There was something about "bill of quality", but what they REALLY meant was an estimate... and 'sacked' from school, what?!
Se More...
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Apr 19, 2011
KatLynne
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First Published – 1997
Re-issue with a few minor adjustments by author - 2010
I knew very little about this book when first starting to read. The synopsis from the cover is as follows: After a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Barton Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by More...
Re-issue with a few minor adjustments by author - 2010
I knew very little about this book when first starting to read. The synopsis from the cover is as follows: After a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Barton Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by More...
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May 16, 2010
Terry
rated it:
A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware is what I consider a true romance novel with a smattering of suspense. The storyline is as solid as a brick wall and captures you from the beginning and keeps you ensnared in it's net of interest right up till the very last words. A book by all accounts that could be a classic in years to come takes you on an emotional journey that will have you wondering if you are not playing the heroine in this vivid sensory tale.
Blythe Barton Stowe needs to esca More...
Blythe Barton Stowe needs to esca More...
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Dec 11, 2010
This book came to me while I was browsing through the book section in a thrift store. I read the back cover and I was pretty interested. One of the reviews said not to read until you want to be up all night. I laughed at it and said "yeah right" as I read the first few pages. I was sort of getting bored with the whole waiting at the court scene, but somehow I did not want to put it down. I stayed up that night, read maybe six or seven chapters, but had to stop (unfortunately) because I
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Jul 11, 2010
Lori
rated it: 
A Cottage by the Sea was my first book by Ciji Ware and I am so grateful I had the chance to read this incredible book. It had everything that normally interests me - - a Hollywood background, an English setting, a bit of history and touches of the supernatural. So good was this book, it kept me up until after 3 a.m. to find out what was going to happen.
I was entranced from the first page, between author Ciji Ware's enchanting writing and a heroine that I not only really liked bu More...
I was entranced from the first page, between author Ciji Ware's enchanting writing and a heroine that I not only really liked bu More...
Sep 22, 2011
Patricia
rated it:
I downloaded the e-sample from Amazon because I saw that this was about a woman who seeks solace and healing in a cottage in Cornwall after an emotionally devastating divorce. Frankly, all I wanted was the Cornwall experience. So when I started reading and it started off as an LA/Hollywood/media frenzy story, it didn't grab me, nor did the heroine's early life on a ranch in Wyoming. None of this was the vibe I'm looking for.
Fortunately the story got to Cornwall just before the sample e More...
Fortunately the story got to Cornwall just before the sample e More...
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Aug 28, 2011
Sue
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I think I have become a book snob - I knew immediately that not many people would everr get past the first chapter of this book. I chose it because of the title - can't resist a cottage by the sea. The main character (you're not going to believe this!) named Blythe was a Hollywood movie set designer who was raised on a ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was a former rodeo queen, and had a master's degree in landscape design. She and her husband, a famous movie director, are getting a divorce bec
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May 26, 2011
Jolie
rated it:
I normally avoid chick lit like the plague but for some reason, this one really called out to me. Don't know why, but it did and I am glad I read it.
This book had me from the first chapter, when Blythe and her lawyer were riding to the court for her divorce proceedings to the last. I got teary eyed when she drank herself into a stupor the first night in Cornwall and laughed when she met Luke the next day.
The parrell story (the one with Blythe, Kit, Ennis and Garre More...
This book had me from the first chapter, when Blythe and her lawyer were riding to the court for her divorce proceedings to the last. I got teary eyed when she drank herself into a stupor the first night in Cornwall and laughed when she met Luke the next day.
The parrell story (the one with Blythe, Kit, Ennis and Garre More...
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Nov 04, 2010
Gaile
rated it:
This novel begins with Blythe Barton Stowe in the middle of divorce finalizing with her famed movie director husband, Christopher Stowe. To get away from it all, she rents a cottage on the coast of Cornwall in England.
Here she meets her landlord, Lucas Teague and his small son, Richard. Lucas lost his wife to cancer two years before. Blythe and Lucas fall in love but on the wall of Luke's library is a family genealogy that goes back to Blythe Barton, the original heiress of the family cast More...
Here she meets her landlord, Lucas Teague and his small son, Richard. Lucas lost his wife to cancer two years before. Blythe and Lucas fall in love but on the wall of Luke's library is a family genealogy that goes back to Blythe Barton, the original heiress of the family cast More...
Aug 29, 2011
Kaye
rated it:
A Cottage by the Sea involves genetic memory in that the main character Blythe Barton experiences not only the memories of her grandmother the first Blythe Barton, but also the memories of the men that loved her. Even though the author calls it genetic memory the modern day Blythe accesses these memories through paranormal means called "scrying"--the art of gazing into any clear surface in order to conjure visions within. Blythe see's her visions when she places her index finger on t
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Feb 05, 2012
Laurie
rated it:
I really got into this book more than I had expected. It had the usual entanglements of unnecessary jealousies and petty misinterpretations that seem to be mandatory in romances, and I find so tedious to read through to be honest. Sometimes I just want to shake the simpering "heroine" and scream for her to chill, so he's talking to another female, so what?! Even through all that, I was riveted to the story.
Cottage by the Sea is more than your typical romance, there More...
Cottage by the Sea is more than your typical romance, there More...
Aug 21, 2010
The Readings of a Busy Mom
rated it:
This is the first novel I have ever read by Ciji Ware and I am sure it won't be my last. A Cottage by The Sea is an addictive read that took me through every page with a comforting ease while I got hooked on the life like characters along the way...a novel of true romance with droppings of suspense and humour in all the right places and if that wasn't enough then the hunk Lucas was!!
Ciji wrote her characters with great thoroughness and I admire that..I loved Blythe she was a strong a More...
Ciji wrote her characters with great thoroughness and I admire that..I loved Blythe she was a strong a More...
Apr 19, 2011
karen
rated it:
This was a re-read of a novel I loved 10 years ago. It's been updated for internet and technology references, but the core story remains the same.
A two-fold story, Blythe Barton is recently divorced and hiding out in Cornwall exploring her family tree while she regains her equilibrium. In a unique time-traveling twist, she finds she has the ability to "visit" her namesake 200 plus years in the past.
I really like Ciji Ware's style, and her characters are well-d More...
A two-fold story, Blythe Barton is recently divorced and hiding out in Cornwall exploring her family tree while she regains her equilibrium. In a unique time-traveling twist, she finds she has the ability to "visit" her namesake 200 plus years in the past.
I really like Ciji Ware's style, and her characters are well-d More...
May 15, 2010
Kelly
rated it:
Author Ciji Ware has been an Emmy-winning television producer, reporter, writer, and radio host. Also a Harvard graduate, she has written several fiction and non-fiction books. She enjoys Scottish history and is a dancing enthusiast. Other titles include: Island of the Swans, Wicked Company, Midnight on Julia Street, A Light on the Veranda, and A Race to Splendor. She resides in San Francisco, California with her husband.
After a brutal and highly publicized divorce, Blythe Barton S More...
After a brutal and highly publicized divorce, Blythe Barton S More...
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Dec 28, 2011
Karen
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Some might call it running away . . .
But after a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by the sea that her Wyoming grandmother claimed had been home to her ancestors.
Free Kindle download - way too romancey and too explicit on the romance part More...
But after a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by the sea that her Wyoming grandmother claimed had been home to her ancestors.
Free Kindle download - way too romancey and too explicit on the romance part More...
Apr 14, 2011
Heather
rated it:
There are plenty of summaries to read on the 'A Cottage by the Sea' page, so I'll just list what I liked/disliked.
Likes:
'Grandma always said' phrases. Those made me laugh. I might use some of those!
Gardening subject/ideas. Neat!
Dislikes:
Various sibling issues. That was obnoxious.
The horse thing. Ugh!
Anyway, I think the English/American stereotyping thing was a theme that was old the second time it was used. That might be unfair on my part, but that's my More...
Likes:
'Grandma always said' phrases. Those made me laugh. I might use some of those!
Gardening subject/ideas. Neat!
Dislikes:
Various sibling issues. That was obnoxious.
The horse thing. Ugh!
Anyway, I think the English/American stereotyping thing was a theme that was old the second time it was used. That might be unfair on my part, but that's my More...
Mar 05, 2011
Laura
rated it:
Stumbled upon this at the library and again at the bookstore. When it catches my eye twice I figure I better read it. Wonderful. Haven't enjoyed the Island of Swans as much but am hopeful for A Race to Splendor...somehow I found as ebook before the April 2011 date?? Anyway, I enjoyed "a Cottage" and it was enough like Kate Morton's A Forgotten Garden (England pretty, solid writing, great female character, plot, multiple storylines, good construct) that I have it on my fav's shelf..
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Jun 10, 2011
Bill
rated it:
This historical novel is a very enjoyable read. Dealing with a failed marriage, Blythe escapes to a cottage on the beaches of Cornwall to heal. Blythe's original plans were to stay in the cottage for a month or two but ended up there for the summer, striking up a business and romantic relationship with Lucas. She also ends up going back in time, via an old family geneology chart,to the late 1700's, learning the history of the previous generations of Barton Hall and the tragedies that befell the
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Mar 13, 2011
Wisteria
rated it:
A COTTAGE BY THE SEA[return]by Ciji Ware[return]Sourcebooks Landmark[return]9781402222702[return]June 2010[return]$15.99US/$18.99CAN[return]544 pages[return][return][return][return]Blythe Barton, desperate and mortified following her highly publicized Hollywood divorce from the flamboyant director Christopher Stowe, flees to England, the land of her ancestors for solitude and rest. Even the millions that become hers in the settlement will not assuage the humiliation she suffered when she disco
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Jan 10, 2012
Jennifer
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From My Blog....[return][return]A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware is an intriguing, enticing, complex and romantic novel that will keep readers up long into the night. Blythe Barton Stowe grew up in Wyoming, married and became famous in California and is facing a humiliating divorce and scandal in Hollywood. Blythe decides it is time to get away from the media circus and heads to Cornwell for some peace and quiet and to research some of her ancestors who are from Cornwall. She manages to rent a
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Feb 03, 2012
Staci
rated it:
Why I wanted to read it: I have several reasons......
My awesome blogging friend Jen @ Jenny Loves to Read, sent me a copy a LONG time ago because I expressed interest in the book after she reviewed it.
I am drawn to all things Cornwall...I swear one of my ancestors is from this area!
Kaye@Pudgy Penguin listed this as one of her favorite reads for 2010 and I made up a challenge for myself to read some of my favorite bloggers favorite books!
It was C in my 52 Weeks 52 B More...
My awesome blogging friend Jen @ Jenny Loves to Read, sent me a copy a LONG time ago because I expressed interest in the book after she reviewed it.
I am drawn to all things Cornwall...I swear one of my ancestors is from this area!
Kaye@Pudgy Penguin listed this as one of her favorite reads for 2010 and I made up a challenge for myself to read some of my favorite bloggers favorite books!
It was C in my 52 Weeks 52 B More...
May 26, 2010
Marie
rated it:
This is a delightfully fun novel that contains essences of romance and history and modern times all expertly crafted into a cohesive and addictive narrative. Blythe Barton whisks herself to Cornwall to escape the prying reporters and her ruined marriage, and the reader gets to know and like Blythe as she rediscovers herself during this much needed respite. Complete with a captivating historical atmosphere of a misty Cornwall, author Ciji Ware does a fabulous job of recreating the nuances of epic
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Jun 05, 2010
Kathleen
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This story by Ciji Ware is an enjoyable read. I was not sure what to expect as I had not read anything by her before. Once I started reading it I was hooked. I enjoyed the characters and I am always up for a little supernatural or reincarnation in a story. There is enough mystery, romance and history to keep the reader enthralled to the end. Blythe is a fan of Daphne du Maurier's novels and renting a cottage on the Cornwall coast, where a lot of Ms.du Maurier's novels take place, is just what sh
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Jul 01, 2010
Amy
rated it:
My Thoughts: Let me just say that Ciji Ware is quickly moving up in rank on my list of favorite authors! I am so grateful that Sourcebooks is re-issuing her books, I don't think I would have found them any other way and that for sure would have been tragic!
A Cottage by the Sea is about a woman running way from her present, discovering a connection to her ancestors, all the while attempting to come to terms with her past and finding true love along the way.
Blythe is a More...
A Cottage by the Sea is about a woman running way from her present, discovering a connection to her ancestors, all the while attempting to come to terms with her past and finding true love along the way.
Blythe is a More...
May 31, 2010
Christy
rated it:
When I finished with A Cottage By the Sea, I realized that I had just finished my first time-travel book. The time traveling was interesting, here. Blythe would put her finger on a name on a genealogy tree and say the name and... BOOM! She was back in time, 200 years ago, seeing things from that person's perspective.
Let me tell you how Blythe got to this genealogy tree. First of all, her scumbag husband cheated on her, with her own sister! The present day story opens with Blythe divo More...
Let me tell you how Blythe got to this genealogy tree. First of all, her scumbag husband cheated on her, with her own sister! The present day story opens with Blythe divo More...
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