GUEST POST - The Summer House in Santorini: What’s in Anna’s Beach Bag - SAMANTHA PARKS

With great thanks to Samantha Parks for providing this wonderful guest post. Enjoy!

The Summer House in Santorini: What’s in Anna’s Beach Bag

For any romantic novel heroine on a Greek island, a good beach bag is an important accessory. Not only does it look cute, but it makes sure you have everything you could possibly need to find yourself, find love and find a little bit of adventure. For Anna Linton from The Summer House in Santorini, the ultimate beach bag contents look a bit like this:

Two phones: her Greek phone and her US phone

Let’s be honest, Instagram isn’t going to scroll through itself, so the US phone has to be there for any WiFi-enabled downtime. The Greek phone is for calling Nikos to give her rides up and down the hill between the resort and the summer house.

Her camera (plus an extra battery, an extra memory card and sometimes even an extra lens)

For any budding photographer, having equipment on hand for whenever the moment may strike is CRUCIAL. Anna always has her camera ready to go so that she can capture the sunset, or maybe just a photo of Elena posing weirdly on someone’s garden wall.

Her white crocheted bikini

Because Nikos keeps dragging her off on spontaneous adventures, and she’s learned to always be prepared. She could probably find something less ~sexy~ since she’s trying to keep things platonic, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the appreciation.

Sunscreen

Because Anna’s pale New England skin is NOT built for the heat of the Aegean sun

A letter from Giorgos to Grace

As much as she wanted to collect her inheritance and leave, Anna’s grandparents gave her a box of her father’s old letters to her mother, and she can’t help but read them over and over, trying to make sense of who her father was and what secrets her mother has kept from her.

Euros

Mostly for buying more bougatsa. If you know, you know.

To read more about what Anna gets up to this summer in Greece, grab The Summer House in Santorini by me, Samantha Parks, just 99p/$2.99, out 7 August!

Purchase Links:

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-House-Santorini-Samantha-Parks-ebook/dp/B07JHLMQFV

US - https://www.amazon.com/Summer-House-Santorini-Samantha-Parks-ebook/dp/B07JHLMQFV 

Author Bio

Samantha Parks is the pen name of Sam Gale. Her pen name comes from her late

grandmother Velma Hobbs nee Parks, who was one of Sam's greatest role models. Sam was born in North Carolina but now resides in Bournemouth, UK with her husband Alex. She owns a successful marketing company and is enjoying her slow descent into "crazy plant lady" status.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/samanthajgale

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/searchingforsamantha/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samanthaparksauthor

Website/blog: https://www.samanthaparks.com/

BLOGTOUR - One Summer in Santorini - Sandy Barker

About 'One Summer in Santorini'
There was something in the air that night. . .

Sarah has had enough of men. It’s time to rekindle her first true love – travel – so she books a sailing trip around the Greek islands with a group of strangers.

The very last thing Sarah wants is to meet someone new… But then a gorgeous American man boards her yacht and she knows she’s in trouble. And when she also encounters a handsome silver fox who promises her the world, she realises that trouble really does come in twos.

Will Sarah dive into a holiday fling, embark on a relationship, or stick to her plan – steer clear of men, continue her love affair with feta, and find her own way after all?

PURCHASE HERE

My Review:

I love a book that can whisk me off to a glorious, sun filled destination and Sandy Barker didn’t let me down.

One Summer in Santorini is a fun story with relationships and friendships at its heart as well as embracing the culture and surroundings of wherever you may roam.  I felt like I’ve been on adventure; Santorini is like a dream destination of mine so getting to hear these well written, idyllic descriptions were fantastic.

Sarah is our leading lady; she is strong and independent and realising she lost a bit of herself within her last relationship she seizes the opportunity to travel again and chooses this 10 day yacht adventure to find herself again.

It took me a little while to get used to Sarah, I can’t put my finger on why… I liked her but I thought she was going to be hard work – I’m glad I wrong, she turns out to be smart, kind and caring, considerate and a wonderful friend to those around her.

She meets and is attracted to a fellow passenger, he is different, younger and her feelings seem pretty instant, she does try to fight them, but I was urging her on. I thought it was a perfect coupling from the start, definitely what she needed. I can appreciate the temptation with the silver fox, but I wasn’t rooting for him at all. He isn’t what she should have been looking for in my opinion.

I loved the beautiful cast of characters, some very quirky, temperamental and I feel I would have loved to explore their stories a little more too. For example, what was Patricia all about, what happened next with her etc?

Sandys passion for Santorini and travelling is abundantly clear and is a real pleasure to read.  I laughed, I ‘arghed’ and I enjoyed. It’s a great read for the summer. 

Author Bio:

Sandy Barker is an Australian writer, traveller and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list and a cheeky sense of humour.

Many of Sandy’s travel adventures have found homes in her writing, including her debut novel, a contemporary romance set in Greece, which was inspired by her true-life love story.

Follow her on Twitter @sandybarker