Exclusive Interview with author Anita Hughes and a review of her new novel, set in the glamorous south of France
Rating: 3 Stars
Review by Gabrielle Pantera
“I love the French Riviera’s mix of sophistication, gorgeous scenery and wonderful cuisine,” says French Coast author Anita Hughes. “I got the idea for French Coast from stories my mother used to tell me about the Carlton-Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes. When I discovered the Carlton’s website and stared at the yellow and white beach umbrellas lining the sand and the elegant marble lobby I knew that’s where I wanted to spend the next few months writing my novel. I also loved watching To Catch a Thief, with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, which is also set at the Carlton-Intercontinental.”
Set in the Cote D’Azur, Hughes writes beautiful descriptions of the food, fashion and locale. You feel as though you’re there. This book is fabulous for a beach read. Hot, descriptive sex scenes and lots of designer names and glamour. The story is a family mystery, not a murder, draped in a lavish setting with two subplots. Yvette is in a scandalous love affair and Zoe is trapped in family dysfunction. With three stories running through the book, there is lots of jumping around. Staying emotionally connected to the characters may be a challenge for the reader. If each story ended at slightly different places there might be more chance to take an emotional breath.
The book opens with Serena Woods, daughter of a US Senator and a features editor at the Vogue offices in San Francisco. Her boyfriend Chase is a lawyer who is about to announce a run for mayor of the city. Chase proposes. Serena is on her way to Cannes to meet with the former editor of French Vogue, but when she arrives the film festival is in full swing and there’s a mix-up at the Carlton-InterContinental. Her reservation is for next week and every other room is booked. In the bar, Serena meets Zoe, a young woman with a two-bedroom suite at the hotel. Zoe will share it to help Serena out. The suite is stunning. But who is Zoe really? When Chase arrives a few days later, he breaks off the engagement. He says there’s news about to break about her father that will hurt his chances of getting elected; specifically that her father has a second family. Serena’s world turns upside down.
For research Hughes spent a lot of time on the internet researching Cannes, Monte Carlo and Juan-Les-Pins. “All the places I write about, the monuments and hotels and shops and restaurants, are real, so I spend a lot of time learning street names and looking at menus. I watched To Catch a Thief a few more times to really soak in the landscape of the French Riviera.”
“People often ask if I travel to the locations I write about,” says Hughes. “When I write a book, I truly feel like I am there. One of the funny things that happened when I was writing French Coast is a scene where Serena is at a nightclub in Cannes called Baoli. The next morning I checked Facebook and saw one of my friends standing in front of the nightclub Baoli. For a minute I was confused because I honestly thought I was in Cannes instead of my character.”
Hughes’ first novel was Monarch Beach, in 2012, followed by Market Street and Lake Como in 2013. Here fifth novel, Rome in Love, will be released in August. A sixth novel is coming next spring.
When Hughes was eight, she won a nationwide writing contest in Australia’s national newspaper The Australian. “The photographer came to our house to take my picture and the caption read, ‘Australia’s next great writers’,” says Hughes. “That definitely inspired me to write.”
Hughes just finished writing a book set in Majorca, to be released next spring. “Another gorgeous location that was so much fun to write about,” says Hughes.
Hughes lives near the beach in Dana Point, California. She was born and raised in Sydney.
French Coast: A Novel Paperback by Anita Hughes. Trade Paperback, 304 pages, Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (April 7, 2015), Language: English. ISBN: 9781250052513 $15.99
