Keeping Up With the Penryns

To save Casterglass, all the Penryn children will need to return home, rebuild their lives among the ruins, and find love that has proved elusive...

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, patriarch Walter Penryn resists selling his birthright and family legacy until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Well-heeled Londoner Althea Penryn doesn’t expect a divorce and job hunt over the Christmas holidays, but her husband claims he’s done and the prenup is solid. She packs up her reluctant teenage children and heads home to Casterglass Castle to confront the ghosts of her past—including the real one her mother claims lives in the old guard tower. And then there’s her unexpected romance with local sheep farmer, John Braithwaite, who is everything her adulterous, solicitor ex-husband isn’t.

This Christmas, amid the renovation and potential heartbreak of losing her family home, can Althea find a new purpose and the happiness that has so long eluded her?

Meet the Penryns…

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, Walter Penryn refuses to give up his birthright—until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Now the family is restoring the castle, and Olivia Penryn is in charge of reviving the once-profitable garden. Nursing a broken heart and a guilty conscience, Olivia longs to lose herself in roses and lavender, but she’s filled with doubt. She’s never handled a project this massive. When Olivia hires the gorgeous Will Turner to help with landscaping, her bruised heart begins to heal—and hope.

A widower and father of two, Will has plenty of his own problems. Is he strong enough to take on Olivia’s? As his children become attached to this loving, ethereal beauty, he wonders if their wounded hearts can blossom like the flowers surrounding them—or will hidden secrets and old mistakes cost them a second chance at happiness?

Meet the Penryns…an eccentric family determined to keep hold of their castle in the wilds of Cumbria.

Sam Penryn, the only son and heir, has returned to Casterglass with deep reluctance. After dedicating his life to far-flung adventures to forget his past, the last thing he wants is to come home and take the reins of his family’s crumbling estate. But he knows his duty, and his sisters are doing their best to turn their ancestral ruin into an interactive tourist attraction. He can surely do the same, even if he dreads every moment…

Rose Lacey has spent her life as a nomad, adopting a carefree attitude to protect her fragile heart, which worked until she met—and then left—Sam. Their goodbye becomes hello when she shows up on his doorstep months after their fling, pregnant and uncertain what she wants from him, yet believing he needs to know he’s going to be a father.

Sam is gobsmacked by Rose’s return—and he remembers just how hard he fell for her. Despite his own hurts and hard memories, can Sam be brave enough to convince Rose to fall in love with him all over again, this time for keeps?

He dreams of saving his ancestral home. She longs to escape hers.

Persephone is the youngest Penryn, and she’s always felt like an afterthought. As her siblings ventured out one by one, she was left behind, learning to rely on herself. Now that they’ve all returned and are on a mission to save their home, she’s reluctantly falling in with their plans and keeping her distance, especially when an Oxford-educated intern arrives wanting to learn how to save one's ancestral home.

Oliver Belhaven has come to Casterglass to prove to his uncle that he can make Pembury a financial success, so the only home Oliver has ever had isn't sold. He is intrigued by the beautiful and mercurial Seph and senses a kindred spirit—alone even around family.

Oliver may be charming, but under her surly facade Seph is afraid to get close to anyone. Yet the longer Oliver works at Casterglass, the more invested he becomes—in Seph and in saving his home. But will achieving one dream mean that he has to let go of another? And can Seph finally learn to let go—and love?