How to keep calm when your past resurfaces?

Synopsis

Layla is calm, in control and is definitely not about to lose her serenity for the man next door!
Surely it can’t be hard to stay peaceful at one of the oldest yoga and mindfulness retreats in the Algarve, surrounded by sea, sun and serenity? Mostly, owner Layla Garcia manages it – with the help of meditation and plenty of camomile tea, of course.
But keeping her grandparents’ legacy alive is stressful, and Layla has become so shackled to the work that, for her, The House on the Hill is fast becoming ‘The Fortress on the Hill’.
Then writer Luke Mackie moves to the villa next door, bringing with him a healthy dose of chaos to disrupt Layla’s plans, plus a painful reminder of a time when she was less-than-serene. But could his influence be just what Layla needs to ‘dance like no-one’s watching’ and have the fun she’s been missing?

My review

Layla is doing her utterly best to keep her grandparent’s legacy, the yoga and mindfulness retreat The House on the Hill, alive.
But that is easier said than done, and no amount tea can keep Layla calm and ahead of things. She stays on top of everything, and even if things get difficult a little bit, why change a working recipe?
And then writer Luke Mackie moves in the villa next door, and suddenly everything turns into chaos. Adding that Luke is part of a past that Layla tries to forget, doesn’t make things easier at all… 

Don’t we all have regrets from when we were young? But how many of those mistakes were really that big of an issue when we think about it now? Not many, right?
Unfortunately that is not Layla’s case… what happened in her past, had such a deep impact on her, that it did not only make her change her appearance again, but also changed Layla’s character.

Layla enjoys running the retreat, but is struggling also with the many issues it’s having. And while many suggestions are being made, she sticks to what she knows and won’t look for any changes.
That made me wonder what happened to her, to be so stoic about not accepting those ideas, because in my opinion, they were good suggestions.
It also bothered me that Layla had no outlet, nothing fun to do. We all need that one thing to release our stress, and chamomile tea surely isn’t the perfect answer! 

Slowly we get to know what burden she is still carrying around, and when it was all revealed, I was repulsed by the actions of some characters.
And seeing how those characters did not learn from the pat, infuriated me. So I was glad that those characters weren’t a prominent presence in this book, but just a dark shadow. 

A dark shadow that also hunts Luke Mackie…
While Luke’s and Layla’s lives are so different from each other, and there doesn’t seem to be a link between them, it was nice to see how the past and present got together.
Even if reluctant, Layla sees that Luke is not in a happy place at the moment in his life, and she tries to help him to see the beauty of it, and tries to help him find his inspiration back. 

I very much liked how these two characters, both carrying their own burdens, and even slightly forced, are spending time together.
Seeing how they start to see Life through the other one’s eyes, understanding the importance of finding an oasis of calmness, but also daring to change course, was not only eye – opening for the characters but also for the readers. 

This story shows us how the past can hold us back, but also how releasing everything and enjoy the things again that made us happy in the past, can make us all better again, even if we didn’t know we weren’t doing okay…  

I had several laughs, but I also felt so much compassion for our main characters, and this book made me realize that just doing okay is not okay…
Add a beautiful setting as the Algarve, and we have a complete package, which includes a lesson that Life doesn’t always go as we would want, but we can make it change direction, as long as we can put the past behind us. And that some things from the past aren’t all that bad, on the contrary, they can be the best thing we ever had!