Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining by Ali McNamara is a romantic comedy with a supernatural twist.
Blurb:
Meteorologist Sky Matthews does not like surprises.
Sky monitors her life like she does the weather, carefully and with a scientific eye. So, when she finds herself temporarily relocated to a tidal island off the Cornish harbour town of St Felix, she feels completely at sea. Worse still, she has to work alongside TV weatherman Sonny Samuels, who barely knows his storms from his tsunamis.
It doesn't take long for Sky to become enchanted by the strange weather patterns over St Felix. Sonny is convinced they link to local folklore, but Sky isn't about to fall for that. Until she meets Walter, a local weather watcher with no qualifications beyond a lifetime of experience, and Sky is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the weather, herself... and Sonny.
Is it possible the clouds were trying to tell her something all along?
Sky Matthews arrives to Cornwall with her little dog Fitz. She's got a job on a tidal island Aurora, off the busy harbour town of St Felix. "The offer to come to Cornwall had come completely out of the blue. Due to ill health I'd been on an extended leave of absence from my position as a senior meteoroloist at Met Central in London".
Sky has agreed to take a temporary position on Aurora to prove she is capable again. In the past she used to travel a lot, being placed in many usunual environments. Until twenty months earlier, she has had an exciting and challenging career.
She is supposed have an assitant, working and living in the same accommodation provided for the meteorologists. Talia is young and very enthusiastic.
When she arrives to the train station to meet Talia, Sky is in for a big surprise. Talia is accompanied by a man, who claims to be her new partner at the station, apparently in order to help unravel the mysterious weather conundrum. Sonny Samuels is a minor celebrity, a TV weather presenter, sent to Cornwall by Met Central.
Sky is not amused. In fact, she is rather alarmed, as all her mental preparations for the job are overthrown by this new arrival. "Now Sonny Samuels has been thrown into the mix, I get the feeling that dealing with the over-exuberant weather presenter... is going to cause me more trouble than anyhthing else this island could ever throw at me".
Sky resents his presence, she is not prepared mentally and psychologically to live in close quarters with someone who has an exuberance of a labrador puppy. "I'm trying here, really I am, but Sonny is the sort of person I usually do my best to avoid. He's loud and chatty and a bit too full of himself, and every time I think he might have calmed down a little, he springs right back into full Sonny mode..."
Yes, Sonny is quite tiresome, but Sky is rude towards him from the first moment they meet. Sonny confides that his friends call him Jamie. Gradually, Sky begins to see a different side to the loud guy. He can be considerate and caring, sensitive and vulnerable under the veneer of over-confidence.
Sky comes to see that the first impressions and assessment of Sonny could be an error. She is trying to figure out how to deal with the mixed feelings she has about him. "I hadn't liked Jamie at all when we first met - but that wasn't his fault. He'd been thrust on me when I hadn't been expecting him, and I never cope well with surprises... But Jaie has changedsince he'd been here. The person I first met had much more Sonny than Jamie - like he had a sort of alter-ego he swapped between. I didn't care for Sonny at all, but I kind of liked Jamie now..."
Sky and Jamie are fascinated by the strange weather occurrences in the area, with the most unusual cloud shapes and virtually impossible meteoroloical patterns. Are they truly linked to the local legends, as Jamie believes? Is it even remotedly possible that the clouds above Aurora signify something personal to Sky?
It's hinted from the start that Sky has a hidden disability (ME). Apart from her serious condition, her behaviour borders on neuro diverse, with its rigidity of thinking. She struggles with changes in her preparations, everything has to be as she planned. While her being upset about the upturned plans is understandable, her rudeness is less so.
Sky believes she's been honest but she appears ill-mannered. Saying that, men like Sonny could drive anyone round the bend with their suggestive jokes and flirtatous behaviour.
Sky tries to hide her disability from her colleagues and friends, which doesn't sound sensible at all.
"I can't tell them. They'd treat me differently if they knew, and I don't want to be different, I want to be the same as everyone else".
She wants to convince Sonny that she is more than her illness, that although it is part of her, it doesn't define her as a whole being. However, it's not Sonny she has to convince but herself first of all. She is wallowing in self-pity. It is Sky who has to accept herself as worthy of love rather than pity.
"I can't get away from it, however much I want to. My illness is there all the time - hiding, just waiting for me to weaken so that it can be unleashed once more. It's like a monster inside me, that unless I'm very careful, once unleashed, won't be controlled again for quite some time".
Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining Skies is a modern day romance, with paranormal elements, of a fairytale variety. The clouds sending images as messages might be a cute but rather an implausible motif.
For me the best parts were the descriptions of the sea, coast and nature (minus funny clouds). I loved the fictional island of Aurora, with its amazing views and a cosy cottage. St Felix, based on St Ives, also provides a beautiful setting for the story.
Dog lovers will be delighted with several dogs featuring quite prominently in the narrative: Eden's Yorkie Russell Fitz, Sonny's Comet and there's Barney who belongs to one of the minor characters.
There are some quirky local characters, including the elderly weatherman, known as Wacky Walter Weather, for his weird and wonderful ways of forecasting the weather.
The smuggling plotline and secret tunnels ending in remote caves is a bit far-fetched. Sonny himself says, "If you think this is going to be some Famous Five adventure, with jolly japes and ginger beer, then you need to back out right now". But that's excatly how it feels at times, like Famous Five for grown-ups.
And here are some beautiful clouds over the Cornish coastline. Just clouds, no hidden messages in sight.
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