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Hide & Seek
‘You’ve got to have friends.’ Dana and Callie become firm friends when they meet as volunteers at a conservation program on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Malta. Despite their age difference—Dana is twenty six and Callie is forty-three—these two Australians find they have more common than their nationality. Dana looks to Callie for support as she tries to track down a long lost uncle; at the same time she’s falling in love with Sean who might be the key to the mystery of her uncle. Callie has a holiday romance with a German art-historian named Helmut. Things are going well until she discovers that she’s pregnant.
Hide and Seek is a relaxed read that will take you along for the ride as Dana and Callie navigate the tricky waters of holiday romance while stumbling across a long lost uncle (Dana’s) and dealing with an unplanned pregnancy (Callie’s). You’ll spend time in the Maltese Islands, Sydney and Berlin without leaving home. Although after reading Hide and Seek, you may want to!
Hide and Seek is a relaxed read that will take you along for the ride as Dana and Callie navigate the tricky waters of holiday romance while stumbling across a long lost uncle (Dana’s) and dealing with an unplanned pregnancy (Callie’s). You’ll spend time in the Maltese Islands, Sydney and Berlin without leaving home. Although after reading Hide and Seek, you may want to!
223 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 24, 2015
1 person want to read
About the author
Kathy Gates
3 books19 followersAfter a long career in arts and broadcast marketing, Kathy Gates swapped her desk for the road and became a full-time traveller and part-time English teacher. So far, she has taught in Italy, Germany, Poland, Kenya, Tanzania and Mongolia.
Kathy’s love of Italy, and particularly Rome, was the inspiration for her novel, Keira in Rome. The eternal city is the backdrop to secrets, lies and a few things that get lost in translation. Inveterate scene-stealer Tuscany plays a supporting role.
Her novella, Juliet’s Journey, also set in Italy, was published in 2015. Italophile Book Reviews gave it five-stars, calling it an, “entertaining, compact novella romance with lots of Italian flavour.”
In addition to fiction, Kathy has written about the love of books and reading for the website Amreading, and on lifestyle and travel for the digital magazine Boomercafe.
Kathy’s love of Italy, and particularly Rome, was the inspiration for her novel, Keira in Rome. The eternal city is the backdrop to secrets, lies and a few things that get lost in translation. Inveterate scene-stealer Tuscany plays a supporting role.
Her novella, Juliet’s Journey, also set in Italy, was published in 2015. Italophile Book Reviews gave it five-stars, calling it an, “entertaining, compact novella romance with lots of Italian flavour.”
In addition to fiction, Kathy has written about the love of books and reading for the website Amreading, and on lifestyle and travel for the digital magazine Boomercafe.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 3, 2015
Holiday reading and holiday romance are like the right skirt with the right top: they make the perfect fit. Holidays are for shrugging off the daily ritual of work, the non-stop hammering of news reports and chaos, the time to float away to your dream destination.
Kathy Gates in 'Hide & Seek' takes us across the Mediterranean to Malta where Dana, a young Australian, is falling in love with Sean while she searches for her long lost uncle. When she meets Callie, a fellow Aussie nearly twenty years older than her, the two women become huge mates and Callie adds her worldly wisdom to the search.
That is until she meets Helmut, the dishy art historian and a holiday fling finds the 46-year-old Callie – pregnant. Should she follow Helmut to Berlin or become a single mum? Is Sean really the key to Dana finding her uncle? Good holiday reading requires suspense and no spoilers. Hide & Seek fulfils the first criterion, it's good, well-paced, with stand-out characters and some laugh out loud moments I won't spoil but, rather, urge you to discover them for yourself.
Kathy Gates in 'Hide & Seek' takes us across the Mediterranean to Malta where Dana, a young Australian, is falling in love with Sean while she searches for her long lost uncle. When she meets Callie, a fellow Aussie nearly twenty years older than her, the two women become huge mates and Callie adds her worldly wisdom to the search.
That is until she meets Helmut, the dishy art historian and a holiday fling finds the 46-year-old Callie – pregnant. Should she follow Helmut to Berlin or become a single mum? Is Sean really the key to Dana finding her uncle? Good holiday reading requires suspense and no spoilers. Hide & Seek fulfils the first criterion, it's good, well-paced, with stand-out characters and some laugh out loud moments I won't spoil but, rather, urge you to discover them for yourself.
May 31, 2015
I really really liked this book! Now, this book may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it. Romance is my absolute favorite genre, especially romance with a little mystery, a whole lot of take-no-crap-strong-minded women and an adventure to beautiful lands. This book has all of that. Not only that, but you get to follow two love stories within one book. There are several characters with their own back stories, woven ambitions and missions, and newly discovered love interests that keep things fresh and interesting. One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was the strong bond all of these amazing women forged and kept throughout the story. I'm not going to add a description of this book because everything you need to know is well said in the synopsis. Enough gushing from me, but seriously if you're into romance with strong women that end up on an adventure to solve a family mystery, then read this book.
May 29, 2015
Unusual contemporary romance with strong women at its core
This is an usual contemporary ‘family’ saga and I commend the author on her ambition. There is a lot to admire in the work. The basic idea is original. This ‘Family’ is a refreshingly, modern family – a disparate group of people of different ages, nationalities and sexual orientation, drawn together in mutual affection.
At the heart of the story is a group of strong and capable women, spanning several generations. Dana, Callie, and Anna meet on the magical island of Malta and their friendship is undeterred by barriers of age, nationality, or social conventions. The romance in the novel comes initially via Dana’s (pronounced Day –na) affair with attractive Englishman, Sean Saxby, and later by Callie’s holiday romance with Helmut. In the near background matriarchal support is provided by Dana’s aunt Alice, housekeeper Barbara, and newly found gay Uncle Cedric / Teddy.
Another plus for the novel is the beautiful setting of Malta. There is no doubting that the author knows this island and its culture intimately. There is some beautiful scene setting and insight that you would expect from somebody with great local knowledge.
The major drawback for me however, was the overwhelming tendency to ‘tell not show.’ There is far too much reported action and information given by characters about characters, or direct from the narrator, and this limits the ability of characters to emerge realistically with their own voices, or for the plot to evolve in a credible manner.
The omniscient narrator is so powerful and intrusive that I often found myself confusing characters and action and having to stop and re-read passages to ensure I knew who was doing what, with whom. This tendency also shows itself in the extent to which the narrator interjects with statements to guide the reader almost as though she lacks the confidence in the reader to ‘get there by him / herself.’ For example, twice I came across a direction towards sexual tension building. ‘Could that be sexual tension? ‘ We are asked.
The number of coincidences upon which the plot depends also serves to undermine credibility. This is clearly intended as a light read, with romantic twists and sub – plots, but the sheer number of twists and coincidences undermine the integrity of the story. It also doesn’t help to have characters appearing from almost nowhere, late in the story and at times the author is at too great a pains to explain events and fill in details that minor characters and events are given too great a prominence (I’m thinking particularly of the hospital scenes later on.)
Overall, I think this is a creditable attempt to give life to several stories within one novel. I congratulate the author on a good start to her career as an author and wish her every success with her work.
This is an usual contemporary ‘family’ saga and I commend the author on her ambition. There is a lot to admire in the work. The basic idea is original. This ‘Family’ is a refreshingly, modern family – a disparate group of people of different ages, nationalities and sexual orientation, drawn together in mutual affection.
At the heart of the story is a group of strong and capable women, spanning several generations. Dana, Callie, and Anna meet on the magical island of Malta and their friendship is undeterred by barriers of age, nationality, or social conventions. The romance in the novel comes initially via Dana’s (pronounced Day –na) affair with attractive Englishman, Sean Saxby, and later by Callie’s holiday romance with Helmut. In the near background matriarchal support is provided by Dana’s aunt Alice, housekeeper Barbara, and newly found gay Uncle Cedric / Teddy.
Another plus for the novel is the beautiful setting of Malta. There is no doubting that the author knows this island and its culture intimately. There is some beautiful scene setting and insight that you would expect from somebody with great local knowledge.
The major drawback for me however, was the overwhelming tendency to ‘tell not show.’ There is far too much reported action and information given by characters about characters, or direct from the narrator, and this limits the ability of characters to emerge realistically with their own voices, or for the plot to evolve in a credible manner.
The omniscient narrator is so powerful and intrusive that I often found myself confusing characters and action and having to stop and re-read passages to ensure I knew who was doing what, with whom. This tendency also shows itself in the extent to which the narrator interjects with statements to guide the reader almost as though she lacks the confidence in the reader to ‘get there by him / herself.’ For example, twice I came across a direction towards sexual tension building. ‘Could that be sexual tension? ‘ We are asked.
The number of coincidences upon which the plot depends also serves to undermine credibility. This is clearly intended as a light read, with romantic twists and sub – plots, but the sheer number of twists and coincidences undermine the integrity of the story. It also doesn’t help to have characters appearing from almost nowhere, late in the story and at times the author is at too great a pains to explain events and fill in details that minor characters and events are given too great a prominence (I’m thinking particularly of the hospital scenes later on.)
Overall, I think this is a creditable attempt to give life to several stories within one novel. I congratulate the author on a good start to her career as an author and wish her every success with her work.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews