For sale: Greek cottage. Price: One Euro.
Skye doesn’t make impulsive decisions. But when she sees a derelict Greek cottage for sale by lottery, she enters with dreams of a fresh start.
However, her heart sinks as she pushes open the tattered blue door weeks later. Can this wreck ever be her home?
Then Skye finds a bundle of letters hidden in the fireplace, their faded pages drawing her in with a story of long-forgotten love, tragedy, and unbelievable bravery.
But all the while, Skye’s own past is circling. No matter how far she goes, fate is never far behind…
The House of Hidden Letters by Izzy Broom is published by Penguin on 26 March 2026 and is available on Amazon. I was so excited when the NetGalley approval arrived — just look at this cover, so inviting! My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the advance digital review copy.
About IZZY BROOM
Izzy/Isabelle Broom’s website ‘about me’ reads:
It started when….
I was about six years old. I was given a big blue exercise book by my mum and began filling it with stories, though I was coming up with them in my head long before that. Writing is something I’ve always done – when I’m happy, sad, excited, confused, heartbroken, falling in love – it’s my creative outlet. But more than that, a writer is who I am. If I wasn’t an author, I would still write, and I hope I always will.
My career as an author really began when I won The Great British Write Off competition in 2014 with a short story called The Wedding Speech. It was the first time anyone in the publishing industry had looked at my writing, and their collective advice and guidance gave me the confidence to complete a proper novel. My Map Of You was the result.
I write escapist fiction because travel is in my soul. My books are about all facets of life and often feature a love story. Getting inside the hearts and minds of my characters continues to fascinate me, as does searching the globe for settings in which to set their stories. I have scaled mountains in Sri Lanka, watched fireworks over Lake Como, swam in crystal clear Croatian waters, made wishes in Prague, hunted for orange houses in Mallorca, fallen off chairs in French bistros and wept over the beauty of the stars in Zakynthos – and these experiences are just the tip of the iceberg.
Each of my novels comes with a promise: to take my readers on an adventure and leave them with hope in their hearts. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I love writing them.
You can find Izzy Broom on Instagram, Threads and Facebook
My Review
A beautiful story of hidden histories, healing, and the courage to start again.
I have every book published by Isabelle Broom sitting on my bookshelf and over the years her stories have become some of my favourite comfort reads. They’re the kind of novels I never quite manage to part with – wonderfully escapist, warm and full of heart – so when I spotted The House of Hidden Letters, written under her pen name Izzy Broom, I couldn’t resist.
From the opening pages I was immediately pulled into Skye’s story. The setting comes to life very quickly, and there’s a wonderful sense of place and community running through the story. The feeling that small island villages have their own heartbeat, where everyone knows one another and support often appears when it’s needed most. Skye isn’t someone who normally makes impulsive decisions, which is exactly why her decision to take a chance on a derelict cottage in Greece feels so significant. It’s clear from the start that she’s running from something, or someone, and there’s a quiet tension hanging over her story that made me instantly curious. When the truth of her past begins to unfold, my heart genuinely ached for her. Her decision to leave everything behind and start again somewhere completely new suddenly feels less like an adventure and more like an act of bravery.
Watching Skye arrive on the island and open the door to her crumbling cottage was both daunting and hopeful at the same time. The house is barely standing, the work ahead of her feels overwhelming, and yet there’s something incredibly symbolic about trying to rebuild something broken while you’re also trying to rebuild yourself. There’s a quiet determination in Skye that makes it impossible not to root for her.
I also loved how real the village felt. The islanders weren’t just background characters – they felt like a true community, full of warmth, humour and kindness that slowly wrapped itself around Skye as she began to find her place among them. It was lovely to see a variety of new owners arriving to take on the other properties too, and this mix of people really brought a vibrancy to the story – a group of strangers, all arriving with their own reasons for leaving the past behind and hoping for something different. It reminded me so much of those travel programmes and news stories about abandoned homes across Europe being sold for next to nothing so people can restore them and bring life back to quiet villages. Reading this honestly made me think that if I ever had the money, the courage and the energy needed, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
One of my favourite parts of the story was the discovery of the hidden letters. Those fragile pages slowly reveal a story from the past – one filled with love, heartbreak, bravery and sacrifice. The dual timeline was beautifully handled, with the past and present gently echoing one another in ways that felt meaningful rather than forced. I’ll admit that I’m not usually drawn to stories set during wartime, but this book approached it in such a thoughtful and human way. Rather than focusing heavily on the war itself, it shows the impact it had on ordinary people – on a small island community whose lives were suddenly changed when soldiers arrived on their shores. That quieter perspective made the historical storyline feel even more powerful and emotional.
The descriptive writing throughout the book was wonderful. I could almost feel the warmth of the Mediterranean sun, see the faded blue doors and winding streets, and imagine the slower rhythm of life on the island. It’s the kind of setting that draws you in completely and makes you wish you could stay there a little longer. But more than anything, this is a story about second chances – about the courage it takes to begin again when life hasn’t gone the way you expected. Both timelines carry that message in their own way, and by the end I found myself completely invested in these characters and their journeys.
For me, this was the perfect kind of escapist read: emotional, atmospheric and deeply comforting, even when it touched on darker moments. It’s a story about healing, community, and the hidden histories that places — and people — quietly hold. A wonderful reminder that sometimes the bravest thing we can do is begin again somewhere new. The kind of story that makes you want to step into its pages and stay there a while.
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See About My Reviews and Review FAQ for full star rating explanations and review guidelines. This review may also appear on my social media channels and selected book platforms. All links were correct at the time of publication. Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley, thanks to Penguin. This review reflects my own reading experience. This review is original content. Please credit and link back if you wish to quote.
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