A close connection - Patricia Fawcett

Eleanor is delighted when her daughter Nicola marries Matthew, a charming ambitious young man, but she is less enamored with his parents. The two couples may be connected by their children’s marriage, but they are poles apart: Paula works in a gift card shop, Alan is a driving instructor, and they live in a terraced house in Plymouth, whilst Eleanor and her husband Henry run a business in antiques and collectibles and share a grand property in Cornwall. Eleanor suggests a holiday in Italy so that the four of them can get to know each other and perhaps—although she doubts it—become friends. It takes much more than a mere holiday and some heartache before she and Paula eventually reach an understanding, and for their children, Nicola and Matthew, married life follows a tortuous path with the reappearance of an old girlfriend who causes havoc.