Acknowledgements
My regular readers will know there’s an army hard at work behind the name written in bold type on the cover. The team at Pan Macmillan are the very best at what they do, but they always make it such fun! This year has been different for us all – meetings held over Zoom instead of our usual lively meet-ups around a conference table, everyone (not just me!) working from home – but they’ve still done an incredible job of making sure the books are as finessed, polished and widely available to you as ever. Pan people, thank you, you make it look easy but I know it’s not.
To my editor Caroline Hogg and my agent Amanda Preston, I feel our team just gets stronger and stronger. You are the start and end point of every book, and your insights and inputs are completely invaluable. Thank you!
Finally, to my family – everything I do is for you and because of you. You are my whole world and I feel like the luckiest person on the planet to live life with you. Thank you for inspiring me to work harder, to keep trying to do better, and for supporting me in all the ways you do. I love you to bits.
The Secret Path
Karen Swan is the Sunday Times top three bestselling author of twenty books and her novels sell all over the world. She writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Previous winter titles include Christmas at Tiffany’s, The Christmas Party and Together by Christmas, and for summer, The Greek Escape, The Spanish Promise and The Hidden Beach.
Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots, sometimes telling two stories in the same book.
Previously a fashion editor, she lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.
Follow Karen on Instagram @swannywrites, on her author page on Facebook, and on Twitter @KarenSwan1.
Also by Karen Swan
Players
Prima Donna
Christmas at Tiffany’s
The Perfect Present
Christmas at Claridge’s
The Summer Without You
Christmas in the Snow
Summer at Tiffany’s
Christmas on Primrose Hill
The Paris Secret
Christmas Under the Stars
The Rome Affair
The Christmas Secret
The Greek Escape
The Christmas Lights
The Spanish Promise
The Christmas Party
The Hidden Beach
Together by Christmas
First published 2021 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2021 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Limited
Mallard Lodge, Lansdowne Village, Dublin 4
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-0627-8
Copyright © Karen Swan 2021
Cover Images: Woman © Getty Images / Sven Hansche / EyeEm, background © Shutterstock
The right of Karen Swan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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