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Destination Chile
Katy Colins
‘Bridget Jones goes backpacking.’ - Holly Martin, author of ‘A Town Called Christmas’ seriesWelcome to ParadiseGeorgia has just been offered the opportunity of a lifetime! She’ll be starring in a TV adventure travel show that will put her and Ben’s business well and truly on the map.But Georgia’s not quite sure their relationship is ready to be put under the microscope – because even though they survived their first argument the discovery of a sparkling engagement ring in Ben’s suitcase has put Georgia’s head in a spin! Are they really ready for marriage? And more importantly, after all the heartbreak, is she?This journey is sure to be an adventure like no other. Against the backdrop of rugged and wild Chile, Ben and Georgia must decide if their love is worth fight for…The new favourite series for fans of Bridget Jones’s Diary, the Shopaholic series and Eat, Pray, Love.What reviewers are saying about The Lonely Hearts Travel Club'I feel Destination Chile is a must read for everyone.' - Sweet is Always in Style‘I cannot recommend this book enough. It is beautifully written with a brilliant plot and fantastic characters. READ IT!!’ – Blabbering About Books‘I loved this book.’ – For the Love of Books‘It is a really enthralling page turner and a brilliant start to a new series. I can’t wait to read the sequels, ‘Destination India’ and ‘Destination Chile’!’ – Splashes into Books
Praise for KATY COLINS (#ulink_ce8ff41d-4463-577e-b190-f347cb1c761c)
‘As well as being a sensory tour of a stunning country, this is a story with real heart. We absolutely loved it.’
– Heat on Destination India
‘Katy writes with humour and heart. The Lonely Hearts Travel Club is like Bridget Jones goes backpacking.’
– Holly Martin, author of The White Cliff Bay series
‘The perfect first-sunny-afternoon in the garden book!’
– Kathleen Gray on Destination India
‘I cannot recommend this book enough. It is beautifully written with a brilliant plot and fantastic characters. READ IT!!’
– Blabbering About Books on Destination Thailand
‘Imaginative, fascinating, and funny!’
– What’s Better Than Books? on Destination India
‘If you’re looking for an escape from the cold, winter nights, the drudgery of day to day life and love to read about exotic locations then Katy Colins’s debut novel is the book for you.’
– Ellen Faith on Destination Thailand
‘A great book to pop in your holiday/weekend bag that will make you just want more.’
– The Reading Shed on Destination India
‘Destination Thailand had me hooked from the very first page and kept me up ’til 2:30 a.m. as I was dying to know what happened next.’
– Books and Boardies
‘I loved this book.’
– For the Love of Books on Destination Thailand
Destination: Chile
Katy Colins
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_255a7f3c-e1ba-5e23-b507-4705cd3545cb)
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2016
Copyright © Katy Colins 2016
Katy Colins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9781474046725
Version date: 2018-07-23
KATY COLINS (#ulink_640c854b-d631-549b-91e3-0b0eff1c7c28)
KATY sold all she owned, filled a backpack and booked a one-way ticket to south east Asia after her wedding was called off – and never looked back.
The acclaimed travel blogger’s experiences inspired her to pen The Lonely Travel Hearts Club and even saw her labelled the ‘Backpacking Bridget Jones’.
When she’s not globe-trotting, writing about her adventures and telling anyone who’ll listen to grab life by the horns, Katy loves catching up with family and friends and convincing herself that her cake addiction isn’t out of control – just yet.
You can find out more about Katy, her writing and her travels on her blog www.notwedordead.com (http://www.notwedordead.com) or via social media @notwedordead
The most inspiring people are the ones who don’t even
know they’re doing it.
Charlotte, this is for you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER (#u54023ea4-ad2a-525a-bdff-a337b25af746)
Praise for KATY COLINS (#ulink_5d0138e6-43ad-5733-8a9e-f1ace7901550)
TITLE PAGE (#u4648cb5d-c157-5093-aaeb-329fadda0f54)
COPYRIGHT (#ua5a02d37-1bdc-5832-876d-55b04fa71043)
KATY COLINS (#ulink_cdebf4e2-ca52-59f5-a94c-0257538bda40)
DEDICATION (#u91f313fd-d64c-591d-a473-63ecefa0fc75)
CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_040e6bc3-b715-50d0-899c-e847efb3ccfb)
CHAPTER 2 (#ulink_e1cc55cb-2626-50b9-a2a6-169814d19898)
CHAPTER 3 (#ulink_ff484d67-62f3-56a1-a71a-581e37b20f03)
CHAPTER 4 (#ulink_cd0ac0bc-fb3a-5ae6-9cc0-283dd0392d11)
CHAPTER 5 (#ulink_a0c36555-b991-5b0f-9b76-c215a7ca5507)
CHAPTER 6 (#ulink_78cd6f06-836e-5f53-b2fd-71e07d9e9f08)
CHAPTER 7 (#ulink_5d8fbc36-4b2b-5700-8dfb-ce5b93c4e8b1)
CHAPTER 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#litres_trial_promo)
ENDPAGES (#litres_trial_promo)
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_8d7ccab0-e8c0-54a0-9b27-3ed59ed3509d)
Glean (v.) – To find out
‘Do you really need another candle?’ Ben asked, pushing our overflowing trolley through the winding aisles of Ikea.
I’d stopped to sniff the warming scent of a pale green, stumpy candle and stared at him as if he’d just asked me if I ever got tired of eating chocolate. ‘You can never have too many candles; everyone knows that.’
‘Well if it makes you happy, I guess. I just don’t see the point in buying things to then set fire to; it’s like you are literally burning money.’ He laughed, shaking his head. ‘Although the question is, are they called Grönkulla or Färdfull or even Knutstorp? I mean that could change everything.’ He put on a terrible Scandinavian accent, like he had for most of the last hour, making me giggle.
‘Actually, they’re called Fyrkantig, but, oh my God, you’re like fluent!’ I teased.
He pushed out his chest proudly. ‘Yup. Oh wait should that be “ja”? Come on, though, I’m starving and you promised me meatballs.’
I dropped a couple more gorgeously smelly candles in amongst the fluffy white cushions, photo frames and other practical and pretty household goods and linked my arm around his waist. ‘Okay, one plate of meatballs coming right up.’ I then bit my lip and looked at our stash. ‘Do you reckon we’ve got everything we need?’
‘We literally have got everything.’ He let out a long groan, which I knew was hiding how much he’d actually enjoyed our jaunt through the huge warehouse that was so enormous it could be its own nation state.
I, on the other hand, had been stupidly nervous about our first couple’s trip here. After all, shopping for joint furniture in Ikea was a rite of passage in any relationship, especially as the last time I’d been here with my ex, Alex, in this ‘Swedish hellhole’, as he’d called it, and we’d left with a Billy bookcase and a blazing row. We didn’t speak for two hours after the shopping trip that I’d previously imagined to be full of excitement at building our home together and not the fraught nightmare of bickering arguments – and that was before we’d even got to the tricky part of assembling the damn things.
This time, everything was different. Ben and I had meandered through the vast shop on our first official visit; we weren’t squabbling over who did the most cooking as we walked through the kitchen showroom, or awkwardly quickening our pace through the kids’ section. It was, well, actually fun. It was everything I’d imagined it would be before that disastrous trip with Alex.
But now, two hours after first stepping foot in here, I realised that Ben’s enjoyment levels were waning. The only time that we could both make it to come here was a Saturday and it felt like the rest of Manchester had had the exact same idea. We shuffled along, behind harassed DIY-ers, screaming children and couples having heated rows under their breath over who had the better taste in curtain patterns, all diligently following the maze of yellow arrows to the exit.
‘I reckon they need to move away from each other before these tiny weeny pencils find themselves wedged some place they shouldn’t be,’ Ben had said, nodding at one older married couple who were glaring at each other with looks so vicious it seemed they might start divorce proceedings amongst the Jeff chairs and Ektorp sofas. For many people, stepping foot in here makes you suddenly realise that your partner’s awful taste in soft furnishings represents all the things you despise about them and that, really, you can’t actually stand each other.
I’d let out a little laugh and pulled him through one of the mystery Scooby Doo doors, a hidden passageway to skip over the bathroom showroom completely, a trick I’d remembered the last time I’d been here when I’d marched off in a huff after Alex had called my choice in bath mats ‘too common’. The rat maze they force you to follow is why coming here is so full of potential pitfalls for any relationship whether new or well established: you can’t easily leave. They lie to you about the exits – well they don’t lie, but in my pissed off state I’d felt like I was stomping around in circles, passing the same bunch of equally harassed people clutching their bright yellow carrier bags like comfort blankets. But this time I was prepared. This time I knew the shortcuts.
‘Let’s never become like them. Promise me,’ I’d whispered clutching Ben’s hand.
