The Perfect Match by Katie FfordeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This started well and fizzled out by the end for me.
After falling in love with a married man at work and a forbidden kiss under the mistletoe Bella Castle abruptly left her job and her home, moving away to avoid temptation. Three years later she is working for her boyfriend Nevil at a small estate agents ad living with her godmother Alice. Bella kids herself that she and Nevil are in love even though he wants her to pretend they aren't a couple while they are at work, he never listens to anything she says, he criticises her clothes and what she eats, he is patronising and belittles her.
As with all Katie Fforde heroines, Bella is special. Although she is an estate agent (often considered the lowest of the low), Bella has a gift for finding the right property for her clients and will cheerfully take them round hundreds of properties pointing out issues and generally being a Disney princess. On the other hand, if her clients are selling properties she will persuade them to do some minor improvements to help them achieve a better sale. One of her clients is Jane, who is living in a large house which is too much for her to manage but she doesn't want to sell. Originally sent to try to persuade Jane to sell, Bella now just visits Jane as a friend and helps out with some of the minor chores.
Jane's nephew comes to stay with her and turns out to be Bella's married crush from three years ago, Dominic Thane. Even worse, he has decided to move to the town and is looking for a home. Bella can barely ask about Dominic's wife and the baby they were expecting when she left.
So here we are, a love triangle between the rebound guy who is just plain nasty and the married man from her past. Also, as a bit of light relief, Alice meets a younger man on the train and begins an unlikely romance.
As I said, I quite enjoyed the start of this novel but by the end Bella had degenerated into an Enid Blyton teenager (something she kind of acknowledges) investigating nefarious deeds by Nevil and a mysterious man, she blunders around with no evidence whatsoever and is frankly TSTL. Also, I didn't buy into the Dominic love, either he behaved really badly while he was still married or Bella dreamed up a romance, then he is back in town and Wham! she is in love with him again. Someone pointed out in a review of another Katie Fforde novel that her heroes are always metaphorically patting her heroines on the head and telling them not to be silly,the big strong man will sort it out. Now while I agree that Bella was being silly, I found Dominic's condescension, especially when he hadn't declared himself, to be equally as obnoxious.
If you like Katie Fforde escapist romance I am sure you will like this too, just not my favourite.
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