Review: A French Affair

A French Affair by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, this is not what I imagined from the title.

Gina Makepiece, a freelance PR agent, and her sister Sally inherit a stall in an antiques centre called the French House from their Aunt together with a very small sum of money to start off their antiquing careers. Sally quickly loses interest, preferring new things, but Gina soon gets the bug, assisted by the owner of the French House, Matthew Ballinger. The French House is very quiet and not trading as well as some of the rival antique shops in the town, but every time Gina suggests a way to drum up new business Matthew shoots her down, he really is a doom-and-gloom merchant!

But when a conniving, local shop owner colludes with Matthew's ex-wife and Gina's ex-boyfriend to buy the French House at a deep discount Gina rallies the troops to raise the necessary funds to pay off Matthew's ex and save the French House.

I'm sure it isn't, but this is the first Katie Fforde book I can recall which lets loose the F-bomb, not once but several times! Published in 2013 it feels more modern than some of her other books I have read and Matthew isn't one of her domineering, know-it-all, I love you but I won't tell you until the last 10 pages of the book, heroes that I loathe. Also he has a dog, so naturally he is a good hero ;)

Overall, despite the setting being somewhat different to what I had assumed, I really enjoyed this Katie Fforde romance.

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