Celebrations at the Chateau: A cosy feel-good read to curl up with this winter by Jo ThomasMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fliss and her two older sisters travel to France to see the property their grandfather left in his will. Never having even heard about the property they are expecting a holiday cottage of some description, not a full-blown chateau. Unfortunately, the sisters' plans to sell the chateau are thwarted when they discover they have a sitting tenant, not only that, but they have to pay this tenant a monthly stipend otherwise the chateau reverts to the previous owners!
When her sisters return to England to their jobs and families Fliss is left in France to try to resolve the situation, not helped by the moody guy next door or the hostile townspeople. A chance broken-down car outside the chateau offers Fliss the opportunity to let a family spend the night and that gives her the idea of starting a bed and breakfast operation, assisted by her teenage nephew who has been excluded from his school in England for selling drugs.
Fliss has always felt herself to be an underachiever, hampered by dyslexia at school, she has held a series of fairly menial jobs, when she got the opportunity to buy the café she worked in, she was too timid and ended up working for the new owners instead, and her long-term relationship appears to have hit the rocks as soon as she mentioned the future possibility of children. But what seemed to Fliss and her sisters as lack of direction is perfect training for running a chateau. She can direct cars into parking correctly, she can cook breakfasts for lots of people, she knows how to clean, and she knows how to grow vegetables.
Jo Thomas has freely admitted that this book is inspired by the delightful TV series Escape to the Chateau and this is a charming story wound around that delightful premise. I will warn you that the frequent descriptions of amazing food will have you salivating all over your Kindle though!
This might be (100% definitely is) somewhat idyllic, the hard graft of cleaning an old, neglected chateau is brushed aside in a few words, there's no mention of the back-breaking amount of laundry required to strip and wash several sets of bedding and towels after each change of guests, interspersed with cleaning and washing up and repairing the house. Fliss manages to do all these things effortlessly. But that is all part of the charm of this feel-good romance.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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