Review: One Enchanted Evening

One Enchanted Evening by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book set in the 1960s loosely based around a group of young middle-class women who attended a cookery class in London. As I've said in my reviews of the previous books in this 'series', the historical setting works well for Katie Fforde's genre of romance which almost always features an artistic, slightly virginal (ie either a virgin or only ever had one lover, possible a deceased husband) young woman, and a taciturn man who turns out to have been secretly in love with her all the time. Think a modern Emma and you won't go far wrong.

Meg has been interning in London restaurants and has managed to get some good experience, despite the endemic sexism of the time. Then her mother, who is the live-in housekeeper at a stately home turned hotel in Dorset begs her to come and help out. The owner has gone to France to try to settle his father's will, leaving her alone to manage the hotel. There is an annual dinner held at the hotel and the irascible chef has fired all the local staff, preferring to use agency staff instead, who have cancelled at the last minute. As soon as Meg arrives the chef also quits and leaves her totally in the lurch. With the assistance of some of the locals and a long-term resident of the hotel, Meg manages to make a good start on preparing the meal, substituting some of the former chef's packet ingredients for more season-appropriate fresh ingredients from the extensive kitchen gardens. But just when everything seems to be under control a very rude young man comes into the kitchen and starts throwing his weight around. It's Justin, the owner's son, a chef in his own right, who seems determined to find fault with everything Meg has done.

The hotel's owner and Meg's mother are involved romantically, but he and his brother are locked in battle over their father's will and the hotel may need to be sold, especially since it is losing money. Meg loves the old hotel, even if it is looking a bit shabby, but it is losing out to a modern hotel close by, which has a celebrity chef and a swimming pool, as well as en-suite bathrooms, so she will do whatever she can to reinvigorate the hotel and bring in new customers.

I think this is one of the best Katie Fforde romances I have read for a while. The 1960s setting, and his ambivalent feelings towards his father, totally explains Justin's attitude to Meg and her mother, yet it is also quite clear to the reader fairly early on that Justin is also quite smitten by Meg and finds any excuse to visit the hotel. Sure you have to suspend disbelief a little bit to think that a coat of paint, a bunch of flowers, and a few new cushion covers will miraculous make the hotel more inviting, but much is made of the homely (in the good sense) atmosphere, more of a home-from-home than a hotel, somewhere the aristocracy can stay while attending social events in the area.

Anyway, loved it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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