A Cottage in the Country: The new heartwarming romance from the beloved #1 Sunday Times bestselling author by Katie FfordeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
Hattie is a house-finder (nothing like an estate agent) in the Cotswolds, finding the perfect property for her clients. She also happens to have visions (inherited from her Irish grandmother) which show her romantic couples for good (or bad) and she does her best to honour those visions by either bringing the couples together, or helping them to split up. However, despite all her success for her clients, Hattie has been unable to find her own forever home and instead house-sits for various landlords on a temporary basis. The house she really loves belongs to an octogenarian friend of hers called Mary, a beautiful old Cotswolds cottage, but Hattie knows she could never afford it, even if Mary's nephew Clive has neglected basic maintenance for too long.
Her best friends are Rose who owns a local shop (who Hattie got together with her now-husband) and Luke, a restorer of old houses. Everyone thinks she and Luke should be more than friends, but Hattie has always shied away from that, what could be worse than losing a partner and a best friend in one?
When Hattie's bossy older sister gets a job in Switzerland she asks (demands) that Hattie look after her fifteen-year old son Xander who has been having some trouble at school and has been enrolled at a local school which specialises in helping troubled teens.
After Katie Fforde's recent books set in the 1960s this was a nice return to present day and I have to say for the first 75% of the book I was absolutely loving it, no shrinking virginal heroine, just a lovely friends to lovers (eventually) romance. Two things brought down what was a solid four star rating for me: Clive, and the 'secret'. Clive was too much of a pantomime villain, and the secret was totally unnecessary and I don't understand why it was a secret in the first place.
But other than those minor gripes (which is a bit like saying I wish Katie Fforde wasn't so Katie Fforde I know), this was a feel good, sweet romance - just what you would expect.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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