#Blogtour #Review: A Year in the Château by Sarah Long @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #AYearInTheChateau4/3/2020 Release date - 5th March 2020
Book length - 416 pages Publisher - Zaffre BUY LINKS: Worldwide - www.bookdepository.com UK - www.amazon.co.uk US - www.amazon.com I want to thank Tracy from www.compulsivereaders.com for the opportunity to take part in this blog tour and for providing me with an e-copy of this book for review via Netgalley. ABOUT THIS BOOK When Nicola's husband, Dominic, retires they decide not to spend their days finding hobbies to fill the time until Countdown is on. Instead, they fulfil their life-long fantasy of buying a country house and filling it with their dearest friends. Reliving their youth and spending their children's inheritance. Joined by seven of their friends they club together to invest in a château in Normandy. Group dinners, fine wine, beautiful scenery - they're living the dream! But la vie en rose is harder than it first appears. Is there a reason why only teenagers take gap years? MY REVIEW Who hasn't dreamed of giving up the rat race and humdrum of everyday life, and moving to the French countryside to retire in style? Well, in A YEAR IN THE CHÂTEAU by Sarah Long you don't have to dream as you get to experience it all with some cracking characters along the way to keep you entertained. Fed up of the constant go, go, go of life, Nicola and Dominic hatch the perfect plan for their retirement now that their children are all grown up and shouldn't need them as much - they will move to France and buy a château with a group of their closest friends, where they will each have their own apartment but a communal area for socialising, and they can live off the land and truly relax for the first time. Paradise, right? But what happens when old crushes resurface alongside some secrets that were never meant to see the light of day? Or when their historical home starts to look more like a crumbling ruin as time goes on? I loved the premise of this story from the very beginning and that didn't change by the end of the story - the idea that a group of friends could live together, with their own space too, and enjoy each other's company even though they all have very different personalities, tickled me throughout and was a unique take on the retiring abroad dynamic. The characters are all fresh, unique, and likeable (some more likeable than others), and I enjoyed getting to know each one. The setting is excellently depicted and I could picture the château in my head with great detail which I always enjoy, and there are some surprises along the way to keep you entertained. A YEAR IN THE CHÂTEAU by Sarah Long is not a fast-paced story but rather a story that slowly unfurls at a relaxed pace and I found it to be an enjoyable tale of growing older but still wanting to follow new dreams and have an exciting future. An enjoyable story from start to finish. AUTHOR BIO Sarah Long was raised in Essex, educated at Oxford and worked in publishing before moving to Paris with her husband and young children. She now lives in London with the same husband and most of her adult children, at the midlife stage that inspired her new novel Invisible Women. She is the author of two previous novels, And What Do You Do? and The Next Best Thing, as well as Le Dossier of Hortense de Monplaisir or How to Survive the English, a helpful guide to understanding the ways of the British, as seen through the eyes of her snobbish Parisian alter ego. Although now back in the motherland, she has failed to leave France behind, and spends as much time as possible at her house in rural Normandy, making jam, digging things up and watching the wildlife which often ends up, uninvited, indoors. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT SOME OF THE OTHER STOPS ALONG THE WAY!!!!
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Release date - 6th February 2020
Book length - 432 pages Publisher - Penguin BUY LINKS: Worldwide - www.bookdepository.com UK - www.amazon.co.uk US - www.amazon.com I want to thank Sriya from Michael Joseph Books for the opportunity to take part in this blog tour and for providing me with a copy of this book for review. ABOUT THIS BOOK Emily just wants to keep the world away. After getting into trouble yet again, she's agreed to attend anger management classes. But she refuses to share her deepest secrets with a room full of strangers. Jake just wants to keep his family together. He'll do anything to save his marriage and bond with his six-year-old son, Alfie. But when he's paired with spiky Emily, he wonders whether opening up will do more harm than good. The two of them couldn't be more different. Yet when Alfie, who never likes strangers, meets Emily, something extraordinary happens. Could one small boy change everything? MY REVIEW SATURDAYS AT NOON by Rachel Marks is a story that completely took me by surprise and had me gripped with its emotional and eye-opening story about life, and the unexpected paths it takes with unexpected people that will change you along the way. Jake is at anger management because he is desperate to figure out his life and fix his family. They are all struggling in their own ways and shouting the roof off at every turn isn't going to make things better so he is willing to see if anyone at this group can help him. He is desperate and something has to change because Alfie, his little boy, is all that matters at the end of the day. Emily is at anger management because it is court-ordered but she has nothing in common with these people, especially Jake. But sometimes looks can be deceiving and beneath her hard and tough exterior is a more vulnerable Emily who just needs to connect with someone who she can understand. She just never guessed it would be a six-year-old boy ... This book got me in the heart and I devoured it in one evening. Jake is frustrated by his son's behaviour and his wife's detachment from it all and he lashes out with angry words, but it becomes so obvious to see that his frustration is fear for the fact that his little boy is different and fear that the world will never accept him. Emily has been hurt so badly in the past so it's no wonder she has built up these high walls around herself and her heart but when she meets Alfie, Jake's son, she can relate to him in ways that many have never tried to before and is willing to let Alfie be Alfie no matter what and no matter how difficult it can sometimes be. And then there is Alfie, who is always perceptive and refreshingly himself, who stole the show in this story and taught me so much as I read each page. I had a lump in my throat when I finished SATURDAYS AT NOON by Rachel Marks and I'm sure I'm not the only reader who felt that way. Rachel Marks has written a story that is so moving, a story that will help so many families feel less alone, and a story that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. I cannot wait to read what's next from this superb author. AUTHOR BIO My debut novel, Saturdays at Noon, is out NOW and is about two mismatched strangers who meet at anger management and an extraordinary little boy who eventually helps them see everything differently. I really hope you enjoy it. I live in Gloucestershire with my husband and two young sons. When I'm not writing, I love travelling, snowboarding and photography. For more information: Twitter - twitter.com/Rache1Marks Instagram - www.instagram.com/rachelmarksauthor/ DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT SOME OF THE OTHER STOPS ALONG THE WAY!!! |
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