Philippa Taylor (Pepper to her friends) has big dreams. When she closes her eyes, she can picture exactly who she ought to be. The problem is, it's about as far away from her real life in a small coastal town in Suffolk as she can imagine.
So when her elderly friend Josephine persuades Pepper to accompany her on a trip to Europe, she jumps at the chance to change her routine. And when Pepper bumps (literally) into the handsome Finn in Lisbon, it seems as though she might have finally found what she's been looking for.
But Pepper knows all too well things are rarely as they seem. Her own quiet life hides a dark secret from the past. And even though she and Finn may have been destined to find each other, Pepper suspects life may have other plans as to how the story should end.
A romantic and sweeping story about friendship, love and realising that sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination.
Review: I always love Isabelle Broom’s writing and her ability to take me all over the world with her books.
I adored the travel aspect of this book because we get to go to some more unusual locations. I loved visiting Lisbon, Guernsey and Hamburg in the novel. I loved the sights and the sounds as well as the food and the drink of course. This author has such a way with words you can fall in love with a place and have the urge to visit even if you hadn’t even given it a second thought before. I also love her writing because you can literally taste everything her characters are eating, I just wish I didn’t feel the hangovers as much after the wine!
Pepper is an interesting and complex character. I will admit that I did struggle to connect with her a little over the course of the novel. She has had a certain amount of tragedy in her life and acts accordingly. I do feel like she is a little selfish at times but when we get to know her and her past, especially her family life we can see why. Then we have Josephine who is definitely a positive influence in Pepper. She also has a selfish streak but in a ‘I don’t care what you think of me’ kind of way which is really hard not to love.
Of course we don’t just have a love story when it comes to travel and location in this novel, we also get to meet Finn who takes a liking to our Pepper. Again though I did struggle to connect with him on the page a little, I was wishing someone better would come along, I guess I just have very different tastes to Pepper and that is just fine.
I loved the travel in this novel, I loved the writing and as always Isabelle Broom has left me with such vivid pictures in front of me thanks to her wonderful description and I can’t wait to see where she is going to take me next.
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