Wednesday 18 September 2019

Guest Review: A Rose Petal Summer by Katie Fforde

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO FALL IN LOVE...
Caro Swanson has taken a job in a remote part of Scotland.
She’s answered an ad in The Lady: being a companion to an elderly gentleman who lives in a country estate could be perfect! Surely it's time to make a change and do something different for a while?
The fact that she may also see Alec, the young man who she met some years previously and who she has always thought of as her ‘one who got away’, is of course purely incidental.
Soon Caro is falling in love - not only with Alec but with the stunning country house she's now living in. But the estate is in financial difficulties, and Caro soon realises there's only one way to rescue it.
So begins a magical romantic summer, one that will take Caro from Scotland to London and the south of France, in search of a classic lost perfume that might just restore all their fortunes.



Review: This latest book from one of my favourite authors is sure to catch the eye, with its fresh, summery cover. I’m sad to say that it sat calling to me from my bookshelf for a few weeks before life calmed down enough for me to give it the attention it deserved. Once I had time to sit down and delve into the story, it had me lost in its pages and all too soon it was finished. Another wonderful story from this great story teller. 

I think that the lovely cover says France to me, and there is a bit of France in the story, but it is set in Scotland, with a little bit of London thrown in. Caro has taken a job as companion to an elderly gentleman who lives in a crumbling but magnificent large house in the Scottish highlands. Caro usually resides in London on a Dutch barge with daughter Posy, but this temporary job seems ideal for her while Posy is off to visit her dad in Australia. When she arrives at the Scottish estate, she finds her accommodation not quite what she expected, and, although the old gentleman is just as described, the rest of the family is much more complicated. She soon becomes involved in all sorts of situations, mainly involving teenager Rowan and her divorced parents; and how did she end up planning a wedding and designing a perfume for a celebrity? Of course, the most difficult circumstance is that Rowan’s father, Alec, is someone who Caro met twenty years ago in Greece; she has never forgotten him, but will he remember her, and will it be with such fondness? 

This is a really engaging and enjoyable story, with its twists and turns and promise of romance for many of the characters. I can definitely recommend it to other readers, whether they have read any of Katie’s previous books or not. The Scottish estate makes a beautiful setting, so well described by the author. Although I love the highlands, I could equally well imagine enjoying living on Caro’s barge; again, I could picture it so well from Katie Fforde’s descriptions. The story is full of interesting characters and dramatic situations. Just as one seems settled another blows up - never a dull moment with this family that Caro has joined. The whole story had me enthralled and always coming back for more.


To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

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