Guest Review: A Cottage in the Country by Katie Fforde

She's found her dream home but can she make her dreams a reality?

Hattie finds other people their dream homes for a living.

Surely she, of all people, has the connections and the knowledge to find her own forever home? Instead, she baffles those closest to her by choosing to pack up and move every few months from one housesitting job to the next.

Of course, that's because she knows where she wants to live. It's a beautiful house owned by a lovely old woman who'd simply love for Hattie to have it.

But nothing is ever that simple.

There's Clive who refuses to listen to his great-aunt's wishes about her house. There's Luke, Hattie's oldest friend, who just wants to see her happy. And there's Hattie herself. It might take a difficult client, an awkward teenager and a couple of dogs to help her see what really makes a house a home.

As soon as I saw the cover of Katie Fforde’s latest book, I knew I was in for a trip to the countryside with some interesting characters, and their dogs. This was one of those stories that had me hooked from the very start and was finished all too soon, leaving me missing the now familiar people I had met.

The story concerns Hattie, whose job, when she is not match-making, is to find the perfect home for other people. However, she has no home of her own, preferring to house-sit for others, moving every few months. Hattie has found the home of her dreams, but it is owned by an elderly lady who is her friend but who can’t sell her the cottage even though she would dearly love to do just that. What’s more, her great-nephew is suspicious of Hattie’s friendship with his aunt. Her family can’t understand Hattie’s nomadic life, but she is lucky to have some supportive friends, including Luke, who would do anything for her. When Hattie’s sister asks her to look after her teenage son, she is worried that he may not fit into her lifestyle, but finds him surprisingly good company. As it begins to look as though Hattie will have to find a permanent home once and for all, can she find the perfect match?

I enjoyed reading this charming, romantic story set in the picturesque Cotswolds. For me, Hattie was quite an unusual, if likeable, character. Having spotted the home she would dearly love to own, she could not imagine living anywhere else. Likewise, despite matching other people who were meant for each other, she could not seem to see the perfect partner for herself in a friend who was always ready with help when she needed it. I loved the relationship that Hattie built up with her teenage nephew; more than anyone in the family, he seemed to understand her. There was a touch of the supernatural in the story that I found a little out of place, but it did not spoil my enjoyment. All in all, this is a perfect book to settle down with and escape into the country for a few hours.

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Guest Review: Murder Among the Roses by Liz Fielding

MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S THE BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.

In the peaceful Cotswolds village of Maybridge, you wouldn’t expect to find a dead body in the rose garden. And certainly not two.

Abby is horrified to discover the bones of a baby buried under a rose bush. It’s in the garden of her soon-to-be ex-husband Howard’s family home.

She immediately calls the police. But she can’t get hold of Howard. He’s off on a jolly with the woman he’s got pregnant.

And then, just two days later, Abby finds Howard himself.

Lying dead in the very same rose garden.

Throat slashed with her own garden spade.

Now Abby is the prime suspect . . .

Review: This is the first book from this author that I have read. It’s actually the first in a trilogy, but is a standalone story.

The central character in this book is Abby Finch, a landscape gardener living in the small Cotswolds village of Maybridge with her three children. She is going through a contentious divorce from cheating husband Howard who is set to marry his pregnant girlfriend. While working in the overgrown garden of her husband’s future home, Abby makes the grizzly discovery of what turns out to be a baby’s remains, apparently buried there many years ago. Still recovering from the shock of that discovery, Abby is further dismayed to find Howard dead in the exact same spot, having been killed with her spade. Since he had argued with several people just before his death, the police are not short of suspects in the crime. Everyone has motive, but who will turn out to be the murderer? And who was the mother of the dead baby?

I very much enjoyed this murder mystery, which kept me guessing until the very end with all its twists and turns. There were many interesting characters in the story in addition to Abby. She herself was a typical busy working mother who many would identify with, juggling the everyday demands of children with running her own business. I did like her children, who were quite sensible and sensitive to their mother’s needs. Howard, however, was definitely not a likeable person, riding roughshod over everybody. As you would expect with such a sociable person, Abby had no lack of friends in the community, who rallied round in her time of need. There was also the promise of romance in the shape of an old flame who turned up just at the right moment. I will be looking out for the next book in the series, hoping to catch up with Abby and family again.

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