The Perfect Match - Katie Fforde

Katie Fforde's books are always a treat, as comforting as a cup of tea & a Sunday afternoon in my favourite reading chair. Her new novel, The Perfect Match, delivers all the bucolic Englishness we've come to expect although I didn't find the main romance quite as involving as usual this time around.

Bella Castle is a real estate agent in a small country town. She left her home town three years before after falling in love with a married man. Although their relationship consisted of nothing but flirting over the photocopier & a kiss under the mistletoe, once she realised Dominic was married & that his wife was pregnant, Bella left. Now, she has her life completely on track. She lives with her godmother, Alice, loves her job & is practically engaged to her boss, Nevil.

Bella is the kindest, most considerate & altruistic real estate agent I've ever met in fiction. She goes to endless trouble with picky clients & becomes friends with an elderly lady, Jane Langley, who doesn't want to sell her big, inconvenient house but is worried about the future when she can no longer manage the house & her beautiful garden. Nevil imagines that Bella's visits to Jane are a way of softening her up for the eventual sale of her house but Bella is genuinely concerned for Jane, who becomes a friend. Imagine Bella's dismay when Jane's nephew comes to visit & he turns out to be Dominic Thane, the man she left her previous job & life for. Bella is already having doubts about her relationship with Nevil & her doubts increase when she begins to suspect that he's involved in some dodgy property deals. Her decision to look for evidence of these deals leads her into potential danger.

Bella's godmother, Alice, is in her sixties, happy with her life although she is starting to get itchy feet in her comfortable domesticity after a life of travel. When she meets Michael on the train one day, there's an immediate attraction although she's reluctant to make too much of it as she's several years older than he is. However, Michael isn't deterred & their relationship moves quickly. Michael's two daughters are not so welcoming & Alice has to make some crucial decisions about her future.

Dominic could never understand why Bella left so abruptly & believes the rumours at their workplace that she had covered up for his wife, Celine, who was having an affair. Their marriage broke up soon afterwards. Dominic isn't happy to discover that Bella is his aunt's friend & Bella is dismayed to realise that she is still in love with Dominic. Their friendship slowly develops as misunderstandings are cleared away & Bella asks Dominic's help with her investigations into Nevil's shifty dealings.

The Perfect Match is a lovely book to read on a Sunday afternoon although I don't think it's as good as her earlier novels. Bella is a sweet girl but I couldn't understand why she was still with the odious Nevil. He might have built up her confidence when she first arrived but she really only seems to be still with him because she loves her job & knows he'd sack her if she broke up with him. Every word he says & every assumption he makes just shows that they're poles apart in values, morals & everything that matters. It surely didn't take her three years & the arrival of Dominic to work this out. Bella & Dominic's romance never really gets off the ground, they have so many obstacles to get over. I did love Alice & Michael's story & this reminds what I love about Katie Fforde's earlier novels. They were about older women still living interesting lives, having relationships & fitting all that in with busy lives. I believed in Alice where I didn't really believe in Bella.

A French Affair - Katie Fforde

Katie Fforde's books are always a treat. Romantic, funny, & often highlighting a very English preoccupation - canal boats, furniture restoration, auction houses or TV cooking shows. This time it's antiques. Gina & Sally Makepiece inherit a stall in an antiques market called the French House. Their Aunt Rainey was an eccentric life force & she wants the sisters to have a go at running the stall even though neither knows anything about antiques. Sally is a designer of crafty knick-knacks currently preoccupied with her twin daughters. Gina is in PR & she's just moved to the country to be near her sister after a painful breakup with her cheating boyfriend.

The owner of the French House is moody, taciturn Matthew Ballinger. He agrees to help Gina & Sally with the stall because he was fond of Rainey but it's obvious that he thinks they have little chance of making a go of it. The French House is home to an engaging group of dealers & artists who rent space there but, since the death of Matthew's father, the spirit seems to have gone out of the place. Gina immediately sees the potential of the house but she has a hard time convincing Matthew to try any of her ideas from Sunday opening to a Christmas fair. He does, however, agree to take her along to a few antiques fairs & help her get started.

Although Gina is definitely not looking for a relationship, she can't help but be attracted to Matthew who is darkly attractive if moody & mysterious. Although Matthew loves the French House & is reluctant to let his tenants down, he is also worried about his financial position. His ex-wife, Yvette, is clamouring for the rest of her settlement & she has a friend who is eager to buy the French House & set up her homewares business. As Gina & Matthew's relationship moves from tentative friendship to passionate romance, Gina becomes even more determined to find a way to save the French House. She also becomes increasingly interested in antiques & her sales skills are a definite asset.  After a blissful trip to France where Matthew is unfortunately unable to reason with Yvette, Gina decides to come up with a plan to save the French House from sale. The only problem is that Matthew is furious about her idea & their relationship suddenly turns from fire to frost.

A French Affair is a gorgeous book, perfect for reading in one long afternoon, as I did. Gina is a lovely character. She's warm, kindhearted & outgoing. She's determined to honour Aunt Rainey's legacy, even when she thinks the idea is completely mad & her growing feelings for Matthew are equally confusing & exhilarating. The country town setting, together with antiques & the trip to France, is just perfect for this kind of romantic story that Katie Fforde writes so well.

I read A French Affair courtesy of NetGalley.

Christmas short stories by Trisha Ashley, Katie Fforde & Elly Griffiths

I love reading books about Christmas at this time of year. This year, I have three treats to read in a spare moment with a cup of coffee as three of my favourite contemporary writers have published short stories on a Christmas theme - & two of them are free.

Katie Fforde's story, Staying Away at Christmas, is available as a digital-only story from Amazon. So, you'll need a Kindle or Kindle app to read it. It costs $1.52US & includes the first chapter of her forthcoming book, A French Affair. Miranda is a single mother setting off to spend Christmas in Devon with her two daughters. Miranda is taking stroppy teenager Isa & young Lulu to the holiday cottage they'd loved in summer but will it have the same charm in the middle of winter? When they arrive, they discover that widower Anthony & his two children, Dan & Amy, have also arrived for Christmas thinking that they had booked the cottage.  Anthony is aggressive & prickly & Miranda is anxious enough about Christmas without dealing with these complete strangers. Will Christmas be a disaster or a delight?

Trisha Ashley & Elly Griffiths have given their fans a Christmas present with a free short story available through their websites. Both are PDF documents so you can read them online, print them off or download them to your e-reader (I did this with Calibre).

Trisha's story is called A Christmas Wish & it's available here. A young Chloe Lyon from Trisha's novel Christmas Wishes sees an angel. Trisha also includes some yummy Christmas recipes from her books as well as a few new ones.

Elly's story, Ruth's First Christmas Tree, is available through the Quercus website. Just register here & you'll be sent a link to the story. Ruth is determined that her daughter Kate will have a proper, traditional Christmas, including a Christmas tree. Her plans don't quite work out but thanks to Cathbad & Nelson, Kate & Ruth have a Christmas to remember. I'm looking forward to reading Elly's new novel, A Dying Fall, when it's published early in the New Year.

Recipe for Love - Katie Fforde

Katie Fforde is one of my favourite authors when I'm in the mood for a romantic wallow. Last Sunday was one of those days because of my upset over my e-reader. I wanted to read a book that was guaranteed to cheer me up & Katie Fforde is a sure bet.

Zoe Harper has entered a MasterChef-style cooking competition. She hopes to win the prize money that will allow her to open her own deli. Smart, pretty, kind & helpful, Zoe is a delight. On her early arrival at the contest venue her helpfulness leads her to assist a grumpy motorist who has landed his car in a ditch. Gideon Irving is attractive in a non-obvious way, blunt, ungracious & one of the judges of the contest. Zoe & Gideon agree not to mention their accidental meeting but soon their mutual attraction means that their growing relationship becomes hard to disguise.

Zoe is sharing a room with another contestant, Cher, a really nasty young woman. Cher is a beautiful but brittle blonde, determined to win the contest by fair means or foul because she wants to be famous. She's not above flirting with the judges & sabotaging Zoe at every opportunity. Cher locks Zoe out of their room, hides her computer lead so she can't access her recipes & opens the window on a rainy day so Zoe's bed is soaked - all completely accidentally, of course.

Zoe's friendship with Fenella & Rupert, the owners of the country house where the contest is held, is another delightful subplot to the story. The fact that Gideon is staying with Fen & Rupert & every time Zoe can't sleep in her own bed, she ends up in Gideon's, softens the upset over Cher's vindictiveness. As the contest continues & one contestant is eliminated after every challenge, Zoe is kept on her toes . Several times she just scrapes through to the next round because of Cher's machinations or her own helpfulness - creating a stunning wedding cake at short notice for a friend of Fenella's & welcoming Rupert's vile parents to the house when Fenella goes into labour - which leaves her with little time to prepare for the next round of the contest. The final straw comes when Cher attempts to blackmail Zoe with photos of her & Gideon which would ruin his career & cause a scandal that would wreck the contest for everyone.

Recipe for Love is just as wonderful as all Katie's previous books. Funny, warm, romantic & with enough tension in the plotting that you wonder how Zoe will get through her latest entanglement. Gideon is a gorgeous hero, especially when he lulls Zoe to sleep by reading her Elizabeth David. The cooking aspect is also terrific. I love reading about food, especially the hearty good cooking that Zoe does so well. Fenella & Rupert are a lovely couple. I enjoyed their struggles with their half-renovated home & I think Rupert's bossy, domineering, tactless mother was my favourite character. I finished Recipe for Love with a contented sigh late on Sunday night, my e-reader problems forgotten. It was just what I needed.

Summer of Love - Katie Fforde

I've been a fan of Katie Fforde's novels since her first book, Living Dangerously, was published years ago. I like to save them up for a cosy Sunday afternoon read with chocolate & cups of tea handy. Summer of Love was just what I was looking for last Sunday.

Sian spent one passionate night with Gus nearly six years ago. He was off on a trip next day, they decided quite sensibly not to stay in touch even though they both felt that their one night stand could have lead to a deeper relationship. When Sian finds out that she's pregnant, she has the baby, Rory, with help from her parents, & doesn't tell Gus about it. Six years on, Sian has decided to spread her wings a little. She moves away from her parents to a cottage in the country, close by her friend, Richard. Richard is in love with Sian & wants to marry her. Sian can see all the advantages in marrying him both for herself & Rory. There's just one problem, she doesn't love him. In fact, she's never loved anyone except Gus.

Sian settles in to her new home. She has a small but growing business painting furniture & is looking for a barn or workshop where she could work on bigger pieces than she can manage in her spare room. Rory loves playgroup & makes friends with the other children. Sian meets Fiona Matcham, the owner of the local Big House & they quickly become friends. Fiona is a wonderful character. She would have been the heroine of a Katie Fforde novel in earlier days. Fiona is 50ish, divorced after a disastrous second marriage & tentatively investigating internet dating, while also becoming friends with James, a local bookseller.

When Sian helps out with a dinner party at Fiona's house, she is dismayed to discover that Fiona's son, Angus, just returned after an overseas expedition, is really her Gus, Rory's father. Fiona soon sees the resemblance between Gus & Rory & is determined that Sian must tell him before anyone else works it out. Romantic misunderstandings are further complicated by Melissa, childhood friend of Gus's & a rich , spoilt young woman who decides to buy Sian's rented cottage out from under her. Then, there's Richard, who would be so perfect for Sian - if she wasn't falling head over heels in love with Gus all over again.

Summer of Love is a gorgeously romantic, cosy read. I always think of Katie Fforde's books as perfect winter reading as they're always published here in May/June. In the UK it's summer & I imagine the publicity focuses on them as perfect beach reads! It doesn't matter what the weather is like. If you're in the mood for love, humour, engaging characters, country living, a few moral dilemmas & descriptions of the most delicious food & drink, Summer of Love is the perfect choice.

A Perfect Proposal - Katie Fforde

Sophie Apperly is young, attractive, practical, domestic & totally unappreciated by her academic family. They exploit her good nature & her domestic skills while despising her for not going to university. When her family decide that Sophie is the perfect person to look after elderly, rich Uncle Eric, known in the family as “Evil Uncle Eric”, Sophie decides she’s had enough. When her friend, Milly, invites her to New York for a holiday, Sophie decides to go. Sophie’s stay with Uncle Eric, who turns out to be a sweetie, also leads to the discovery that the family have been sitting on oil drilling rights that could be worth some money. Eric’s last address for one of these relatives was New York, so Sophie also has the incentive of searching for her in the hope of pooling all the drilling shares & finding a developer interested in buying them.

In New York, Sophie is determined to enjoy herself & at an opening at the art gallery where Milly works, she meets Matilda Winchester. Matilda is wealthy, elderly & a very determined character. She & Sophie hit if off immediately. Matilda also has a very protective grandson, Luke, a handsome attorney. Luke is horrified when he discovers that Matilda has invited Sophie to the family home in Connecticut for Thanksgiving. He sees Sophie, in her charity shop chic, as a gold digger who will exploit his grandmother’s kindness. The Thanksgiving weekend is a glimpse at a life of pure luxury for Sophie & she thoroughly enjoys seeing how the other half lives. She & Luke have a spiky relationship, based on his suspicion of Sophie’s motives & her indignation that he could doubt her intentions.

This is a romance, so there’s not much doubt how their relationship will end, but it’s a lot of fun seeing how this couple’s pride & prejudice will be overcome. Matilda was born in Britain & wants Sophie to find an old house in Cornwall where she stayed as a child. She agrees to go on this wild goose chase while Luke agrees to help her track down her American relative & consolidate the oil drilling rights. When Luke goes to London on business, he meets Sophie’s family, including Uncle Eric, & he gets a chance to see how impoverished middle class Brits live. Sophie & Luke set off for Cornwall to search for Matilda’s dream house & their relationship develops in some unexpected ways.

I’ve enjoyed all Katie Fforde’s novels although I have a great fondness for her early books. I enjoyed the fact that her heroines were older & not stick thin, they had real lives, working hard at unglamorous jobs to make a living. Her heroines still work hard but they’ve gotten younger as the years have passed. I also loved the covers of her early books. But, I won’t enter the great debate about book cover design. I am glad that her publishers have given up on the stick figure pastel chick lit covers of recent years & moved to a more attractive style for the last few books. This is a lovely romance, perfect for a winter weekend afternoon''s reading with a pot of tea & some chocolate. By the way, it amuses me to see the quotes on Katie's novels about what a great beach read they are. As they're published mid-year I suppose that makes them perfect for the UK summer. In the middle of a Melbourne winter, it's lovely to know I can look forward to a new Katie Fforde every year.