Another gem from Sarah Morgan. I turn to this author when I need an absorbing read that will draw me in and absorb me into the life of the characters. I felt for the female characters in the book... Flora, Izzy and Molly and best friend Claire.

Mostly set in Brooklyn and in the latter part in the beautiful Lake District, this is a book that makes you look under the skin of what’s going on and analyse the relationships. Some of the book was more melancholy than I’d have liked but ultimately it was uplifting as the characters began to work through their issues...

An enjoyable read, with some heartfelt moments. I’d have liked to hear more about Izzy and Claire’s son Aidan, but other than that the last part of the book was gorgeous even through the characters’ tears.

4.5* a lakeside delight

Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

I started this and was immediately drawn in. I loved the meeting of Flora and Jack. It was so beautiful and wonderfully written.

What I couldn’t get my head around initially was the jump from asking Flora out for a coffee to suddenly they’re in a relationship. I wanted the build up. As I progressed through the book, I understood the jump. The book wasn’t about hike their relationship started, more about how Flora becomes part of this family.

The ups and downs of trying to have a relationship with an already established family unit was interesting and the way it was handled makes good reading.

Once again Sarah Morgan has given us a well written, well thought out novel and I different take on love and relationships. Not just the one between a couple, but the one between friends, and parents and an outsider into a new family.

Love!

I love reading books by Sarah Morgan as her heroines are likeable and well drawn. This book explores how Flora becomes involved with Jack, whose family are determined to find fault with everything she does, and reject her. Izzie, Jack’s eldest daughter is especially hostile and does everything she can to make life uncomfortable for Flora.

The book begins slowly as we find discover Flora’s past and previous relationships. She is a friendly, quirky, people pleaser type of girl who has had a tough start in life. The book develops when the family take a holiday in the Lake District, with friends of Jack’s previous wife Belle. Belle was beautiful, graceful, perfect in every way, everything that Flora is not, how does she cope?

The book is emotively written with strong, well-developed and likeable characters, although sad at times is emotively written with dashes of humour to lighten the atmosphere. There are secrets to discover, and the beautiful scenic Lake District to explore as the family try to find common ground and accept each other.

This is another entertaining book by Sarah Morgan, which I recommend.

Sarah Morgan
Family for Beginners

I have a bias for Sarah Morgan, I always expect a heart warming book where here character development makes me feel like I am living in the story. Her skills in writing and drawing you in are first class.
Family for Beginners is another gem, the family Flora becomes a part of have their secrets and its not easy to identify the secrets which makes reading compulsory. I connected with Flora as being socially awkward and I was willing her to stand up for herself. A brilliant story, I would love to hear another with Flora and Jack, I do believe Sarah Morgan has a path to take the family down for another book.
#NetGallery #SarahMorgan #FamilyForBeginners #bookreview

This was thoroughly enjoyable. Whilst a bit slow to start the prose quickly gripped me and kept moving on. Well written with great characters - a highly recommended read.

Love this author and her books and this one didn’t disappoint! Centred around a florist name Flora and how she becomes involved with some who whom has children! Loved the romance of it being set between New York and UK too. Well written to understand all the feelings involved! Can’t wait for the next one

I enjoyed this book. When Flora falls for widower Jack, she has to learn to get along with his teenage daughter and to live up to the perfection of his late wife. When she agrees to spend a few weeks in the Lake District with Becca's best friend and her family, she wonders if she has made a mistake. However, during the course of those few weeks, secrets emerge and relationships are cemented. This is a lovely family story which I recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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I have just finished reading this wonderful story and have to say I absolutely loved it. I found it hard to put down. It is a heartwarming tale which sucked me in from page one. It had me smiling, laughing at times and just occasionally shedding the odd tear or two. This is a captivating story.

I will remember these characters for a long time, they felt like family. So well written and so well rounded that they became real to me. I just loved Flora, she reminded me of myself at times and made me want to be brave too. Such a caring, lovely character I was cheering her on. But, all the characters were so real to me; they were not perfect, but real people aren't, they made mistakes and did the wrong thing at times and for that, I loved them all.

This is a book I would highly recommend, it is the perfect book to curl up with and just get lost in. It is one I will want to reread in the future too.

Flora meets Jack and he's the ideal man. He's a widow with two daughters and Flora is thrust into the role of step mum. Can she replace the perfect mum?

I devoured this in one sitting, as I do with most of Sarah Morgan's novels. It was heartwarming and had be tearing up on more than one occasion. I'll be recommending this to everyone I know!

When I seen Sarah Morgan was releasing a new book I just knew I had to read it ASAP so I was thrilled to have a copy of ‘Family for Beginners’ - thank you so much HQ Stories.

I am a huge fan of every Sarah Morgan book I have read so far but ‘Family for Beginners’ is my favourite! Flora is a florist, she meets the lovely Jack. Jack lost his wife the previous year and he has two daughters; little Molly and teenager Izzy. They go on their annual three week trip to Lake Lodge in the Lake District to stay with close friends Clare and Todd and it’s here when the story really unfolds.

My favourite relationship between the characters has to be with Flora and Izzy. You can see that Flora really cares for her even when Izzy is trying her best to put her off her dad. Molly is so adorable and she takes to Flora pretty much straight away. But it’s Izzy that’s got some unresolved feelings.

I found myself flying through the chapters of this story and couldn’t put it down. Now I’m sad to have finished it. ‘Family for Beginners’ is about love, grief, friendship and letting people in when you need it ❤️

Sarah’s writing is beautifully free flowing and I really enjoyed that each chapter was told by a different character, mainly Flora, Jack and Izzy. I can’t wait for Sarah’s next book, I’m just glad I still have some of her backlist books to keep me going in the meantime 😊 I give ‘Family for Beginners’ a very well deserved 5*/5*

Thank you so much to HQ Stories for an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley

I was hooked into this book within a couple of pages, and loved how each chapter was from a different characters perspective to fully show what was their different realities.
This is the story of Flora, a florist in New York, and the family she becomes involved with. Set in New York and the Lake District in the UK.
I absolutely loved this book!! It is a fantastic description of life in a family, all our fears and issues and how we all deal with them.
Brilliant read, thoroughly recommended!!

This is the second book I have read by Sarah Morgan. I enjoyed both of them. She captivates your imagination and feelings. I find it hard to put down and need to know what happens next. This book is about true family upheavals and life and a truly beautiful read

I loved this book.

I only recently discovered Sarah Morgan and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The story of this book is told from the point of view of 3/4 strong female characters. I felt it was based on something that could happen to anyone, at any time.

Becca was married to Jack and had two daughters Izzy and Molly. They lived in Manhattan and had regular summer holidays with Becca's oldest friend in the Lake District.

Becca passes away quite suddenly and this book focuses on how the family move on when Jack begins a new relationship with Flora., It is told from the point of view of Izzy, the eldest teenage daughter who is dealing with the usual teenage angst and the sudden death of her mother, whilst hiding a secret. Flora, the new woman in Jack's life, who desperately wants to be accepted by the people in Jack's life but is hiding a secret of her own and dealing with her own childhood issues. Also, it is told from the point of view of Clare, Becca's oldest friend and the keeper of her secrets.

The book is written really well, with lots of unexpected twists.

Definitely a new take on a very 21st century romance.

I was so excited to get the notification that I’d been approved for Sarah Morgan’s latest book, Family for Beginners, and I downloaded and set to reading it immediately. Wow, I was not disappointed!!
From the off this wasn’t the normal Sarah Morgan book, it wasn’t a straight forward happy go lucky boy meets girl, falls in love, bump in the road and they all live happily ever - all of which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed in the past. This book went so much deeper, it is full of past tragedies, raw sorrow and deep emotions.
Set between Manhattan and The Lake District and following his wife’s sudden death, Jack meets Flora. What follows is her introduction to his two daughters, Molly his seven year old and Izzy his seventeen year old with a dark secret who is also determined not to accept her fathers new girlfriend. When they all visit the Lake District, staying at his wife’s best friends house, everybody is forced to revisit their pasts and their secrets are revealed.
I could not put this book down, it was absolutely fascinating and so well written! Can not wait for more - fingers crossed for a return to Jack and Flora?
Thanks for the advanced read!

Not only has Sarah Morgan done it again, but Family for Beginners may just be her best book yet.

Set in the gorgeous Lake District, and vibrant Manhattan and Brooklyn, Family for Beginners is a book about secrets, grief and second chances. The aptly named Flora works in an upmarket Manhattan florists where she watches rather than experiences life and, after a day in the shop she returns to her tiny damp apartment where she lives alone. Warmhearted Flora yearns for acceptance and love after being raised by an aunt who made no secret of the disruption Flora made to her life. That need for acceptance means Flora can be too much of a chameleon, changing herself to try and mould herself into the perfect friend or girlfriend to fit in, to be wanted. So when she meets Jack, a gorgeous widower and father to two children, teenager Izzy and the much younger Molly, she tries not to get to drawn in. Jack's been widowed for less than a year and the girls are still grieving. Izzy, who is struggling with her own place in the family and identity, makes it very clear that Flora has no place in her family and their beautiful but sterile home is full of reminders of the perfect Becca, the kind of woman Flora could never replace, no matter how much she tried.

When Jack and Molly invite Flora to join them on their usual summer holiday, spending three weeks with Becca's oldest friend in the Lake District, her first instinct is to refuse. Determined to try and move on from her past, she accepts the invitation. But with Izzy more hostile than ever, and faced with a house full of people who knew and loved Becca, how can she ever fit in? How can she ever be enough? Will she ever learn that just being herself is all she needs to do?

family for Beginners is a rich, romantic read full of unforgettable characters, beautiful landscapes and emotional journeys. Highly recommended.

Yet another fantastic book from Sarah.
Very relatable story. Was hooked straightaway
Loved the characters and plot
Would definitely recommend as always with Sarah’s books

Sarah you’ve done it again. Another brilliant read, would recommend to everyone.
Clare and Becca are lifelong friends, Clare lives in a luxury property Lake Lodge in the Lake District with her husband Todd and son Aiden. Becca died last year and told Clare a secret just before she died. Clare has been carrying this secret she wished she’d never been told for a year, she wished the contents had died with her.
On the other side of the world Flora was working for Julia in her florists, Flora saw the reasons for buying flowers with a hopeful approach, Julia thought people always had dark reasons for sending flowers.
Jack who’s the widow of Becca and Dad to Izzy and Molly has just started seeing Flora, he invites her to spend their summer vacation with Clare, Todd & Aide. in the Lake District after a disaster at her apartment when the upstairs flat floods into hers. She needs somewhere to stay but is she ready for living with a ready made family in Becca’s shadow.

I saw this book being talked about on twitter and it jumped out to me straight away. Thank you to the author and HQ Stories for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Flora has spent most of her life wishing for companionship and a loving family, but the reality is that she has mostly been lonely. When she meets and falls in love with Jack, not only does she have to win over his two daughters, she feels she has to compete with Jack’s dead wife; Becca. Flora only becomes more stressed when she is invited to spend the summer with Jack’s family and friends who were Becca’s best friends. Flora soon starts to realise that changing herself to feel like an insider with this family isn’t the answer, but how can she make sure she doesn’t always feel like the outsider?

General Thoughts 🤔

As soon as I started reading this book I was hooked. I didn’t have to try to like it, I just liked it. The story is SO relatable for me as my partner has two children from a previous marriage and coming into that as an outsider is terrifying. Thankfully I’ve been very lucky and I haven’t had the same experience as Flora.

I really enjoyed the easy breezy flow of this book. Although there are tense moments between characters, the book is generally very heart warming and made me feel so grateful for the shape and size of my own little blended family.

Characters 👫👭👬

The characters are what made this book for me, with my favourites being Flora and Izzy. The relationship between the two characters isn’t easy but the small moments of connection between them are beautiful.

The relationship I probably didn’t feel THAT invested in was Jack and and Flora. Not because I didn’t believe in it or think it genuine, I just didn’t feel like it was the most important relationship in the book. The family dynamic and building the family was what interested me more.

Writing Style ✍🏽

I really loved the simple, efficient and clear writing in this book. It’s not often I read a book with a straight forward, linear storyline so it was such a nice change for me. I guessed the secret that both Izzy and Clare were sharing which I’m sure most would, but it wasn’t supposed to be a grand reveal. It was the reactions of the characters to the discovery that made it awesome.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I couldn’t put this book down once I had started and I loved all of it. It’s real, honest and I love the way that it talks about the difficulty of blending a family. Family isn’t always the “perfect” 2:1 and it is often whatever we make it, however that may present itself. A great story, told through great writing.

This is a romance between Flora and Jack. Jack is a widow, but is he hiding a bad marriage? His wife, Becca seems perfect but is she all that she seems? Flora has never felt liked she belonged. Her mum dies and now she is trying to blend into Jack's family. This book addresses the insecurities of becoming a part of a blended family. Izzy, the teenager is struggling with the arrival of Flora. Flora, Clare and Izzy were strong characters but I couldn't warm to Jack because he didn't feel real and didn't have the usual Sarah Morgan hero sparkle. Otherwise a super romance. Another brilliant book by Sarah Morgan. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

Another absolutely brilliant book by Sarah Morgan! Her characters and relationships are always so real and this book is no different. Flora, our main character is so likeable, wise and brave - with far more patience than I could ever have. The storyline is beautifully crafted, taking us through highs and lows and dealing with love, loss, friendship and grief, without ever becoming too downhearted and sad. I enjoyed every minute of it and am now off to find others books by Morgan that I may have missed!
Thank you to netgalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.