Wonderful read. Lots of colourful characters that bounce straight off the page. A book that starts with a bump but the unusual first chapter setting is a great medium to draw the reader in. Grace, recently single and with 2 young children, one with a disability that pulled at my heart strings. A recently bereaved hunk. An idyllic setting. As a reader this book has it all.

Another great story from Julie Houston. We catch up with the residents of Westernbury, a real mix of likable and interesting characters and certainly some quirky names. A warm and funny story that I definitely recommend reading.

From start to finish in one sitting. Brilliant!

We return to Westenbury a small village with a lot of secrets! Condemned romances, dodgy characters and a few twists along the way! You don’t want to miss this!

Praise for Julie Houston, well written easy read, but gripping!

I love Julie Houston’s books and her newest is a hoot. Filled with warmth and humor, A VILLAGE VACANCY finds Grace Stevens sans husband and looking to start life afresh. But life is life, filled with crises topped with a dollop of hope. Will she end up with the village’s most eligible widower? Can she help bring down a drug ring? Can she wrangle her classroom of disorderly pre-pubescents? Yikes! A charming respite from today’s wrenching pandemic.

4 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 22 Oct 2020

Thanks to the author, Aria & Aries, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#AVillageVacancy #NetGalley

This is a really interesting warm and funny book from the first page. The plot to the story really has you wanting to read more and you want to find out what happens next well worth reading. The characters are brilliant and the plot is fantastic.
We go back to the lovely village of westenbury in Yorkshire and they are mourning the loss I'd a woman who has lived in the village for years and can someone fill the vacancy of the widowers life. Grave wants to move forward with out her husband as he's off in search of a new life. She returns to teaching and teaches pre school children. She has to start learning to cope with disasters with in work and with her most troublesome pupils dad. Can she sort these issues out and will she get closer to him than she thinks and will grace fill the vacancy with in the village.
A simply must read this summer.

Struggled a bit with this one. The biggest is that I really didn't like the main character Grace. Might be my age, but felt her a bit young and hard edged at times. I would probably like this better if I was in my 20s. If you are, then I would recommend this one. If you are in your 50s maybe pass.

Three and a half stars.

I can't decide about my feelings when it comes to this book. I've read three of Julie Houston's previous books in what I would describe as a series although it isn't listed as such, all set in the same small village.

This book sort of centres on Grace's love life, although the plot barely involves Grace. If Grace were working class she'd be described as a feckless single mother, but because she's a middle-class teacher it seems fine that she had an affair with a much younger man, the son of her former school-girl crush, which resulted in a baby, then got back with her husband after he had an affair, adopted a baby and now, as this book opens she realises that she and her husband are no longer in love and need to separate.

Returning to work as a part-time teacher Grace is given the most challenging class in the local school. Then an erotic encounter becomes an embarrassment when her one-night stand turns out to be the married father of one of her most unruly pupils. If it wasn't for the friendship and support of her son's grandfather, the impossibly handsome and recently widowed David, Grace doesn't know how she could cope.

All the ins-and-outs of Grace's love life are mixed in with serious issues affecting even the smallest villages in the UK. Okay there was reliance on quite a few coincidences to drive the plot and I thought some of the big reveals were either telegraphed or actually stated earlier in the book, so not much of a surprise TBH.

But overall, a fun read with plenty of humour.

I was invited to read a free copy of this novel by the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I cannot tell you just how much I adored this book. I’m an avid reader of Julie Houston’s novels, and their heady combination of heart and humour draws me in every time. There’s something truly magical about following this remarkable group of women through their lives, each one skilfully brought to life by the author’s beautiful language and masterful grasp of human nature. This novel is no exception. We know Grace, Harriet, Juno and co; they feel like everyone’s favourite friends, and the warmth between them streams from the pages like rays of sunlight on the darkest of days.

Grace is trying to get on with things, having agreed to separate (once and for all) from her husband Dan, and also to take on a full time teaching post at the local primary school. Still reeling, like her dear friend Harriet, from the death of someone who has had a huge influence on their lives, she tries to ignore the stronger and stronger flutters she’s getting every time she’s around Westenbury’s most eligible widower. With the ‘help’ of her wild class of Year 5 students, an ill fated night out to see a very unlikely stripper and a mad five minutes in the back garden of a pub with a total stranger, this is harder at some times than others. But the incorrigible and indomitable Grace, with the help of her steadfast group of mates, isn’t to be cast down for long. Throw in a broad canvas of characters and madcap escapades, and you’re in for a real treat!

With enough twists and turns to keep you up into the night reading, and all the right moments of humour and anguish, ‘A Village Vacancy’ is a tour de force of beautiful, funny and emotional storytelling that will leave you, as it left me, desperate for the next instalment. I loved this book, and I know you will, too!