My second Beth Moran book and I loved it as much as Take A Chance On Me!
Eleanor is living a double life after leaving her Lake District home behind and moving to London to become a blogger - a double blogger. As herself, she writes a witty, warm blog and then there’s Nora - an acerbic food critic who has left a trail of destruction in her wake. When the past catches up with Nora, Eleanor needs to escape the car crash of her life and heads to take refuge with her oldest friend Charlie…before a literal car crash puts a sudden end to her plans.
Can Eleanor put Nora behind her, stalker and all, and start afresh?

This was my first book by this author, but after finishing it I've bought her Take a Chance on Me and can't wait to read that as well.
So yes, We Belong Together was a very enjoyable read. It's a good mixture of mystery and rom-com and keeps you engaged on both sides: both because you want to know who's behind Nora's stalker and solve the mystery that surrounds her hasty escape from her previous life, and because you need to see how her new life, with new friends and a new family is going to evolve.
Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

We Belong Together by Beth Moran
Publication Date: August 17, 2021
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Description…
“Eleanor Sharpley has been living a lie...
Needing to escape her London life quickly, Eleanor throws her things into the back of her car, and heads to her erstwhile best friend Charlie’s family farm. 

But Charlie isn’t there. Instead she finds Charlie’s grieving brother Daniel, her eight-month old daughter Hope (a daughter Eleanor had known nothing about), and a crumbling and unloved Damson Farm. 

Damson Farm lies at the edge of the village of Ferrington, with the river Maddon flowing at its heart. But Ferrington is a village divided by more than just a river - it is split in two by an age-old feud – between the Old Side and the New Side. Eleanor has run from her problems, straight into a family and a world that has problems of its own. 

But Damson Farm has magic too, and as winter gives way to spring, the old farm starts to come to life under Eleanor’s love and care. The orchard starts to blossom with daffodils and bluebells, and the sound of bees busy in their hives fills the warming air.  Can Eleanor bring Daniel and the feuding village of Ferrington back to life too, or will her secrets catch up with her first? 
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Thank you to @netgalley @bookandtonic #boldwoodbooks for the ALC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
Idyllic setting. I’ve lived in a few cities, but I like being in the country too. This had a charming setting in an orchard with mentions of delicious sounding food and cider. There were a couple of parts that slowed the book, but I enjoyed the combination of slow-burn romance, girl-bonds, small town drama and mystery. Moran wove these themes quite well. While reading these, I thought about going to Damson Farm with my Bookstafriends!

3.5 ⭐️

We Belong Together by Beth Moran encapsulates grief, family bonds and love in such a powerful way. Eleanor is such a lovable character and you just keep on falling in love with her throughout the story. Her bonds with Daniel and baby Hope were so adorable. And I love how Eleanor and Daniel slowly became friends and then fell in love. I also enjoyed how the book never shied from showcasing the impact that Charlie's death (Charlie being Daniel's sister and Eleanor's best friend) has on the two. And yeah, it was a really cute rom com overall and I'm looking forward to checking out more of the author's works.

Oh this book! Incredible.
I didn’t know what to expect from this book but it wasn’t this. It completely blew me away and left me full of every emotion possible.

This is my first book by this author and I have to say I was hooked from the very start. Within the first handful of chapters I’d experienced pretty much every emotion; the crash, the rescue, the sexual attraction, the safety of the farm, the heartbreaking news and the offer of hope. I loved watching the friendship develop between Eleanor and Daniel and how baby Hope was included in all of it. The heartbreak that was never shied away from from both of them as they tried to move on from Charlie. It was beautifully written and the added twist of the stalker and her secret past just added to enjoyment.
Watching the friendships grow with Becky and Alice and reuniting the two sides of the town was a mammoth task and Eleanor certainly didn’t shy away from it, she embraced everything trying to see the good in everyone and everything.

I will certainly look out for more books from this author and I hope we get to see Damson Farm again in the future.

When Eleanor’s alter ego Nora Sharpe starts getting death threats, Eleanor goes on the run. The only place she can think of that is far away, is her best friend, Charlie’s family farm. But Charlie isn’t there… instead it’s her brother David and her baby daughter Hope, a baby Eleanor had no idea existed.

Swamped in grief David has been unable to keep Damson Farm going. Now Eleanor has arrived and needs something to keep busy. Upon finding Charlie’s diary and her plans for the farm, Eleanor is excited to bring Charlie’s dream to life.

With town feuds and a scary stalker this is much more than a romcom. A fantastic read.

This book is an odd combination of romcom and thriller. The romance is dominant throughout but many romcom authors would struggle to have genuine threat underpinning the love story. However, Beth Moran definitely pulls it off. I will confess to having a suspicion about who was behind the events that cause Eleanor to flee London, but was wrong about why it was happening. I like this because to me, it shows that there were enough hints dropped throughout for the conclusion to make perfect narrative sense, but not so many that it made the plot too transparent.

The characters are all very real and immensely likeable and I was genuinely rooting for all of them to get the endings they deserved. However, I think what impressed me most was the feuding villagers and the divided community. Having grown up in the north of England, I know how strongly the miners' strikes affected the local communities and what long arms they have in terms of the modern communities. Just as Bella Moran describes, those strikes are not past events to be forgotten - they still have a huge impact on the way people think and behave and I recognised the grievances aired in the book. I wasn't directly impacted by the strikes of the 1980s and was only very young, so don't have much of a memory of them beyond what was on the six o'clock news every night. However, in the past I've talked to those who were and the attitudes of the villagers rang true.

Ultimately, this is my favourite kind of romcom because it's one that goes beyond the superficial romance - there's a huge element of social commentary, which I love and the relationships between friends actually seem more important than the romances. In part, this is probably because they wouldn't have happened without the support of the friends.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for the e-ARC of We Belong Together. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Four glowing stars for We Belong Together. I really really really enjoyed this book.
Not having read anything from Beth Moran, I went into this book without expectations and I was positively surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I was hooked from the very beginning and I ended up finishing the book in only two sittings because I could not stop reading it!! Needless to say, I'll be sure to check out her other books as well pretty soon!

The book is marketed as romance, but I feel like it's so much more than 'just' a romance. The main character is Eleanor who fled her life in London and sought refuge in her best friend's farm in Ferrington, a small village divided by a feud. Upon arrival (and a quite traumatic encounter with a sheep), she finds out that her best friend died a few months back leaving her newborn daughter to her brother David, who offers Eleanor to stay at his farm for as long as she needs. And so Eleanor new life begins.

The plot of We Belong together is not focused on just the romance, but also on having to build a new life from scratch, making new friendships, elaborating the loss of someone you love, becoming part of a new community (and tryng to resolve a very old and divisive village feud, becoming the person you really want to be and I feel like the author was able to navigate and intertwine all these elements in a really balanced and well written way. And if this is not enough for you, there's also a thrillery/mystery aspect from Eleanor's past that really has you hooked until the very last page.

100% would recommend.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Wanting an escape from the life she’s living, quickly, Eleanor chucks stuff into her bag/car and is on her way to her best friend Charlie’s farm.

Only things don’t go to plan, as she finds out when she arrives at the farm, after nearly having an accident. Charlie, isn’t there. But her brother Daniel is, whose still not got over his loss, as well as Hope, Charlie’s daughter, someone Eleanor didn’t even know about, and the farm, isn’t the place Charlie had described.

The farm, is on the side of a village of Ferrington, it has the river Maddon flowing through it. As Eleanor realises, the village isn’t a happy village, as it’s split in two, due to a feud, between Old and New sides, going back years. Eleanor is on the New side.

She thought she’d left all the problems behind, but it seems, she’s now in the middle of new ones. She’s also still getting messages from an unknown person, as well as unwanted nasty parcels. Who is this person, set to ruin her new start?

As the seasons change, so does Damson Farm as Eleanor’s gives it another lease of life. Flowers, fruit start to bloom, and the bees are busy too.

But can Eleanor bring an end to the years old feud and unite the sides or will her past catch up with her before she has that chance?

Recommend It.

In Beth Moran's newest book, We Belong Together, Eleanor Sharpley finds herself fleeing the life she thought she wanted after her public persona begins receiving alarming messages. In order to lay low she decides to head to the country to spend time with her best friend Charlie. The only problem is that Charlie has died and left behind a baby girl, a grieving brother, and a family farm that is falling apart. What occurs after is a beautiful story about friendship, love and finding both redemption and peace in the most unexpected places. A book worth adding to your bookshelf.

There is a lot going on in this book romance, mysterious stalker, a community coming together after years of divisiveness, some great characters, and a really satisfying story line.. When Eleanor leaves London to re-think her present lifestyle and work, and hoping to evade her stalker, she finds that her best friend has died and her brother is raising the young baby left behind. She is determined to fulfill the project that her friend had imagined, and at the same time she discovers a new future for herself.

A lot going on in this book, feuding, grieving, stalking, romance and friendship. It's woven well together to make a really enjoyable story. Eleanor ashamed of what her life has become goes in search of her oldest friend, after crashing her car and being rescued by a stranger her life gets better and better but will she tell everyone who she really was and risk it all falling apart. Well written and keeps you interested right to the end. Recommend

Eleanor Is or should I say was a journalist who used to write restaurant reviews which told it as it was good or bad, unfortunately some of her reviews caused places to close down. After she receives some threatening comments on her blog she fears for her life and leaves her job, her cheating boyfriend and her life in London in the middle of the night and goes to find her best friend Charlie's family farm.
As she gets closer she is involved in an accident with a sheep and ends up in a ditch where a handsome stranger called Daniel finds her and takes her to his home. It's obvious she needs help so offers her a place to stay where she finds out that he is actually her best friend's brother and that Charlie had died leaving her baby daughter.
I don't want to say any more as it would spoil the story f I haven't already but I loved it, plenty going on to keep you reading, I didn't want to put it down

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Eleanor is fleeing from London to go to her oldest friend in the countryside when her car lands in a ditch in the early hours of the morning. The handsome farmer who rescues her turns out to be her friend Charlie’s brother, but after they lost contact Charlie has committed suicide and Daniel has adopted her baby daughter Hope.

He realises that Eleanor needs to recuperate and invites her to stay as long as she wants at the farm.

Eleanor is a journalist who has been working under the pen name Nora Sharp, writing reviews that have been popular for their directness, which has been made to be vicious.

After being stalked and broken up with her partner, Eleanor wants nothing more to do with her former life and breaks all ties. She becomes involved in life in the village, working to heal the divisions between the two sides of the town on each riverbank, fixing up Daniel’s farmhouse to create a retreat which Charlie had planned and making new friends.

Things between Daniel and Eleanor develop in a pretty chaste way, but the stalker is ever present and Eleanor cannot bring herself to tell Daniel exactly what is happening.

I really enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book but the stalker aspect was not my favourite part. It was a easy, pleasing read and I enjoyed Eleanor finding her feet on the farm.

We belong together is a beautifully written book about love, hope and forgiveness! The most idyllic country setting,an orchard, fantastic food, cider, and eventually community spirit and support!
Two lost souls both grieving for the same person, trying to juggle grief, work, living and a myriad of other issues are unexpectedly thrown together as two strangers, both are in need of help, friendship, company and love! Will the past define them for ever, can they be friends and be a mutual benefit to each other?? And in doing so help a community torn in two due to long-standing history!
A joint vision gleaned from old diaries, an adorable baby, new friends and lots of sheer hard work provides a focus and theme which brings together our grieving main characters and in doing so helps a fragmented community delve deep to find forgiveness.
I would so love to check into damson farm for rest relaxation and healing and to meet Eleanor, Daniel and baby hope!
Thank you netgalley for this early read.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved reading the dynamics between the two main characters and see them fall in love throughout the book. I loved the ending and the overall plot. Great read!

This is a sweet love story with a bit of suspense added in to keep it exciting. The author created a lovely storyline with several smaller sub-stories so that the reader wouldn’t get bored. . Eleanor is extremely likeable and I couldn’t help rooting for her. The other characters were the perfect compliment to Eleanor. Her parents and grandma were quite funny and made me smile. The setting sounded beautiful and homey. I would love to go spend a few days at the farm. The book left me feeling happy and content. It was a wonderful escape and would make a great beach read or atheist perfect book to read while curled up with a glass of wine. If you enjoy a romance but don’t want the graphic details this is the perfect book.

Thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I enjoyed this massively in the beginning; Eleanor is the kind of real character that you root for, and I’m a big fan of the slow burn romance that we see throughout.

Reading Eleanor’s progress of making Charlie’s dream of the farmhouse come true was a delight, and I loved the fact that we saw the positive turnaround effect it had on Daniel in the end.

The feud of both sides of town was an interesting plot line, one that I admit threw me off at times (I was hoping for more of a romantic focus, I think), but ultimately led up to that big final (very dramatic) moment.

Speaking of the romance, as much a slow burn as it was, for me there was a lack in chemistry between both characters which made me fairly indifferent to their relationship.

I really loved daniel as character - I wonder if we could have benefitted from seeing some of the book from his point of view? It would’ve been interesting to learn more about him as the soft, precious cinnamon roll he is.

This book has multiple things going on throughout and I wonder if it was almost too much? I struggled at different points (which I think is proved by the fact that it took me 3 days to get through), and around the 70% mark I started to lose interest.

Overall, a decent read but unfortunately, one I won’t be running back to in the future.

Needing to escape her London life quickly, Eleanor throws her things into the back of her car, and heads to her erstwhile best friend Charlie’s family farm. But Charlie isn’t there. Instead she finds Charlie’s grieving brother Daniel, her eight-month old daughter Hope (a daughter Eleanor had known nothing about), and a crumbling and unloved Damson Farm. Damson Farm lies at the edge of the village of Ferrington, with the river Maddon flowing at its heart. But Ferrington is a village divided by more than just a river - it is split in two by an age-old feud – between the Old Side and the New Side. Eleanor has run from her problems, straight into a family and a world that has problems of its own. But Damson Farm has magic too, and as winter gives way to spring, the old farm starts to come to life under Eleanor’s love and care. The orchard starts to blossom with daffodils and bluebells, and the sound of bees busy in their hives fills the warming air.  Can Eleanor bring Daniel and the feuding village of Ferrington back to life too, or will her secrets catch up with her first? 

Well this is a very sweet read, at first I found it charming but to be honest it is a bit sickeningly sweet and I lost sense of reality a bit. Moran describes a wide range of emotions throughout this, and rightly so, however the descriptions are a bit much and, I repeat myself, sickeningly sweet. It began to feel a bit childlike, everything was very proper and idealistic and life just is not like that.

This aside, and I have to say I loved the premise of the read and I did thoroughly enjoy it, if I skipped over the detailed descriptions. As I say, the premise is a good one and one that covers a lot of topics, I was engaged in the plot, entertained and wanted to see it through. If the detail had been stripped back a bit then I think this would have been a highly enjoyable read.

I did like the character of Eleanor, she has a lot of different aspects of her personality which we gradually learn about and they all serve to build a developed idea of who she is. Eleanor goes through a lot during the course of this read as well which helped me warm to her and care about what happened to her. Moran's other characters are good too, there are many different personalities and it was very entertaining seeing how they all interact with each other.

There are a lot of different aspects to 'We Belong Together' and if the lovey-dovey aspect had been stripped back a bit then I think this would have been an excellent read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advance copy.