A fun book with likeable characters, Ettie was relatable to myself in the way that she was running late and wanting a space just to clear her head.

It was nice that the supporting characters were of varying ages, and each with their own reason to want to wild swim.

A really lovely rom-com.

Great audiobook, really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I didn't know this was part of a series, but I think it reads fine as a stand-alone book. It's a cosy novel about a woman who starts working at a posh estate in Yorkshire. The owner is trying to refurbish it into a hotel with events and such. That storyline was at times a bit too quirky with me, with her being hired as an assistant and suddenly she's planning all the events?

It's part love story, but I thought this was done far too quickly and we didn't get a sense of real connection or longing.

The part of this book I loved most surrounded the wild swimming (like the title suggests) but it felt like it was secondary to the hotel storyline. I loved the way the different characters were brought together, how they grew in confidence. There's some nice disability representation in there too.

The narrator of the audiobook did a really great job representing the banter between the characters. I think she did an excellent job.

So overall a cosy read, but without much meat on it. Recommended for those looking for something simple and lovely based in Yorkshire.

I enjoyed this book tremendously and cannot what to read more from Jules Wake. Likable and well rounded characters who are charming and witty I could not put this down, plus the narrators were wonderful to boot.

Thank you to NG and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review - I loved it!

Ettie, approaching 30, no job, moving back home with her mum, is looking for a new job. She gets an interview to work at Hepplethwaite Hall, which is being done up into a posh hotel by Dominic, ex navy, guarded and very serious, and Gracie, a sweet older lady. On the grounds of Hepplethwaite Hall is a beautiful lake, which Ettie takes a quick wild swim in post-interview only to be shouted at by Dominic.

Ettie gets the job, and it is soon apparent that there is a relationship on the cards between her and broody Dominic. However Ettie has also met a random group of people who love wild swimming in the lake (including herself!), an activity banned by Dominic. But can Ettie balance the Wednesday Morning Wild Swim club whilst concealing it from Dominic, and also keep her job, which she's loving?

This book is full of loveable characters, and I found myself wanting to know more about all these characters rather than reading about Ettie and Dominic's romance at first. Although Ettie is a slightly infuriating character (always late, speaks her mind, tells white lies) you can't help but love her. Dominic grew on me towards the end of the book. I've knocked a star off because the relationship was rather predictable, and I wasn't 100% invested in their romance. But for me, it was all the other characters that made this story - Etties grandad Cyril, Gracie, teenage Josh, who has had a leg amputated, Hilda, a no nonsense older lady, Jane who just wants to marry her partner but facing critism from her family, and all the other swimmers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim is the second book in the Yorkshire Escape series, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. I enjoyed this story so much, I will definitely be reading or listening to the first one, Saturday Morning Park Run. Ettie has had quite a colorful employment history, and is hoping that this new job is the one for her. With her mother's ill health, she has to find a job she likes or end up working in a factory. She has been hired to do general jobs at a Yorkshire estate that is being turned into a hotel. She will be working with Gracie, the mother of the owner's best friend, who is deceased. Dominic has some baggage and hurt, so he is hard to get to know, but Ettie is so energetic, fresh, full of great ideas, and caring that she begins to wear Dominic down. She loves her job, but doesn't think Gracie's and Dominic's hearts are really into it. As she and Dominic get closer, the secret she is keeping from him gets harder all the time. He does not want anyone swimming in the lake on the property, but she has not only been swimming herself, but helping keep Dominic away so others can swim as well. She knows very well that Dominic was betrayed in love once and has trust issues, but they are falling in love. Will this secret ruin their budding relationship?

This was a great story of friendship, trust, supporting one another, and community. Ettie is such a great character. She is a free spirit, a breath of fresh air, one of those people I would love to get to know. She is loving, caring, smart, loyal and even though she kept this huge secret, she is trustworthy. Dominic was a grumpy, handsome character. He wanted NO wild swimming in his lake and part of the story is the mystery as to why he felt this way. He was retired military who was dealing with an injury her received during his tour of duty. Gracie is the mother of one of Dominic's brothers in arms who was killed, and Dominic feels responsible for her. She does not have her heart in the project, but she does want Dominic and Ettie to get together, so uses her energies for that. The local community members who are wild swimmers add a lot of colour to the story, especially Ettie's eccentric grandfather. There is a teenager who is an amputee, one who loves to swim but does not want to swim in a pool to be gawked at, and the group comes together to raise funds for him to train for the Paralympics. Add in a disobedient dog and you know there is going to be some humorous situations. This book has it all; romance, friendship, community, humour, grief, acceptance, and more. I definitely recommend The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim by Jules Wake. The audiobook was wonderful to listen to. Laura Brydon does a wonderful job with the narration adding expression, tone and emotion to give voice to the characters. She added much to my enjoyment of this story.

This is a review of the audiobook version of this book.

A lovely, lighthearted listen with some really likeable and relatable characters.

The narrator does a great job of portraying the different characters, love the accent, although her ‘male’ voice sounds a bit weird!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for letting me review this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a wonderfully lighthearted, feel good read. There were some more serious elements in the reasons that each person swam but these were addressed with sensitivity and still maintaining the overall lightness of the story.

A welcome distraction from the stress of the world.

The narrator was excellent- her voice was clear and she was very easy to listen to.

I absolutely adored the Saturday Morning Park Run by this author so couldn’t contain my excitement when I heard about this book! Honestly didn’t think the first book could be beaten, but this one hit all the right marks and left me with a very happy and fulfilled heart!

I seriously loved this story. Literally everything about it. The characters were brilliant and the little community of wild swimmers was just adorable. I loved getting to know all the characters and Ettie was a fantastic lead character.

Joining her on her new adventure away from London, back to her family home, she finds a new job however the owner of the new up and coming hotel is very fussy when it comes to people swimming on his land, but can Ettie change his mind?

The Yorkshire Escapes series has been fab so far and you definitely need not have read the first one to enjoy this. It was a stand-alone in its own right and a perfect book to crawl up with and get lost into. So homely and heartwarming. Exactly what I want in a book and couldn’t have asked for more.

A delightful story that shows the value of kindness, acceptance and humour in creating bonds that truly matter among unlikely friends! Overall this was a fun, exciting book that gave me several hours of escapism and enjoyment. Id definitely read other books released by this author. Who needs sleep? Yes, I dropped everything and immediately downloaded this book. The audiobook was amazing and transferred me into a different world.

Thanks to NetGalley once again for allowing me access to both the written and audio versions of this book. This means of course that I can access the book whenever suits and it is good not to have to put it down when I go out for a walk or in the car. This is an excellent, unusual story which made a most refreshing change from the norm. The characters are very varied and all with a back story which makes them interesting. The romance is lovely too. This book has funny moments and well worth reading/listening too.

Not being used to the Yorkshire accent, it took me a short while to tune my ear in, but the narration was very clear and all the different characters clearly vocalised. I will look out for books both written by Jules Wake and narrated by Laura Brydon in future.

Etty is a strong swimmer and enjoys swimming in the lake attached to a hotel, as does her grandfather and several other people. Dominic, the owner, is not happy about this and bans them. However, as Etty first is employed by Dominic, then starts a relationship with him, she lets the others secretly use the lake when Dominic is otherwise engaged. During these clandestine swimming sessions, the group get to know each other and a strong bond is formed between them. However, it is inevitable that Dominic will catch them out, and then what will they do?
I really struggled with this story. I wanted an easy read but I found it to be a bit to cliched and politically correct to a frustrating level. It also presented values that I do not share. Etty and Dominic have a relationship in which they say with their bodies, "I give you my body fully and completely and to no other" yet with their minds try not to commit to each other and two lovely women get married and we are told how bigoted people might not agree with such a union. There is also an interesting strand running through it on the justification of lying! To be fair the author was trying to show how things are not just black and white but I wasn't entirely sure why this concept was included in the story. Sadly not an uplifting book for me but maybe for others.

This is the first book I've read/listened to by this author - what an absolute delight!!!
A good range of characters, all very different, a strong story and a sense of community and family.
A lot of laughs along the way, I loved this book and will be looking out for more by this author.

This is a simple, straightforward book that provides exactly as advertised. The narrator of the audio version was pretty brilliant. I could hear the laughter in the voice as she modulated it to suit the situation.
Our lead protagonist is a woman who finds it hard to toe the line. At first blush, she seems like a carefree personality who does not want to be tied down by what is expected of her, but as we soon learn, we should never judge too quickly.
Ettie has had many more jobs than she feels is prudent to reveal on her CV. When her current one goes up in flames (literally), she finds herself back home and applying for a temp position with two people who say they want to start a hotel. I used the word 'say' because it is only with Ettie's presence that things start to move and ideas take shape. The love story begins quickly and moves at a believable pace between two consenting adults. The whole story would have been as simple as that if not for the presence of a wild lake on the property where Ettie now works. It has been featured on some blog, and is not a hotspot for people wanting to swim, but Ettie's boss has his own reasons for wanting no such shenanigans on his property. The lure of the swim for herself and those asking her to aid them in their escapades proves too hard to resist, and Ettie helps plan rendezvous at the lake for the good of everyone but that one central figure.
This is the part that provides the twist in the tale. Every person who swims brings their own mini-story. I am sure there will be moments in the descriptions that make sense for anyone who enjoys swimming. I liked all the people and the way things happen. I enjoyed all the personal interactions the most - made all the better with the narration!
I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes swimming and/or reading books of this ilk.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

EXCERPT: Thirty and still waiting for her life proper to start. She lived in a crappy house with four other people she barely knew; had to write her name on her milk, which still didn't deter the midnight milk thief; couldn't so much as chill a bottle of wine in the fridge for more than half an hour because that baby would be long gone, and don't even get her started on the daily battle against the mould in the bathroom which had stained the grouting beyond saving.

As for her job - the latest in a very long line - it turned out that working in a vintage clothes shop wasn't quite as glamorous as she'd been led to believe. In truth, it was more like working in a charity shop, frequented by young people without the charity element, although she did meet some interesting people and there were perks. Last month, she'd snaffled a pair of vintage Louboutin shoes from an auction lot of accessories, having spotted the scuffed red leather soles. And before anyone should go thinking that was thieving, she'd told Sally, the owner of the shop, that she'd got her eye on a pair of shoes and she'd paid the suggested twenty quid because Sally wasn't fussed about looking at them. It wasn't as if she ever got paid overtime for all the times she stayed late at the shop, or had even seen as much as reimbursement for the Mac Red Rock lipstick that Sally insisted was essential for the job. Being blonde, blue-eyed and with a magnolia complexion, it really wasn't her colour. Ettie felt you needed a brunette bob, nice thick lips and a mysterious smile to pull that look off, and possibly a trench coat that belted in the middle. She had thinnish lips that were quick and ready to smile and there was absolutely nothing mysterious about her. What you saw was what you got. Plenty of enthusiasm and not much staying power.

ABOUT 'THE WEDNESDAY MORNING WILD SWIM': Ettie is trying to figure out her future.

Dominic’s just trying to forget his past.

But with the help of some unlikely friends, young and old, a secret lake hidden in the grounds of a beautiful estate and a scruffy dog, a new community is formed – right when they all need each other the most.

MY THOUGHTS: An absolute gem!

This is a fun read about friendship and kindness with a generous dollop of romance and a dressing of humour.

It's impossible not to love Ettie. She may always be late for work, but her sunny nature, enthusiasm and warmth more than makes up for it. She loves people and loves helping them, even if doing so causes chaos in her own life.

Other characters include Ettie's granddad, a man with a heart of gold and a wonderful allotment; Gracie, a widow and Dominic's business partner in the hotel venture; and Dominic, who has been badly hurt in the past and has trust issues.

The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim is a delightful and enchanting romantic-comedy with so much more to it. Beautifully written, it flows along, pulling the reader into the storyline and providing more than a few belly-laughs.

Ettie, with her heart of gold, is torn between trying to be loyal to her boss, helping her granddad instil a sense of worth into a teenage amputee, and some confidence into Gracie, who seems to have given up on life since the death of her husband.

There's also an assortment of other interesting characters, some of whom were in the first book of this series. Although The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim is the second in the Yorkshire Escape series, it is easily read as a stand-alone. This is one of those lovely series that focuses on a location and each book focuses on a different set of characters.

Laura Brydon's narration of this audiobook was absolutely superb.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#TheWednesdayMorningWildSwim #NetGalley

I: @juleswakeauthor @harpercollinsuk

T: @Juleswake @HarperCollinsUK

#audiobook #contemporaryfiction #chic-lit #romance

THE AUTHOR: consider myself an honorary Yorkshire woman living in the Chilterns, who still misses proper hills.
I always had an over active imagination which was fuelled by a passion for reading from a young age. A trip to the Bronte’s parsonage at Haworth with my grandmother cemented my desire to be a writer one day.

After reading English at the University of East Anglia, working life began in the glamorous, but deeply shallow world of PR (and I enjoyed every minute of it) , where my fiction writing skills were honed on press releases and copy-writing projects.

One day didn’t happen until I happened to take a break between jobs which also coincided with a local 6 week writing course. This brilliant course started me writing in earnest.. It was now a case of not being able to not write. When the course finished, I set up the Tring Writers Circle. As a writer, its good to network with other like minds who also have people talking in the head, or are dreaming up the latest plot.

I felt obliged to set a good example, which also proved to be a genuine displacement activity for other tasks which I didn’t enjoy so much, such as cooking and ironing. Fortunately my husband is good at the former and an occasional participant in the latter.

In January 2019, with both my children at university, I took the bold decision to give up my job as a school business manager and commit to full-time writing.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK Audio via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim written by Jules Wake and narrated by Laura Brydon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

This book was very sweet. It deals with relationships, family, friends, mental health, kindness and strength in teamwork. The benefits of swimming are explored and shared in a very supportive way. The relationships that grow during the story, are very powerful. I listened to this book as an audio book and really enjoyed the narrators performance. A lovely bit of light reading.

Narrator 5 stars
I swear you could hear this narrator smiling as she read the book

Story 4 stars
I loved this story and the characters. It moved along beautifully and kept my interest throughout.
First time trying this author but definitely heading over to the Kindle store to see what else is available

Lovely, charming, uplifting, witty, humorous: this audiobook was a real pleasure to listen to!

Jules Wake is a new author to me, and I didn't know this book was part of a series. I will definitely have a look at the previous installment, but The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim can be read as a stand alone as well.

I really loved that the main theme of the book, apart from its delightful story, is acceptance: accepting yourself and others as they are, accepting your past, your fears and move on.

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

The narration for this book was just absolutely brilliant. I felt like the narrator was constantly holding back a laugh which worked out perfectly for Ettie's story. Ettie was impossible not to love, she was so feisty and sweet, but also flawed and real. Her sound track should be something like "Walking on Sunshine"... such a sunny character. Her boss and love interest in this story, Dominic was the typical grumpy, with a past... something that made him that way. I loved seeing if Ettie could make Dominic any less grumpy or if Ettie just got herself into more and more trouble with Dominic by continuing with stuff he was dead set against.
The supporting cast, especially Grace and grandpa were also great. Such over the top characters, but in a good way and Josh and the other characters added a little more depth and seriousness to the story.

I highly recommend this story of how swimming and friends can be therapeutic!

Works brilliantly as an audiobook. I loved this book and found it really uplifting. The characters are a real treat and it was a pure pleasure to read.