I found this book just to be an ok read. I finished it but after finishing it I didn’t have the wow factor I often get after reading a great book. 2.5 🌟

This was a slow is gentle read. I like that the authors characters are usually slightly older than the norm. Plenty of family dilemmas but deep down I wanted the main character to think of herself for a change.

I didnt enjoy this book very much, it wasnt as good as some of her others i have read

3.5 Stars

Massive story taking in four generations of the de Freitas family. Nancy is the lynchpin of her family, if anything or anyone has a problem she drops everything to help them. She seems resigned to the fact that she will be running around after others for ever.

Nancy's mother Frances is in her eighties, and is clearly hiding an illness from the rest of the family. She doesn't want to be a burden, but equally definitely needs some extra TLC. She also takes an instant dislike to the new many in Nancy's life.

Louise, Nancy's daughter is married with two children of her own. Louise seems to have taken her parents separation hard, even three years after the even, and seems to be an all around selfish person. She nags her husband, but also drops everything to step in when there are problems with their restaurant, leaving Nancy having to cancel her own plans regularly to babysit her grandkids.

Everything starts to change in their lives, when Nancy meets Jim, who is a country and western singer, and also teaches line dancing. He reminds me a lot of an aging cowboy rocker, and despite being I'd say a generation older than me, I couldn't help but fall for him myself in a way. He is a lovely man, but Nancy's family don't exactly agree.

I really felt for Nancy for most of the book, as it is clear she is being pulled in multiple directions by everyone close to her. She just wants to do the right thing by everyone. Whereas I really didn't take to her daughter and mother, who both just seem incredibly selfish, and no one really seemed to care about Nancy's happiness.

I found this was a slow starter, due to the amount of generations involved, and trying to work out just who fitted into the family where. Once that was sorted in my mind, I was able to sit back and enjoy the book more. The sections from Frances point of view I found fascinating, as when you can see what she was really thinking privately, instead of how she is portrayed when around the family, I couldn't help but have a new found respect for her, even if I still wasn't that keen on her character.

I just found most of the de Freitas family to be utterly infuriating and it was starting to drive me mad. When the Lavender House was introduced I honestly thought the book was taking a much welcome change of direction and location from East Sussex to France, but it didn't turn out how I was expecting in any respects. It is always nice to be surprised, but I think I just found a lot of the book quite hard going, in amongst the enjoyment.

Taking place over a year in time, this is a story predominately of the older generations, which may be way I struggled a bit connecting with some of the characters, or fully empathising with them. On one level I could understand exactly what was happening but on another, I felt that I lacked the life experiences to fully be immersed in this story.

Thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.