Return to the Little French Guesthouse – Helen Pollard

 

Blue skies, new love, and a glass of Bordeaux . . . what could possibly go wrong?

When Emmy Jamieson leaves her life behind and moves to La Cour des Roses, a gorgeous guesthouse amidst vineyards in France, everything is resting on her success as the new guesthouse manager.

Looming in the calendar is the biggest booking ever, when the entire eccentric, demanding Thomson family will descend for a golden wedding anniversary. With airbeds on the floor and caravans in the garden, La Cour des Roses will be bursting at the seams.

Emmy knows she’s up to the challenge, especially with the support of the gorgeous Alain, the half-French, half-English, caramel-eyed accountant. But she hadn’t counted on a naked, sleepwalking travel blogger, or the return of owner Rupert’s venomous ex-wife Gloria.

Gloria has a few things to say about Emmy’s new role, Rupert’s finances, and the unsuspecting Alain, which send everybody reeling. Just when Emmy can see a future for herself of endless sunshine, true love and laughter, are her dreams about to be ripped at the seams?

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I was delighted to have the opportunity to read Return to the Little French Guesthouse (thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Bookouture).  I loved the first book, The Little French Guesthouse, and you can read my review here.

Return to the Little French Guesthouse is a brilliant sequel. It really is “a feel good read to make you smile”. It’s as good as, if not better, than the first book. You could read it as a stand alone and be able to pick up the back story but I think you would get so much more from the sequel if you had already read the first book.

Return to the Little French Guesthouse continues where the first book left off. Emmie has left her life in the UK behind and has returned to France and La Cour des Roses to assist the owner Rupert with managing the guesthouse. This time however she is going back to a place she knows a lot better and where she now has some friends.

Things don’t go quite as smoothly as Emmie had hoped. Within a day or two of starting her new role as guesthouse manager there is an incident involving one of the guests who happens to write a travel blog with a large following. I don’t want to spoil it but within a couple of pages I was laughing out loud. Despite Emmie’s best efforts to deal with the problem, the guest leaves and she is then left worrying about potential bad publicity.

In the first book, Rupert’s wife Gloria had run off with Emmie’s boyfriend. Just by chance Emmie takes a call from someone who had apparently spoken to Gloria and had booked the guesthouse and gites for a large group of family members, including lots of special requests. Of course none of this had been written down by Gloria who hadn’t even mentioned it to anyone at the time and Emmie is thrown in at the deep end trying to accommodate all of this.

Emmie is such a lovely character. I feel as if I know her now. She just gets on with things and makes the best of everything even when hit with crisis after crisis. I love it when things go right for her but sometimes the obstacles seem to be almost insurmountable and her plans to live and work at La Cour des Roses and also get her own business off the ground to allow her to stay there begin to look rather shaky, especially when Rupert’s wife Gloria re-appears and wreaks havoc.

It isn’t all bad of course. There is the compensation of living in such a beautiful area and the joy of good friendships. The potential love interest that appeared in the first book is still a feature. There are lots of funny moments and touching moments. I chuckled often and there were even a couple of belly laughs. Anyone watching must have thought I was mad!

I love Helen Pollard’s writing. There is no slow introduction. You are there, in the thick of things, almost immediately. Her storytelling is wonderful and she makes it so easy to imagine the people and the places. (Could there be an adaptation for television?) There is something to keep you wanting to turn the page. The story held my interest throughout and in fact one night, being unable to sleep, I decided to read just a few more pages and ended up reading until 3 am! Needless to say at that point I had to give in and wait until breakfast time to finish it. Now that is what I call a good book.  I would love to read a third one. Please?

Local Girl Missing – Claire Douglas

 

 

Twenty years ago
21-year-old Sophie Collier vanishes one night.  She leaves nothing behind but a trainer on the old pier – and a hole in the heart of her best friend Francesca.

Now
A body’s been found.  And Francesca’s drawn back to the seaside town she’s tried to forget. Perhaps the truth of what happened to Sophie will finally come out. Yet Francesca is beginning to wish she hadn’t returned.

Everywhere she turns are ghosts from her past.  The same old faces and familiar haunts of her youth.  But if someone knows what really happened to Sophie that night then now’s the time to find out – isn’t it?

Except sometimes discovering the truth can cost you everything you hold dear – your family, your sanity and even your life . . .

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I enjoyed reading Local Girl Missing, Claire Douglas’ second book.  It’s a psychological/mystery full of twists and turns and a very good read.

Francesca is 39 years old, living in London and a successful businesswoman involved in the running of her father’s hotel business.

Out of the blue she receives a call from the brother of her best friend Sophie who, years earlier, had disappeared late one night from a club in the seaside town where they had grown up.  It was assumed she had fallen off the town’s deserted pier and had been swept away by the tide but no body had ever been recovered.

Daniel tells her that remains have been washed up, that it might be Sophie and he persuades Francesca to return to the town to await the official identification and help him find out what had happened to his sister.

Francesca takes a few days off and reluctantly returns to Oldcliffe-on-Sea, despite having sworn never to go back. We learn that there was an incident in the past, when the the friends were 16, involving a young boy, Jason. It appears Francesca and Sophie knew what really happened but swore never to tell anyone.

Daniel arranges for Francesca to stay in a friend’s holiday apartment in a Victorian apartment block, high on a cliff top and overlooking the old pier. As it is out of season most of the flats are unoccupied. There is a sense of foreboding and uneasiness.  It was easy to imagine the bleakness of a seaside town in winter.

Memories soon start flooding back, not always welcome memories. In fact it soon appears that Francesca is not welcome either and someone is sending her poison pen messages. There are various incidents that can’t be explained. She’s terrified someone else knows what happened to Jason. There are people from the past still living in the town. She doesn’t know who’s telling the truth, who she can trust.

The author tells the story from both Francesca’s and Sophie’s point of view. Frankie’s story is set in 2016, Sophie’s story is in the form of her journal from 1997. Because of the two time frames you get to know the characters both as teenagers and as adults. There is one character from the past who is really despicable. Who has access to these diary entries? Are they sending the poison pen messages?

I liked this book – it was a well written, satisfying read – quite chilling in parts and full of twists and turns and secrets. The ending was good and not quite what I expected.

Read an extract from Local Girl Missing here.

[My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for providing a review copy of this book]

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

 

‘Another year and I still don’t like old people. Me? I am 83 years old.’ 

Hendrik Groen may be old, but he is far from dead and isn’t planning to be buried any time soon. Granted, his daily strolls are getting shorter because his legs are no longer willing and he had to visit his doctor more than he’d like. Technically speaking he is … elderly. But surely there is more to life at his age than weak tea and potted geraniums?

Hendrik sets out to write an exposé: a year in the life of his care home in Amsterdam, revealing all its ups and downs – not least his new endeavour the anarchic Old-But-Not Dead Club. And when Eefje moves in – the woman Hendrik has always longed for – he polishes his shoes (and his teeth), grooms what’s left of his hair and attempts to make something of the life he has left, with hilarious, tender and devastating consequences.

The indomitable Hendrik Groen – Holland’s unlikeliest hero – has become a cultural phenomenon in his native Netherlands and now he and his famously anonymous creator are conquering the globe. A major Dutch bestseller, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen will not only delight older readers with its wit and relevance, but will charm and inspire those who have years to go before their own expiry date.

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The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is a wonderful book.  It is sad, happy, poignant, funny – I laughed out loud a few times. There’s even a love interest. It’s a work of fiction by an author whose true identity is not known but it is so well written, it’s easy to believe it is all true.  It’s also very entertaining.

Initially I thought the first few pages seemed a bit monotonous. I was wrong. I think that is deliberate to give a flavour of life in a residential home for the elderly. The story gets better and better as we get to know the main characters and they start venturing further afield.

Hendrik has been in an Amsterdam care home for three years. He’s considered courteous, polite, helpful, civil and he keeps quiet to avoid confrontation. He rarely says what he would really like to say. You get the sense he is a bit of a worrier and doesn’t like to upset the apple cart.

Then he decides to keep a diary – an exposé of a year in the care home and it’s residents – to allow his true voice to be heard.

I love the opening lines:

“Another year, and I still don’t like old people. Their Zimmerframe shuffle, their unreasonable impatience, their endless complaints, their tea and biscuits, their bellyaching.”

“Me?  I am eighty-three years old.”

Initially his diary entries document the complaints and petty squabbles of some of the residents, and the routine of the care home with all the rules and regulations regarding what residents can and cannot do. It all seems a bit monotonous (possibly an accurate description of life in some care homes!).

Early on, even Hendrik suggests his diary entries are a bit gloomy however the book is by no means dismal or depressing. It is written with humour and the other residents are described brilliantly.  You really begin to care about some of them.

When Eefje Brand moves into the home Hendrik considers her to be pleasant and like a breath of fresh air. He also finds a spring in his step and a reason to look forwards.

There is also Mrs Stelwegen, the director of the home who becomes something of an adversary when Hendrik and a few friends form the Old-But-Not Dead Club as an alternative to the rather boring activities and entertainments that occasionally take place in the home. The Club members plan excursions and escapades away from the routine of the home.

Firm friendships are formed among the club members. We also get glimpses of the friends’ personal stories and how they came to be in the residential home. I found Hendrik’s story very moving – especially given the quiet way he revealed his circumstances.

There are ups and downs for the club members. It’s sad when the inevitable happens and friends pass away but the Old-But-Not Dead Club will continue, there are more excursions to plan and Hendrik is now looking forward to the Spring – and he’s going to start a new diary.

An excellent, entertaining read.

UK Publication date:  25 August 2016

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for a review copy of this book].