How Hard Can It Be? – Allison Pearson

Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way. Fifty, in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility. And with hormones that have her in shackles, teenage children who need her there but won’t talk to her and ailing parents who aren’t coping, Kate is in the middle of a sandwich that she isn’t even allowed to eat because of the calories.

She’s back at work after a big break at home, because somebody has to bring home the bacon now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace, her old client and flame Jack reappears – complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

This is a coming of age story for turning fifty. It’s about so much more than a balancing act; it’s about finding out who you are and what you need to feel alive when you’ve got used to being your own last priority. And every page will leave you feeling that there’s a bit of Kate Reddy in all of us.

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How Hard Can It Be? is a real treat and you may find yourself laughing out loud and crying in equal measure.

Kate Reddy is not without a few problems – teenagers and their problems (do you even know what a ‘belfie’ is?); an old house in need of upgrading and almost constant attention from Piotr the builder; a ‘drop out’ husband trying to find himself by studying mindfulness; ageing and ailing parents; trying to get back into work after years away; a big birthday (50) looming; and the menopause is approaching along with the forgetfulness that often accompanies it.  Modern parenting is definitely not easy.

She had once been a successful fund manager and now really needs to get back into the workplace and start earning to support the family. To give herself a chance of getting a job she knocks a few years off her age (and the ages of her children) and gets a bit creative with her CV.

She ends up getting a job at her old workplace where no one recognises her, the company having changed hands twice while she’s been away and her old colleagues long gone.  Her boss and colleagues are all so much younger and less experienced but she keeps quiet about her earlier successful career there.

Of course it seems her boss is trying to set her up to fail.  She gets the difficult clients and there are clashes with work and family life (and a few dilemmas).  It’s definitely not easy juggling work and the demands of family life and trying to keep everyone happy.

I think everyone will identify with at least a part of Kate.  I celebrated the big birthday long ago (and the big one after that). I was never really a career person; my children are grown up with children of their own and yet I can still recognise and sympathise with Kate’s predicament.

It’s brilliantly written and very funny but also quite sad.  Kate is a wonderfully vivid character, in fact all the characters (good and ‘bad’) have their parts to play.  It’s a really good, entertaining read.  I loved it.
How Hard Can it Be? was published on 21 September 2017.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a review copy]

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?

The Little French Guesthouse

Description:  Sun, croissants and fine wine. Nothing can spoil the perfect holiday. Or can it?
When Emmy Jamieson arrives at La Cour des Roses, a beautiful guesthouse in the French countryside, she can’t wait to spend two weeks relaxing with boyfriend Nathan. Their relationship needs a little TLC and Emmy is certain this holiday will do the trick. But they’ve barely unpacked before he scarpers with Gloria, the guesthouse owner’s cougar wife.

Rupert, the ailing guesthouse owner, is shell-shocked. Feeling somewhat responsible, and rather generous after a bottle (or so) of wine, heartbroken Emmy offers to help. Changing sheets in the gîtes will help keep her mind off her misery.

Thrust into the heart of the local community, Emmy suddenly finds herself surrounded by new friends. And with sizzling hot gardener Ryan and the infuriating (if gorgeous) accountant Alain providing welcome distractions, Nathan is fast becoming a distant memory.

Fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast, feeding the hens in the warm evening light; Emmy starts to feel quite at home. But it would be madness to walk away from her friends, family, and everything she’s ever worked for, to take a chance on a place she fell for on holiday – wouldn’t it?

After reading a few crime novels (mostly very good) The Little French Guesthouse made a lovely contrast. It was funny, warm, sad, poignant and very satisfying.

I found myself quickly becoming immersed in the story. There is no slow introduction. The first page starts with Emmy’s shocking discovery on the roof terrace.

Emmy and Nathan are spending two weeks at a beautiful French guesthouse in the Loire region run by Rupert and his wife Gloria in the hope that a break from work and stress will re-energise their relationship.

A few days into the holiday Rupert collapses in front of Emmy clutching his chest. She goes searching for his wife and is shocked when she finds Gloria and Nathan ‘romping’ on the roof terrace.

Rupert is taken to hospital where he is found to have angina but he has also damaged a ligament in his leg when he collapsed and can barely walk. This is a problem because Rupert did all the cooking. It would seem Gloria is just there to meet and greet and look decorative.

A few days later, shortly after important guests have arrived who are very demanding and will expect the very best of food and service, Nathan and Gloria have run off together and Emmy feels sorry for Rupert and ends up helping out by shopping, cleaning, cooking under supervision rather than returning home early.

What starts out with Emmy feeling she has to help Rupert run the guest house for a day or two until he can arrange for other help leads to her staying on for the duration of her holiday and then being asked to extend it by another week.

In a very short time she has made new friends and she feels settled and comfortable. She helps Rupert but also takes time to relax in the beautiful surroundings. There is even some love interest.

All too soon Emmy has to go back to her well paid job in the UK. . Rupert comes up with a plan that would enable her to relocate to France and help him run his business and perhaps cultivate her own business interests. There is much agonising as Emmy considers her options.

I like the writing style.  Helen’s description of the guesthouse and its surroundings is wonderful. I really wanted to be there, in fact I felt I could be there, sitting reading in the peaceful garden, the bees humming, the gardener working somewhere nearby or enjoying the town on market day with all the noise, bustle, smells, having coffee, chatting. Sounds idyllic.

The characters were well drawn and easy to visualise. Caring, thoughtful, hardworking, capable Emmy who mucks in when things need done and endears herself to everyone. She sounds wonderful, someone you would want to be friends with. Owner Rupert I think is usually larger than life, congenial, friendly, appreciative, well known and respected in the area.

Nathan came across as arrogant, snobbish, mean, selfish – not so much of a sympathetic character! Gloria seemed more self-centred, lazy, and probably a little past her prime. I got a sense she was disappointed with her life at the guest house.

I liked the fact that all the characters are easy to visualise. The writing was so good.

This is the first book I have read by Helen Pollard but I’m sure it won’t be the last. It is everything it says on the cover: The perfect feel good summer read.

Author’s website:    http://ift.tt/1OtCKXC

FREEBIES

Oops. Something went wrong here.  This post had reverted to draft.  It was written in the early part of August, certainly long before 25 August!

I've spent the past couple of weeks mainly reading 'free' downloads for Kindle.

I used to trawl through the Amazon 100 bestsellers (free) for Kindle.  I would 'buy' all sorts of books in the hope of finding a wee gem - and quite often there would be a book that was an excellent read.

There were others of course that were not so good, thankfully though not too many that were completely unreadable.

As I said before, nowadays I use Bookbub and The Book Hippo.  I get a daily email from each of those offering books that are either free or great bargains. Sometimes the 'bargain' is for a very limited time.   I set the criteria for books offered.  Both sites are easy to use, even my 80 year old mother can now download her Kindle books easily.

So this weeks's books were The Good Lawyer by Thomas Benigno.  A typical courtroom/crime story but a good read.  A young, ambitious lawyer, brought up with connections to the Mafia, serial rapist/murderer and the suicide of a young victim, family secrets - all cleverly connected.  I bought this book for free but I think you now have to pay.

I also read The Good Sister by Leanne Davis.  Also free when I bought it.  Again it was a good read. I suppose it is a romance but the main character is a victim of domestic abuse who is unable to escape  /leave her controlling husband.  Apparently it is the second book in a series but it was still enjoyable even although I hadn't read the first book.

Lindsay is the sister who seems to have the success: nice house, handsome husband who intends to run for state governor. Growing up she was her Father's favourite daughter and always tried her best to please him.   However she is basically a prisoner and can only do what her monster of a husband allows. She also suffers frequent vicious assaults at his hands.

Jessie on the other hand had a very troubled rebellious childhood and was hated by her father.  She now lives on the other side of the country with her husband and is expecting a baby.  She also works for a good looking vet.  Somehow her sister Lindsay is permitted to visit her sister.  Over a few weeks she blossoms and begins to find her voice.  Of course there is that good looking man.

It's a well written book, making it easy to read although the subject matter makes it quite difficult to read without feeling angry, sad, frustrated.

The book is also quite explicit so is really only suitable for adults.

I also managed to fit in another couple of books that I actully paid for.

One was The Shadow Wife by Diane Chamberlain.  I think this might be one of her earlier books but it was still enjoyable.  Her books tend to have some kind of moral dilemma.  I would say this was good romantic fiction with that dilemma.

The other book was Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I loved this book. I haven't watched the film and I'm not sure if I will.  The book is well written and although you might think it would be depressing (it's about a Harvard Professor who is diagnosed with Alzheimers at the age of 50) I didn't find it so.  The diagnosis changes her relationships with her husband and grown children, she has to stop working sooner than she had planned,

Unfortunately Alzheimers is something that seems to be touching the lives of more and more people. I just found this book remarkable and I would definitely recommend it.