Today on Pen and Paper, three feel good novels.
MISS YOU by KATE EBERLEN.
Tess and Gus are meant to be. They just haven't met properly yet. And perhaps they never will . . .
Today is the first day of the rest of your life is the motto on a plate in the kitchen at home, and Tess can't get it out of her head, even though she's in Florence for a final, idyllic holiday before university. Her life is about to change forever - but not in the way she expects.
Given that the paper back edition I had {a 2017 Pan Books} had no synopsis but rather endorsement after endorsement after endorsement both on the back cover, the front inner cover and the first four pages experience told me that Miss You was probably going to be all hype and very little else. How wrong I was.
Told over a period of 16 years, the story of two people who share the briefest moment in time in Italy before going back home to England alone. What follows next is a series of should of beens and could of beens, of fleeting encounters and near misses until ...
A beautiful emotional, roller-coaster of a read that is quite different from your typical romance. The chapters alternate between Tess' and Gus'; Tess and Gus being characters who whilst unlikeable at times have such redeeming qualities that you can't help but relate to them if nothing else.
A VINTAGE WEDDING by KATIE FFORDE.
In a small Cotswold country town, Beth, Rachel and Lindy are looking for new beginnings.
So they set up in business, organising stylish and perfectly affordable vintage weddings.
Soon they are busy arranging other people's Big Days.
What none of them know is that their own romances lie waiting, just around the corner ...
A nice enough read, the setting charming, the female characters likeable enough, the male characters, not so much but then I did feel that, with not as much time devoted to their development, they were very obviously secondary to the women.
That the chapters alternated between the three main protagonists, Beth, Rachel and Lindy ... Hmm! Whilst it worked well enough I couldn't help but wonder if it might have worked better if their stories had been broken up into three books within the one book.
Overall, an enjoyable piece of escapism. My main gripe being that there were many threads that were seemly allowed to just peter out and just as many that were left unfinished that I did think there must have been a sequel {there's not} or if not whether there was one in the pipeline {there doesn't seem to be}.
PERSONALLY, I BLAME MY FAIRY GODMOTHER by CLAUDIA CARROLL.
Where's a magic wand when you need one ...
Jessie Woods absolutely believes in fairytale endings. So would you if you had a recession-proof career as a daredevil TV host, a palatial pink mansion, and the dream boyfriend
But, quicker than you can say Cinderella, her life falls to pieces and suddenly her prince isn't quite so charming, her party-loving friends disappear and even her faithful friend Visa no longer loves her?
Utterly heartbroken and jobless, Jessie is forced back home, to live with her stepmum and two evil stepsisters.
Is it time for her to give up on the dream - or will Jessie learn that happy endings can come in the strangest of places?
With a cover and title that hinted at a fun read but a synopsis that didn't exactly shout 'read me' ... what's that saying, two out of three ain't bad?
The latter half better than the first; the step-mum and 'evil' stepsisters more entertaining and certainly a lot less irritating than the heroine of the story. Despite the fat jokes {yawn}, an OK if largely forgettable modern twist on a well known tale .
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