This was a delightful piece of fluff for gloomy winter days. Kate has been given an inheritance from her grandmother. She chooses to temporarily leave London, her job, and unhappy love life for the country. She purchases Little Cottage with the intention of flipping it while she sorts out her life. She meets the Blackmore brothers-brooding Ed and fun loving divorced Jack and manages to become part of their life. No real surprise as to what happens but I enjoyed the story and characters. My quibble was it felt a little rushed at the end. Essentially this is a rehash of the movie Sabrina. I found it equally as charming and read the last page with a smile on my face. Meh, pleasant enough and very British and well enough written, but didn't live up to Kirkus Reviews' intimations that it was an update of Pride and Prejudice. It's about a young woman recently crushed by bad love affairs who comes into some money and heads off to the British countryside to recuperate by remodeling a cottage for six months with plans to sell it at a profit. Enter brooding, handsome neighboring landowner type, intrigue based on someone who leaves threatening messages to get her off the land, and growing relationships with the pleasant couple & kids next door. It didn't quite work as a good romance, rather bland, but the remodeling details were nice and the matter of fact descriptions of such intricacies as what a Ploughman's Lunch is were actually kind of interesting to me. Still baffled by carpet slippers though. Is it different than normal slippers? are there non-carpet, outdoors slippers? Inquiring minds want to know.
Do You like book Kate's Progress (2013)?
The ending was a little too tidy, too quickly. For chick lit, entertaining and not overly fluffy.
—Kathy
Good beach reading. Ending felt rushed.
—Fredi
Katie Fforde fans will like this one!
—tigerorangekitty
