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| ★★✰✰✰ |
Synopsis: Sarah Carpenter lives in an isolated farmhouse in North Yorkshire and for the first time, after the death of her husband some years ago and her children, Louis and Kitty, leaving for university, she’s living alone. But she doesn’t consider herself lonely. She has two dogs, a wide network of friends and the support of her best friend, Sophie. When an old acquaintance, Aiden Beck, needs somewhere to stay for a while, Sarah’s cottage seems ideal; and renewing her relationship with Aiden gives her a reason to smile again. It’s supposed to be temporary, but not everyone is comfortable with the arrangement: her children are wary of his motives, and Will Brewer, an old friend of her son’s, seems to have taken it upon himself to check up on Sarah at every opportunity.
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Review: The first 50% of this novel is basically just sex, dog walks up and down a hill, and making cups of tea. I have no problem with any of these things, but there was basically zero progression of the story for the first 50% of the book. Nothing happened. The synopsis here on Goodreads mentions characters going missing - the first one of these goes missing at the 66% mark, and the other goes missing at the 78% mark (I read the Kindle edition). The use of the second person for Aiden's character serves no purpose that I can see, other than to maybe make him sound like a madman, and its pretty obvious who the mystery narrator in italics is from less than halfway through the book. Characters were meh. I liked the dogs, and the house/cottage/location sounded lovely. But there's really nothing else to say here. Massively flawed in terms of pacing and substance. Quick and easy to read; its only redeeming feature. Cannot recommend.
Rating: 2/5
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