Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for this fun and engaging read from Sarah Long. Thank you to
Compulsive Reader for inviting me to join the tour and to Zaffre books for my copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Book Description
When Nicola's husband, Dominic, retires they decide not to spend their days finding hobbies to fill the time until Countdown is on. Instead, they fulfil their life-long fantasy of buying a country house and filling it with their dearest friends. Reliving their youth and spending their children's inheritance.
Joined by seven of their friends they club together to invest in a château in Normandy. Group dinners, fine wine, beautiful scenery - they're living the dream!
But la vie en rose is harder than it first appears. Is there a reason why only teenagers take gap years?
My Review
Nicola and her husband, Dominic, are now both retired and looking forward to the next chapter in their lives. The two of them decide that they want to do something big with their time instead of just living quietly. Their plan is to buy a huge country house and live with their closest friends. The pair hatch a plan to get all of their closest friends in on their idea so they can pool their resources and buy the biggest property they can afford.
With their seven closest friends all agreeing to the plan they all set out to buy a house. They are all disappointed with the first few houses they see and nothing they find seems to be a good enough match for them all.
It is then that the group of them look further afield and find a run down Chateau near to Normandy in France.
The group are so excited to put their plan into action and once they make their decision it doesn't take them long to move into the Chateau and start making plans to renovate it.
What follows in the book is what happens to the group in their first year living in the chateau.
Will it be the idyllic dream they are all hoping for. With the year filled with fun and laughter but also tinged with sadness too it is safe to say they are all in for an adventure and maybe not the quiet life they expected from their retirement.
This is a wonderful read that I enjoyed from beginning to end. The writing style is wonderful and has a way of really drawing you into the story.
I really liked getting to know all of the friends as they all begin their new adventure in the Chateau. It is clear they are all different and all bring something different to the project. There is plenty going on between them all and a times there is conflict between them all as old insecurities rise to the surface along with old feelings too.
There is also a small cast of French Characters they get to know too as part of their adventure and they really do add to the story and help the group to settle into their new way of life.
This is a brilliant read full of fun, friendship and adventure and one you will not want to put down.
With their seven closest friends all agreeing to the plan they all set out to buy a house. They are all disappointed with the first few houses they see and nothing they find seems to be a good enough match for them all.
It is then that the group of them look further afield and find a run down Chateau near to Normandy in France.
The group are so excited to put their plan into action and once they make their decision it doesn't take them long to move into the Chateau and start making plans to renovate it.
What follows in the book is what happens to the group in their first year living in the chateau.
Will it be the idyllic dream they are all hoping for. With the year filled with fun and laughter but also tinged with sadness too it is safe to say they are all in for an adventure and maybe not the quiet life they expected from their retirement.
This is a wonderful read that I enjoyed from beginning to end. The writing style is wonderful and has a way of really drawing you into the story.
I really liked getting to know all of the friends as they all begin their new adventure in the Chateau. It is clear they are all different and all bring something different to the project. There is plenty going on between them all and a times there is conflict between them all as old insecurities rise to the surface along with old feelings too.
There is also a small cast of French Characters they get to know too as part of their adventure and they really do add to the story and help the group to settle into their new way of life.
This is a brilliant read full of fun, friendship and adventure and one you will not want to put down.
Published by Zaffre on 5th March 2020
Purchase Link
About the Author
Sarah Long was raised in Essex, educated at Oxford and worked in publishing before moving to Paris with her husband and young children. She now lives in London with the same husband and most of her adult children, at the midlife stage that inspired her new novel Invisible Women.
She is the author of two previous novels, And What Do You Do? and The Next Best Thing, as well as Le Dossier of Hortense de Monplaisir or How to Survive the English, a helpful guide to understanding the ways of the British, as seen through the eyes of her snobbish Parisian alter ego.
Although now back in the motherland, she has failed to leave France behind, and spends as much time as possible at her house in rural Normandy, making jam, digging things up and watching the wildlife which often ends up, uninvited, indoors.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today and I hope you enjoyed my review.
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