From the bestselling author of A Village Affair comes a laugh out loud new Westenbury tale...
As the Yorkshire village of Westenbury mourns the loss of one of their own, the women can't help but contemplate who will fill the vacancy in one handsome widower's life...
Grace Stevens has decided it's time to move on without her husband. He's off gallivanting around Devon in search of a new life, and good riddance. It's time to go back to teaching, so Grace returns to Little Acorns and takes on an unruly class of pre-teens.
As she deals with disasters in – and out of – the classroom including an accidental dalliance with her most troublesome pupil's dad, helping track down a drug ring and keeping up with her closest girlfriends, Grace begins to wonder more and more about the sparkle in David's eyes and the sparking chemistry between them.
Could Grace be the one to fill this village vacancy?
‘Come on, Hat, let’s get over to Clementine’s, I’m desperate for a drink and to dump these heels.’ Grace rubbed at the back of her lower leg and frowned.
‘A drink?’ Harriet Westmoreland glanced to her left where Libby, her eldest daughter, stood with her partner, Seb Henderson, David and Mandy’s only son. ‘It’s not even eleven-thirty yet. And what about the committal? We can’t just troll off down the road for a quick gin when she’s not even been laid to rest.’
‘Family only, apparently.’ Grace looked slightly put out. ‘As if we two aren’t her oldest friends. You know, who here has known her the longest of all…? Who adored her, copied everything she did? Whose day was totally made by one single glance across the school assembly hall from her? I do feel, Harriet, we were more family than some of her actual family.’
‘Grace,’ Harriet said patiently, ‘we couldn’t stand her a lot of the time.’
‘Shh, for heaven’s sake, don’t speak ill of the dead. OK, OK, I admit, over the years, you me and her have had our differences, but you know perfectly well Mandy’s death has hit both of us like a ton of bricks. I still can’t believe I’m never going to see her again…’ Grace broke off, openly wiping away tears that fell from behind her sunglasses before reaching down to pull up Pietronella’s pristine white socks once more.
‘She drove us both mad, Grace, you know she did, so let’s not pretend otherwise.’ Harriet raised an eyebrow. ‘I still think if Nick had been the type of husband to be seduced by another woman, she’d have snared him when they were working together in Italy.’
‘Talking about me?’ Nick Westmoreland appeared at their side, putting an arm around each of them.
‘No, Mandy.’
‘Well, all nice stuff, I hope. You can’t badmouth a person once they’ve gone, and especially at their own funeral.
‘Oh God, Nick, don’t. Just saying that, you know, that she’s gone, I can’t bear it.’ Grace wiped her eyes again.
‘Not like you, Grace.’ Nick frowned in her direction before picking up Pietronella and throwing her up in the air. ‘You and Mandy were always at daggers drawn with each other.’
‘Do you think you should be doing that, Nick?’ Harriet frowned at her husband. ‘You know, playing at fairgrounds with Pietronella? We’re at a funeral, not a party.’
For a split-second Nick looked contrite and then shook his head. ‘Don’t be daft. I bet Mandy wouldn’t have wanted us to be miserable.’
‘I bet she would,’ Harriet muttered. ‘She’ll hate it if she’s looking down on us now and we’re having a good time without her.’ She shivered slightly as she gazed up into the fortuitously forget-me-not blue sky, the very colour of Mandy’s eyes. No one would ever be able to forget Amanda Henderson, nee Goodners, only daughter of one of the largest mill-owning families in Yorkshire and wife of the very wealthy and charismatic David Henderson.
‘Mandy just couldn’t help herself; you know that. She needed the adoration of others whether it be man, woman or child, in order to live.’
Julie Houston is the author of THE ONE SAVING GRACE, GOODNESS, GRACE AND ME and LOOKING FOR LUCY, a Kindle top 100 general bestseller and a Kindle #1 bestseller. She is married, with two teenage children and a mad cockerpoo and, like her heroine, lives in a West Yorkshire village. She is also a teacher and a magistrate.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for this thorough and fabulous review, Kay and for taking the time to be part of the blog tour and reading and reviewing A Village Vacancy. It really is appreciated !! xxx
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