I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Home at Cornflower Cottage by Tilly TennantAlso by this author: Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn, The Man Who Can't Be Moved, Mishaps and Mistletoe, Little Acts of Love
Published by Bookouture on 1st July 2022
Genres: Chicklit, Contemporary, Humour, Love & Romance
Pages: 308
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
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Escape to the flower-filled fields and hedgerows of the Cotswold countryside, to a tiny cottage and a summer that could change everything…
Amelie has lived in Cornflower Cottage since she was born. She did her homework at the scrubbed kitchen table and helped her mum hang washing from the line on the old oak tree in the garden. And when her beloved parents died, Cornflower Cottage became Amelie’s armour against the world.
The trouble is that Cornflower Cottage is too big for just her. With a broken boiler and a leaking roof, Amelie knows she must do something to make ends meet. When she meets Xander, a scruffy, brown-eyed nature documentary maker living out of his backpack in a nearby hotel, Amelie rents him a room, hoping a lodger will solve her problems.
She soon realises that her troubles are only just beginning. Xander’s muddy clothes all over the cottage and early morning jaunts to photograph otters are going to take some getting used to. But when an argument turns into a heart-to-heart, she finds herself confessing how lonely she has been.
Before long, laughter echoes round the cosy farmhouse kitchen once more and sparks begin to fly. But when a face from Xander’s past appears at Cornflower Cottage Amelie’s happy home is shaken once more. Xander has changed Amelie’s quiet country life forever. Should she open her heart to someone who has hidden things from her? Or let him leave, and lose the love that makes her house a home?
Thank you to Bookouture for letting me take part in this tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I love Tilly’s books and I was very excited to read another one of her stories.
Amelie is quite frankly a people pleaser and because of that she lets people push her around. At work she gets dumped on all the time. She seems too nice to dump her boyfriend, Decker, that she doesn’t really like and generally gets stuck doing things she doesn’t want to. I found her quite frustrating. I understand she has been through quite a lot but I wanted her to stand up for herself.
There seems to be a trope at the moment of main characters being with someone else at the beginning of the book (who is generally useless or someone the main character doesn’t gel with) they waste a lot of time with this person and then near the end of the story dump them and end up with the love of their lives. I find this trope really frustrating. It’s highly realistic don’t get me wrong. I know people who clearly shouldn’t be with someone but keep going back or just stay with them because it’s easy or familiar. It makes me want to scream because it’s so obvious they shouldn’t be with that person and leave little room for the main romance.
That aside I did enjoy Xander and his easy ways. He was passionate about his work and you could tell he loved animals which is always a winner for me!
Salad is a great little bunny and an excellent judge of character! He was very funny. I also loved Cornflower Cottage and its beautiful surroundings.
This may sound like a critical review but I did enjoy the light-heartedness of this book and the interactions between Xander and Amelie. Tilly is an excellent storyteller and this comes across in just how frustrated I was with Amelie.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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