A Breath of Fresh Air – Jessica Redland

Published By: Boldwood
Pages: 370
Released On: 10/01/2024

Rosie feels like there’s something missing in her life.

She loves her job as the manager of Willowdale Hall Riding Stables, caring for the horses and teaching children to ride, and she loves the home she shares with her mother in the beautiful Lake District. But she can’t help wondering how her life might look if things had been different. What if her father had been around to help care for her mother? And what if she’d found someone special herself?

When Hubert Cranleigh – the owner of Willowdale Hall – is taken ill, his son Oliver steps into the breach. Brooding and distant, Rosie is furious when he claims not to know who she is. Especially when they have a history.

Rosie’s life is about to be turned upside down, but with the New Year comes new opportunities. What Rosie feels is missing from her life might be closer than she thinks, and with more significant consequences than she could ever have imagined…

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I will start this review by saying what I always think when I start a Jessica Redland book: that this book will be great, it just depends on the level of greatness. And so far, the books that I have read have been nothing short of 5 star. And this includes the first book in the ‘Escape to the Lakes’ series.

The communities that Jessica always manages to create are just perfect. And this is definitely one I’d happily live in. It’s not too isolated, but it’s not a huge space. This means all the characters know each other and you get this warmth. It does help that the Lake District is one of my favourite places in the world. It is beautiful and has this magic that Jessica has captured so well.

Overall, it is a loving, warming, cosy, light, easy-to-read book. But she hasn’t shied away from including some difficult topics, such as trauma, PTSD, relationship struggles, bullying, broken families, injuries, death, single parenthood etc. This sounds like it might have been too morbid, but it’s not. These aren’t things that take over the main storyline, but they help add a sense of realism to them, as everyone goes through some difficult things, whether fictional or real. And it then helps the positive bits sing even more.

I love the focus on animals in this book – horses and dogs. It is lovely and really shows how animals become part of our family and how they can really save people. They’re more than ‘just’ working animals, they’re a friend and they support you all the way, and they have this sixth sense that tells them when you need them more, and that’s captured well.

Autumn was the main character in the first book, with Rosie as a secondary character, but this one has flipped that round. We see Rosie as our protagonist and she’s as fabulous a creation as Autumn was. That’s what I particularly love about Jessica’s books. If they’re in a series, all the characters relate. It doesn’t matter who is the main character, the support, or the villain – they’re all there and they all pop up in each other’s stories, which helps that sense of community and security I get when I read her books. It also teases potential storylines for future books as we meet some of the secondary characters.

From what I can gather online, I think she’s written 22 novels (including this one – Jessica please correct me if I’m wrong), and I’ve read 12 of them, and each one is as stupendous as the one before and the one following. I am never worried when I begin a Jessica Redland book. I never worry about not liking it or wondering whether to stop reading it. I know I’ll love it, time after time. She’s my comfort author who creates cosy, warming, beautiful, emotional, difficult, happy, comforting, and real stories.