Published By: Headline Review
Pages: 432
Released On: 16/01/2025
Nick is the most intriguing man Nella has met in a while. He’s a 9 in the looks department (no one gets a 10), he makes her laugh, and he keeps her company when she ends up in A&E. But they live hundreds of miles apart.
Then Nella loses her job. There’s a perfect role on offer at a Cotswolds holiday retreat. The catch is that her boss would be Nick. And that makes Nick the one man she can’t risk falling in love with.
While Nella struggles with her feelings, a Hollywood star has found a haven at the retreat. Lizzie’s sworn off people – especially men – until her friendly new neighbours entice her out of her shell. Maybe she needs a flirtation – with gorgeous Nick, perhaps? Not with taciturn local Matthew, though, who definitely isn’t a member of her fan club. Then an astonishing secret revealed changes everything . . .
*****
Thanks to Headline for the gifted proof of this title in return for an honest review.
I have never met a Jill Mansell book I didn’t fall in love with. Although, I realised that I’ve only actually read about half a dozen of them, so I best get reading the rest. But I had high hopes that this would be as good as the previous ones.
There was a map! And we all know how much I love a map in a book.
I was in a real reading slump when I started this, unable to focus on any book for more than 10 minutes, and my self-imposed reading targets were being missed. Because of this, it did take me a little while to get into it, but Jill’s magic soon won me round.
We have dual stories going on. Nella and Nick. And then Lizzie’s story. Nella’s story is the most prominent I’d say, with Lizzie coming in as and when, but it felt like a nice balance. Nella is a gorgeous main character. She’s flawed but she tries her best to help others. She felt very real. Nick is the beautiful man who you can’t possibly fall in love with but, oops, too late. And then Lizzie is this Hollywood A-Lister who is burnt out and just wants some peace. They’re all wonderful.
There are a lot of characters, some with bigger parts than others and therefore some more developed than others. I also wondered if there were a bit too many sub stories, but on reflection I think she’s found the right balance on everything – characters and plot.
We’ve got love, old and new, babies, glamour, betrayal, friendship, grief, anger, fear, trust, hope – it’s got everything I have come to expect from her books.
What I really enjoyed was it wasn’t just a happily-ever-after story. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE those books. The girl meets the boy, they fall in love, something gets in the middle of them and all seems lost, and then they all live happily ever after. I love, love, love them and read them all the time, so this isn’t a negative comment on them. But what Jill’s book gives us is that sense of a happily-ever-after, but with so much meat on the bones, with so much depth, that it almost becomes a genre of its own.
I don’t believe this is a start of a series or anything, but I’d be quite happy with a second book, even if it was just a novella, just so I could see how the characters were doing in a few years time.
There are some of her books I like more than others, but I’ve never been disappointed by one. I know I will always enjoy reading her books, there’s no fear that I’ll be let down by a new release. And that’s good when you are desperate to read something light and beautiful that really grips you.
I read a review that called it a hu in a book, and I couldn’t agree more. I could quite easily see it as a TV series or romantic movie, sort of akin to Love Actually, where we see each character’s story and then how they all come together.
Overall I would say it focusses on friendship, family being what you make of it rather than who you’re related to, about finding what you love, and following your passions.
Books By Your Bedside 