Though I do love the cover, the story itself was not what I expected from it. The writing style did not appeal to me and it was lacking conflict. Way too sweet and repetitive for me. Too bad, since I was looking forward to reading this very much.

Lief, romantisch en meeslepend. Meer hierover lees je vanaf 18 oktober!

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Holly for my copy of this book and for letting me take part in this tour. I love Holly's writing and I just had to read her latest book.

In this story, we follow Willow as she finds her feet in her new home. Willow is in need of a fresh start and has just moved to Happiness. Happiness is a small village which has been in need of a bit of TLC for quite a while now and Willow has just the right ideas to help. I really liked Willow. She is creative, empathetic and kind.

Of course along the way Willow meets a hunk of a man. I quickly fell for Andrew just like Willow. Andrew has been living in the village for a few months. He was hired as the estate manager for the village. Andrew is holding back something. This element could have been really risky but I think Holly did an excellent job. She researched the hell out of it and it paid off!

This book is full of love and community spirit. I love the secret society and I loved how it grew to the whole village. It was really heart warming to see.

I really enjoyed this story and I cannot wait to return later in the year.

Willow needs to start again with her life and what better place than somewhere called Happiness. 

The little village in Cornwall needs people and in return for a years free rent for both accommodation and shop, Willow sees it as the perfect opportunity to escape from the gossip of her town and to lick her wounds from being dumped the day after getting engaged. 

However, Happiness is not all it seems. 

The advertisement was far from the truth, crumbling cottages, unkempt gardens and not a very friendly atmosphere. But despite the breathtaking scenery there is a small glimmer of happiness - Andrew, the estate manager. 

Willow is not looking for that sort of happiness but it seems the connection between herself and Andrew cannot be denied. When an idea to spread some more happiness through the villagers gathers momentum so does Willow and Andrew's relationship.  

But whilst Willow is falling into life in the village, spreading happiness and enjoying her time with Andrew. She feels that he is holding something back. 

This is great story of upping sticks and starting again and making a whole new life for yourself. I fell in love with Andrew as much as I enjoyed Willow's little eccentricities on how she can make the village more welcoming and give everyone a sense of community. Something I think which is lacking considerably in today's society.

I could escape completely within the pages of the book. The characters made me laugh and cry - they also made me cross with their actions too! This books isn't just full of light fluffy romance, there are some interesting issues dealt with sensitively and they made the plot so much richer and thoughtful. 

I would gladly have decamped to the village of Happiness in my own cottage, I think I would have opened a book shop or a craft shop and if I could have found my own Andrew I would have truly found contentment.

A five star read.

I had to read this book for work. Mind you that I've never read any romances before! And I also now know that pure romances aren't my cup of tea...

Nevertheless, I decided to look at this book purely rationally, and still I managed to find a few things that boggled me. First of all, the severe lack of anything happening. While the romance was cute, nothing else seemed to happen. It was all just pining and then just some random sex scenes inserted without any depth added to it. Also, as a candle maker myself: the candle making process both surprised and bothered me. Do not add your fragrance oils to wax that just came out of 'boiling water' (which is a mistake in itself, don't let your water get to boiling temperatures!!). The wax will be 1) too hot to pour and 2) your fragrance oils will disperse because your wax is too hot. Anyway, the candle making process itself was cute so nothing else to add on that front.

I'm excited to see what kind of attention the Dutch translation will get though!

Loved it

I’m sorry to say I didn’t enjoy this book

However the Isla Leo and Elliot mention made my day

“Read” as an audiobook.
Story is fine, not really refreshing. Got really irritated at the phrase that (someone) wasn’t ready for a relationship. It was used way too much. Didn’t like that the tension in the story was created by letting the main characters overreact on each other.
So, fine to listen to, not amazing.