I haven't reviewed a book on here for ages! I've read some lovely novels recently, so maybe I'll get back to it. Here's a look at one i've just finished...
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My favourite books create a wonderful sense
of place, I’ve realized. The books that I treasure and return to are ones that
build an environment I want to spend more time in. The hectic farm at the heart
of Carole Matthews’ new novel becomes just that kind of place. It’s a special
kind of farm that’s a haven for displaced and damaged animals and young human
beings. We get to spend a lot of time with wonky hens, anti-social sheep, diva
alpacas and difficult kids.
There’s a strong sense of time running out
for this messy and cheery paradise though, as the land is being sold out from
under our heroine Molly and her ramshackle caravan. The whole idyllic place is
going to be thoroughly ploughed up and ruined by the futile onslaught of a
high-speed railway. Molly has to find somewhere new to move her fifty-odd
eccentric animals and the kids who’ve come to depend on her alternate school.
However, she has recently fallen into the orbit of Shelby Dacre, a local minted
soap star and his surly son, Lucas, and all their fates look as if they’re
destined to become entwined. It’s not hard to guess what’s going to happen, but
these lovable and independent-minded characters manage to put enough stubborn
obstacles in the road of their own happiness to give the tale some lovely and
funny suspense.
Mostly, however, it’s a story about
learning the trick of happiness, and how to find it in the simplest and
sweetest things. Shallow, materialistic and selfish characters are given
short-shrift and, as ever, in a Carole Matthews novel, the loyal, hard-working,
and slightly crazy characters are the ones to win through in the end. In this
book it feels like the reader is drawn in to belong to this mismatched family
of llamas and heart-throbs, baby goats and young poets – and Hope Farm really
becomes somewhere you’re sad to leave at the end.
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