A new novel from Katie Fforde is always a treat – so much so that I don’t even need to read the blurb to know that I’ll like it!
Precisely because I hadn’t read the blurb, I was surprised that this book takes place in 1963 as I am used to Fforde’s contemporary romances. What a great setting! From early 1960s London – just about starting to swing – to the promised wedding in the country…this has interesting and engaging settings throughout.
The book is about a young woman, Lizzie, who moves to London to attend a cookery school. Once the course is finished, she cannot bear to think about giving up her new-found freedoms by returning home and so moves into a shabby but fabulous shared house in Belgravia with her new (clearly very wealthy) friends. This leads on to invitations to the country to stay in stately homes…and – before she knows it – her life has been turned upside down and will never be the same again.
Wow, it is hard to write about this book without giving spoilers!
I read Katie Fforde books precisely because nothing bad will happen and everything will work out fine – it is comforting and uplifting, even if it means slightly suspending disbelief at times that things can work out so fortunately. Lucky for Lizzie that one of her cookery course-mates has a huge house in Belgravia – just the first of many fortuitous events!
The characters are appealing and relatable – Lizzie is our fish-out-of-water in the setting of her wealthy friends, David is the gay character whose sexuality is closing doors to him in 1960s London, Meg is a hard-working and talented cook and Alexandra is wealthy but generous in sharing her shabby house with them all. The supporting characters are also generally nice, or at least see the error of their narrow thinking by the end of the novel – this was the 1960s, after all, so we can’t expect modern attitudes to various issues, something that sustains the main plot lines of the book,
The book is a romance and ticks all the boxes that you’d expect – misunderstandings, obstacles and delays abound. However, the love story actually takes a bit of a back seat as Fforde instead focuses on the themes of friendship, social attitudes and even class systems, although – as you’d expect from Fforde – always with a light touch and never preachy.
My only criticism is that the book was a little slow in places and it takes a very long time before the wedding in the country (promised in the title) appears on the horizon. This seems a bit like a spoiler or – at very least – a mis-titling of the book as it is about so much more than a wedding.
Overall, I’d recommend this to fans of Fforde’s contemporary fiction and anyone who needs a reassuring, comfort blanket of a read. It is definitely one to pick up for escapism – maybe something we all need right now.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Header photo with thanks to Jeremy Wong Weddings on Unsplash.
