Buying a thatched cottage in the country may not be the usual cure for a broken heart. But after Clara Maxwell finds out her boyfriend and best friend have been sneaking around behind her back, packing her bags and leaving everything in London behind feels like it's the only way forward.
Clara knew Acorn Cottage would be a fixer-upper... Yet in person, the cottage is less charmingly ramshackle and more a real health and safety concern. When Henry Garnett, her (rather handsome) new contractor, turns up with his little daughter Pansy and a van shaped like a cottage in tow, she isn't sure whether to laugh or cry. What on earth has she gotten herself into?!
Still, there is something strangely lovable about the people in the little village of Merryknowe, from Rachel Brown, the quiet, lonely girl who bakes magical confections for the tearooms, to Tassie McIver, a little old lady with a lot of wisdom and a penchant for reading tea leaves. And Clara can't deny that Henry and Pansy are quickly worming their way into her heart...
With all the heartbreak of the year behind her, could Acorn Cottage be the fresh start Clara so desperately wants?
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Many thanks to Head of Zeus via NetGalley for my copy of Starting Over at Acorn Cottage to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Starting Over at Acorn Cottage is the first book I have read by Kate Forster. Judging by the cover and title I presumed it would be a typical read of a young woman having a tough time and in turn starting over again creating a new life for herself somewhere nice. To some extent this was the main plot of this book but behind the initial layer there was an awful lot more going on with some serious and heartbreaking issues being explored in this book. When we first meet Clara Maxwell she has reached breaking point and is packing her bags ready to flee from the apartment she had shared with her boyfriend Giles. The ultimate betrayal has happened to her, Clara being the innocent party.
How can one cope when they discover their best friend has been secretly seeing their boyfriend and it's you who have been left in the dark moving blissfully along in what you presumed was an OK relationship? Clara is bursting with anger, she is a responsible, sensible adult who likes order in her life and to have this trauma befall her sets in motion a series of events which will change her life. Before she even realises what she is doing she has bought a beautiful cottage in the countryside that she has seen online. But when she arrives Clara's retirement dream, being fulfilled a little earlier than planned, of owning a beautiful cottage surrounded by fields and nature is shattered as the cottage is more a wreck than anything else with lots of work needing to be done to it. Can Clara come back from the bitter disappointment of being sold something that couldn't possibly live up to her expectations and find a way to have some purpose in her life and maybe even some romance? The reader certainly hopes so as the story really began to get going once Clara makes some decisions that see her set the wheels in motion to help herself and those around her whom she meets in the little village of Merryknowe.
Clara was a person who seemed to want to help those around her in any way she could and it was almost as if she was using this as a distraction technique in order to put her own worries firmly to the back of her mind. We knew her initial life problems, and yes you do feel great sympathy for her, but you can't help thinking as you progress through the book is there actually a lot more going on with Clara than at first meets the eye? Is there something that she is keeping to herself and therefore she needs to keep busy in order to not let her thoughts travel back to what she is keeping covered?
I enjoyed that the book didn't focus too much on Clara and Giles, in the way that the break up occurred at the beginning and she was steadfast in her determination to keep him out of her life. Yes she wore her heart on her sleeve and you could see how upset she was but we weren't constantly told about this which was refreshing. I also thought it was great that Merryknowe, despite being a beautiful little village, wasn't without its problems as well. It could be the picture perfect, idyllic place to live but it was falling on its knees with it calling out for new life to make it great once again. Would Clara be the one to bring a little bit of hope and sparkle back to the village? Well if the eldest resident Tassie McIver had anything to do with it than Clara surely would be.
Tassie brought a sort of magical element to the book in that she loved reading tea leaves and knew every little suspicion or sign that nature offered her. She could see and feel things with regard to the future that others couldn't. To be honest, I find all this just a little bit too hard to believe but I enjoyed Tassie's strand of the story and her abilities for what they were. Simply, a ways and means to bring about little subtle changes and to push different characters in directions they hadn't realised they needed to venture in. Clara being one of those and with a little nurturing and advice from Tassie she sets about bringing about positive changes to people she will come to call dear friends and perhaps with one she may or may not venture further than friendship.
Henry is a thatcher by trade but could be classed as an all rounder as he can turn his hand to many things. He was widowed several years ago and now brings up his young daughter Pansy by himself. They live in a specially converted van that can be brought anywhere and as luck would have it Clara is in need of a thatcher as well as someone who can do many other jobs in order to get Acorn Cottage up to standard and looking like the cottage of her dreams. Again as with Clara, I felt Henry was hiding things and that he was lingering in the past. You couldn't blame him for it but perhaps this was going on for too long. He was prohibiting both himself and Pansy from establishing a future and I know it is difficult to let go of hurts and sorrows but there comes a time when you have to do so. Of course, there was chemistry between himself and Clara and they do get closer as renovations begin on the cottage but as with another strand of the story I wondered was everything just happening to fast for Clara?
No sooner had she arrived in the village to start over then she has developed feelings for someone and also become best friends with Rachel practically overnight. For the majority of the book I thought things like that just happened too quickly, too readily and easily. But when I finished reading my opinion slightly changed and I realised all that did need to happen and that Clara was meant to meet these people, that it didn't matter how fast everything occurred as really they were waiting for her arrival all along but they didn't know it.
In my mind the strongest aspect of the book was Rachel's storyline. It will really hit a nerve with many readers and based on the nice, colourful cover you wouldn't think such a serious and hard hitting storyline like that would be present in this kind of read. This storyline was the best by miles in the book and I thought it was very well written. Rachel is a young woman who for all her life has been told what to do, how to do it, when to do it and to never stray from instructions. The bakery and tearooms she works in and which are owned by her mother are nowhere near reaching the potential they could be because Rachel is never given any freedom to express her self and the creative ideas she has bubbling away beneath the surface. Rachel knows she may never deviate from instructions or she will face severe punishment.
Rachel has become unaccustomed to acting in a normal way around people but yet things we all say and do and take for granted seem obscure to her. She really is a damaged character and even though other villagers could see things weren't right, they could or would do nothing about it. To be honest I thought this was a bit of a cop out. Rachel was crying out for help and why did it take until Clara coming along and seeing something in Rachel for change to begin to come about?
The characters in this book all need a solid purpose in their life and it was as if Clara was the catalyst that was going to make them realise it. She came to Merryknowe looking for a slower pace of life but she ends up being busier than ever. She feels the need to improve people's lives and she does so in a joyful way. But when help has been offered, received and some good things in place then maybe it is the time for Clara to look to herself and perhaps work on what has been more than niggling away at her for a very long time.
Starting Over at Acorn Cottage was a nice, pleasant read which balanced well the serious with the light. Yes this story does have some darker elements but overall if you want a quick easy read that will take you away from everything going on in the world that this may just be the book for you.
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