Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Love Heart Lane – where friends are there for you no matter what
There’s a newcomer to the village of Heartcross and she’s never been more in need of a friend.
As the new manager of local bistro, The Lake House, Ella is ready to start afresh ––and that could mean there’s love on the horizon in the form of the gorgeous Roman, the local water taxi driver. Every day Roman is there to ferry Ella to the restaurant on the other side of the lake and every night he makes sure she gets home safe. But Roman has secrets of his own…
Can the Love Heart Lane community offer Ella a chance of a new life? Or will the ghosts of her past catch up with her?
What an absolute treat to have another book in Christie Barlow’s amazing Love Heart Lane series to round off another year of reading. Without doubt it’s my favourite ever series and what’s even better that Christie has said there are five more books to come so my wish for these stories to continue as long as possible has come true. The Lake House, with yet another stunning cover, is the latest book that follows the residents of the little village Heartcross in the Scottish Highlands. It’s another fantastic read and one that I regret racing through because I have to wait for more.
But the time I spent reading it was thoroughly enjoyable and only cements the fact that the author goes from strength to strength and is building up an overall set of books that will forever remain my favourites. Usually I find myself becoming a bit jaded with series of books, that the further the books are developed my enjoyment of them seems to taper off. This is not the case at all with Love Heart Lane and I honestly can’t get enough. You can really tell that Christie is getting so much enjoyment from writing these books as her readers are from reading them. I wouldn’t normally pay too much attention to a dedication at the beginning of a book but the dedication here certainly raised a giggle from me.
This time around we meet Ella Johnson, her life is in turmoil as she is consumed by worry and confusion. Her so called secure life has shattered around her as her doctor fiancé Alex James left for work one day and never returned. There is no trace of him and Ella’s distraught state only increases when she discovers exactly what has happened. Her only crime was to fall in love with him but it seems Alex had other major crimes on his mind. Everything she thought she knew about him was a carefully constructed web of lies, he was never the person she thought he was. Instead everything he said and did right down to his so called profession was a complete and utter lie. The persona he presented to Ella appeared to be so real. Instead he was out to get her and her money.
Devastated, heartbroken and broke Ella has no choice but to close her gift shop and retreat and thankfully six months later her friend Callie has given her an ideal solution and an offer of help. With Callie offering to have her live with her in Heartcross and also a job will be provided at the Lake House bistro owed by property tycoon Flynn Carter. Ella takes the bold step to leave behind everything she has known in an attempt to get her life back on track. She deeply wishes she had never encountered Alex but knows she has to put the past behind her in order to begin to embrace her new and uncertain future.
You couldn’t help but feel desperately sorry for Ella and the precarious and lonely situation she finds herself in. Without Callie she would have had no one to turn to as her parents are dead. She was brave to make such a big change but it was a necessary one. Heartcross will hopefully provide Ella with security, comfort and friendship as it's renowned for its community spirit and the residents willingness to always help someone in need. The village is welcoming, familiar and kind as readers will know from previous books and those feelings are once again here in spades and that’s what makes this set of books such a special, gripping and enjoyable reads. Ella is welcomed and embraced right from the get go. Her wounds are there for all to see and hopefully taking on a new job and living in a new area will give her the urge she needs to get going once again.
Being with Callie and meeting all the residents will do Ella the world of good. Callie is a loyal friend, always well intentioned and with such a good heart. She really steps up to the mark when her friend needs her the most. After all isn’t that what friends are for? We do get the chance again to meet old familiar faces such as Felicity, Isla, Aggie and Julia. I’m glad they get to feature every now and again as I hate when characters you have come to love in previous books are forgotten about like they never existed. But also new characters are introduced, two being very significant.
The first is Dolores, a neighbour of Callie’s, she seems a little eccentric and is obsessed with singing and Dolly Parton. Initially I couldn’t see why she was getting such a prominent role but as the story develops all becomes clear and she has the most touching and heartbreaking of stories and it will being a tear to your eye. She becomes central to Ella’s journey as she has a big task to pull off and with Dolores’ history maybe she can change the fortunes and future of the cherished Lake House? The Lake House holds such a special placed in Dolores’ heart and the same can be said for Flynn and his father Wilbur. I loved how this part of the overall plot was woven amidst Ella’s story.
The Lake House seemed to be such an idyllic, secluded setting only accessed by boat. Flynn being a property developer could have been presumed to be just expanding his empire but he had other reasons for wishing the Lake House to continue on for many years. But the problem was that just not enough people were coming to enjoy meals in such a special and unique setting. Ella worries that will lose her job before it has even properly begun and that her money worries will only increase rather than dissipate. I really enjoyed the storyline of the community led by Ella working together to make what could be a terrible wrong and loss a right. It highlighted once again that everyone who lives in Heartcross always pulls together in the most ingenious of ways to battle for something they firmly believe in. It also gave Ella a goal and a focus to work towards and in the same way it was part of her healing process. Even if a major spanner did throw itself into the works to rightly upset the apple cart. I was certainly on tender hooks when that happened and wondered could the Lake House ever be saved?
The second new character who brought so much to this story was Roman. He was the captain of the boat/water taxi that brings customers and workers to the Lake House. Roman was very secretive about his private life and never seemed to be fully there in the moment when someone was talking to him. His mind appeared to be on other things resulting in him being late for work or always rushing off to take phone calls. Ella is really intrigued by him as was this reader, dark, handsome and brooding are words that spring to mind. Ella certainly found him attractive but was it too soon after such trauma and upheaval in her life to want to venture down a new path of romantic entanglement? Not that Roman seemed that willing to try as he was so taken up with whatever was going on with him.
Too often when characters are keeping secrets, when they are eventually revealed they can be such a let down and you think meh was that it? But twice during reading this book when secrets come to the fore, I thought well done to Christie for including such relevant and important storylines that prove this genre doesn’t have to be light and fluffy romance. That’s not to say The Lake House takes on dark tones. It doesn’t at all but it was great to see some more serious issues being explored. Neither is it light and fluffy instead the perfect balance is struck between romance, community and exploring some problems that could affect us all.
Ella finds Roman attractive but is she willing to let someone get close again? The romantic tension oozed between the pair and I desperately hoped they would give into each other and enable Ella to once more find her sparkle having had it so cruelly stripped from her. Both herself and Roman needed to realise that sometimes you have to swallow your pride and allow people in to help and with the residents of Heartcross behind them maybe they could do that on a personal life but also a professional one and secure the long term future of the restaurant. The community of Heartcross, welcomes you with open arms and encourages you to be the best you can be and I absolutely love that sentiment which has come across so strongly in every book so far.
The Lake House is another fantastic addition to the series. I’m always completely taken in from the very first sentence and I am utterly lost in the magic until the last word. I really can’t recommend this new book and the series as a whole enough. Hurry up to the next publication day in April so I can see what is next in store in Primrose Park.
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