Amelie will never give up Cornflower Cottage, marooned in its island of wild fields and thick woodland. She did her homework at the scrubbed kitchen table and helped her mother hang washing on the line from the old oak tree. And when her beloved parents died, Cornflower Cottage became Amelie’s armour against the world.
The trouble is that it’s falling apart, and she’s struggling to make ends meet. The garden is a jungle of weeds, the roof leaks, the boiler is broken. Determined to keep hold of the home that is her last link to her parents, Amelie decides it’s time to take action.
Extra shifts at a local hotel, favours called in from old friends, and, reluctantly, a lodger. Could rude, hilarious, brown-eyed Xander be the answer to her problems? Or is he just going to come in and start changing things?
Just as Amelie manages to save the cottage from total collapse, and she starts getting used to the sound of laughter in her cosy farmhouse kitchen, a face from Xander’s past appears and Amelie’s future in the home she loves is shaken once again.
Can Amelie find a way to save her home and protect her heart? Can she trust Xander, or was the spark between them just in her imagination?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of A Home at Cornflower Cottage to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
A Home at Cornflower Cottage had a gorgeous setting and Amelie, our main female character, has loved living at the cottage all her life that is until her parents were abruptly taken away from her. Now all she has is her rabbit, Salad, for company and although she feels she really belongs at the cottage, she is currently existing in a miserable state of happy. She is doing her best to make her way alone without her parents by her side and she does have a boyfriend Decker but the reader can instantly tell that the relationship is not very strong and is slowly floundering. Decker came across as arrogant and pushy, always making Amelie go that step further than she was willing to. She bent over backwards to please him where instead she should have had a partner who would respect and appreciate her. You could see that she would be better off without him and I hoped that she would quickly realise it too.
The descriptions of the cottage, the gardens and surrounding countryside were just fabulous. Even if there are endless lists of jobs that need doing in the cottage causing stress and anxiety for Amelie as she doesn’t have the funds to make all the necessary repairs. The environment, nature, animals, flora and fauna in particular otters really have an important role throughout the book, and this is where the book excelled. But overall, I found the story took quite some time to get going. The pace was very slow and I was waiting for things mentioned in the blurb to start to occur and it made it seem as if both Amelie and Xander were both single when they met but they weren’t. But once the story finally got going this was a pleasant and relaxing read perhaps not the most memorable from the author but none the less it did turn out to be an enjoyable read.
Amelie had numerous aspects to her life where she wasn’t respected, treated well or valued and it’s the male figures where this really rings true. Decker, as previously mentioned but also Melvin, her boss at the hotel where she worked. She was treated like an absolute dogsbody. Her role was as a chambermaid but she was tasked with everything and for covering for people and it just appeared as if she had no worth or value at all. I desperately wanted Amelie to grow up a bit and get a shot of confidence where she could tell Melvin what she really thought and then things would hopefully change. But I think in her personal life she was just all over the place and until something drastically occurred to change this there wasn’t any chance of her changing something in her professional life. She needed to find a happy balance between the two aspects of her life and when she meets Xander, a guest at the hotel, things slowly start to change. But given his own circumstances you question whether a positive, happy ending will be at all possible?
Xander and his girlfriend Imogen are staying at the hotel whilst Xander carries out research into otters. I loved this aspect of the storyline, Xander’s enthusiasm for his subject matter was infectious as Amelie soon learns and here is where some environmental issues and the animal aspect of the story came into play in a beautiful way. It was also the connection that developed a friendship between Xander and Amelie. Imogen was a cranky character. A complete fish out of water who escaped quickly from the hotel back to her high powered job when she couldn’t put up living there for an unknown length of time. It was all very long winded to get to the point where Amelie offers a room in her house to Imogen and Xander. She needs the money and they take up the offer but when Imogen goes away on work business the tone of the story changed completely and came into its own.
Xander is reserved and careful when Imogen is around but when she goes away his goofy side comes out. He is more relaxed and fun and loves showing Amelie all he knows about otters and they bond and become closer as many hours are spent searching the riverbanks for evidence of the otters. Having taken so long to reach the point where I felt the story actually began, once it did I felt things moved fast and I had reached the end before I knew it. Amelie battles to keep her developing feelings hidden given Xander is very much taken and there was a bit of toing and froing that ensued. The ending was inevitable but it was what most readers would want when starting this book. It’s a story of finding yourself, developing bonds and friendship with a little sprinkle of romance thrown in for good measure. For me, a little bit of the Tilly Tenant magic was missing in this book but it was the perfect read perhaps to while away a few hours by the pool whilst on holiday.
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