Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Scrabble fan Jo always seems to pick the wrong guys. Now she's moved to the Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick, and decided to give dating one last chance. This time, there's a catch: she will only date men whose names would score highly in her beloved word game.
After Tarquin (16 points) proves just as disappointing as the rest, she meets low-scoring local doctor Ras (3 points). Her rules mean she can't date him – but when he asks her to organise a Scrabble festival with him, she can't say no.
As the event draws nearer and Jo and Ras grow closer, will Jo ignore her rule and let true love blossom over the triple letter scores?
Many thanks to Head of Zeus/Aria via NetGalley for my copy of Love Letters on Hazel Lane to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Wow, is all I can say what an incredible book Love Letters on Hazel Lane was and dare I say it even better than Jennifer Page’s debut, The Little Board Game Café, which I absolutely adored. Who’d have thought I would get completely sucked into a book where the main character is a major fan of Scrabble but once I began reading this wonderful story I could not leave it out of my hands. The beautiful, eye catching cover would make you want to pick up this book and then the story that awaits you inside well, it’s a real treat that I devoured in short order. It really gave me Love Heart Lane vibes from the brilliant author Christie Barlow and I hope this is a series that I hope will continue on for some time. It’s not at all necessary to have read the first book as previous characters only make brief appearances but I do suggest if you get the opportunity do give it a read as it was a fabulous story. Jennifer Page is a really talented writer and it’s been ages since I felt the buzz and pleasure of discovering a new author and knowing that I just want to read everything that she writes.This is a real hug of a book, a comfort read with a heroine you will be rooting for all the way.
Jo works at Pop Productions with her ex husband, Si, but she is lonely and feels that she isn’t worthy of finding love even though she longs to share her life with someone. Instantly, I though oh Jo why are you so down on yourself. If you look hard enough there is love waiting for everyone and everyone is worthy of being loved and cared for. Her flatmate Gemma has moved away and her workmates have stopped asking her out but she does have her love of reading and playing Scrabble which are the constants in her life. Jo has issues from her childhood of being bullied at school and these experiences still affect her today. When we first meet her she has recently moved to Hebbleswick and had spotted a Scrabble dress in the window of the local charity shop but she hasn’t the confidence to go in and buy it thinking where would she wear it and does she deserve it? I could see that Jo didn’t value herself or believe that she is good enough. She needed a push and an outlet to get her back into the world and by joining a dating app she hopes that she can achieve this. I thought it was ingenious that she set criteria for herself that she would only date men whose name would score highly in Scrabble.
Throughout the book Jo had the most extraordinary way of thinking in that she loved Scrabble so much that she would randomly calculate word scores for exceptional, special or unusual words. This could have been so annoying throughout the story but it actually worked brilliantly and I found myself learning new words and putting them in my own memory bank for when I next play Scrabble. Jo meets Kate when she attends a Your Best Life Talk at the church hall and it as brilliant to get to catch up with Kate again who was the best friend of Emily from book one. She is still as mad as ever searching for Mr Right and she became a good friend to Jo and I felt she gave her the push to keep searching for the right man for her and to have more confidence and faith in herself. I loved the descriptions of the dates that Jo went on and the speed dating quiz at the pub where she meets Tarquin was brilliant. I could tell from the start that he was sleazy and had ulterior motives. But it’s when she goes on a date with Ras well then my attention picked up even more and I could sense that he was going to form an important part of the overall plot.
Ras doesn’t meet Jo’s Scrabble name criteria but he takes her on a very interesting first date. He is kind and thoughtful and a really good listener, scruffy and not conventionally good looking but Jo feels a spark of attraction there. But will it be reciprocated? It soon turns out that Jo and Ras have Scrabble in common and Jo ventures along to the Scrabble Club which he runs and here she makes more friends. But the pair play so hot and cold with each other and there are so many misunderstandings and a lot of not saying what they really feel that I felt there was no hope for the pair at all. Jo just begins to feel that she is destined to fail and once again her love life takes a battering. But on the social side she began to be like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis and it was a joy to read about and see her transform. Again her love of books and Scrabble plays such a big part in this and as I have said before I don’t know how Jennifer Page did it but she made Scrabble seem like the thing that everyone should be partaking in and in doing so such a varied cast of characters was introduced all of whom had their little stories to share.
As Jo becomes part of the community and finds her tribe in the Scrabble Club it was inspiring to see her go from strength to strength. I won’t say much about the Scrabble Festival except it as one of the major highlights of the book and it allowed Jo to come into her own and from that so many other minor subplots were created and explored. The range of ideas she came up with was astounding and to be honest I found myself wanting to attend so good did the author make it seem. There is a little bit of strife and trouble to deal with and it seemed as if things were going downhill just as Jo was finding her feet but the last quarter or so of the book went from strength to strength and I couldn’t tap the pages quick enough on the Kindle to see what as going to happen next. I really cared about what was going to happen to Jo and that’s the sign of a really great author who makes you get inside the characters heads and feel empathy for them but you also want the best for them as you feel as if they have become a real life friend.
I didn’t think Jennifer Page could top her previous effort but she did and if this is the calibre of what she is currently writing I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us in the future. Love Letters on Hazel Lane should be read in as few sittings as possible and by the end you’ll find that you will be itching to play Scrabble whether you are a fan of the game or not. What could have been very boring subject matter was turned into something exciting which brought people together in the most unexpected and joyful of ways and I couldn’t get enough of it. I really didn’t want this fantastic, charming and heartwarming story to end. I could have read on for several more hours as I felt I was in the company of friends and seeing Jo emerging from the trauma of divorce and fighting her true self as just brilliant to observe. This is a book that I hope finds its way to lots of readers as it’s a little gem.
No comments:
Post a Comment