Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Zoe Padbury is a big believer in second chances. She’s been so happy since she started over in the village of Thimblebury. Especially now she’s moved into Hilltop Farm with her boyfriend Alex and can be on hand to help his daughter when her baby arrives.
All that changes when Zoe’s father arrives, arm in arm with his newly pregnant fiancée Chantal. Chantal is bowled over by Thimblebury’s picture-perfect charm, and before Zoe’s had a chance to draw breath, they’ve made plans to get married in the old stone church, make Zoe their future baby’s midwife and move into the cottage next door.
Worried about her mum’s broken heart and how Alex feels about having her family so close by, at first Zoe doesn’t notice that Chantal’s brother has also moved in and is determined to make trouble, ruining the lives of the people who have made her feel so welcome. With the villagers up in arms about his behaviour, Zoe is torn in two. Can she protect her new life and love without losing her family?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of Family Ties for the Village Midwife to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Family Ties for the Village Midwife is the third book in Tilly Tennant’s Village Midwife series. I haven’t yet gotten around to reading book two so was slightly apprehensive that I had missed out on things but I needn’t have been worried at all. This was easy to read as a standalone story as I could tell which bits referred to the events from the previous book and in fact these paragraphs were helpful in tying a few things together for me. This is a lovely series following the trials and tribulations of Zoe Padbury as she continues to navigate her new life as a midwife in the countryside village of Thimblebury with its varied cast of characters all of whom I was delighted to catch up with again. This time around as the title suggests Zoe has a lot to deal with centred around her family who cause some upset in both her life and the life of the villagers. As well as that things are moving forward in her relationship with Alex and his daughter Billie. Zoe is certainly kept busy throughout the book and things moved along at a great pace and to be honest I found I hated reaching the end and would have loved more but that’s me being selfish. I can rest easy though as there is a future book to come in the next few months.
Zoe is someone who is always on the go helping others and that’s just in her nature given her job as a midwife to the women of the district. She is kind, caring, compassionate and loyal to everyone constantly putting others people’s needs and wants before her own. I thought both her body and mind were in a constant state of readiness for the next thing that was going to be thrown in her path and that really she needed to remember to also take some time for herself. After all she still is dealing with her own personal upheavals in her recent past and that’s what brought her to the village in the first place. Zoe is there for anyone and everyone in their time of need and Ottilie from the Village Nurse series desperately needs her within the first few chapters as finally she has her baby. I feel like she has been expecting for such a long time across the series, so it was nice to see how things panned out there. But it’s the young women of the series that need Zoe the most now and also things with her family start to rear their heads.
Zoe has a complicated family as her parents are divorced and her father has moved on with a much younger model, Chantal. When the couple announce they are expecting a baby, Zoe is completely thrown and doesn’t know what to think about it even more so when they decide to marry in Thimblebury and move to the village as Kestral Cottage has become free as Zoe finally makes the right decision to move in with Alex (Again I feel as if this has been a long time coming), I felt desperately sorry for Zoe, she had to deal with her mother’s reaction to all of this family news and she really was caught between a rock and a hard place. Should she be happy for her Dad? Or should she back her mother and listening to her moaning and groaning about everything? I found her mother Cherie to be super annoying and I wish Zoe would have told her to just grow up and get on with things. Zoe herself has so much to deal with on a daily basis with her job not to mention keeping an eye on Billie who has been struggling throughout her pregnancy after the loss of her partner. This is where I felt Zoe needed to take a step back a bit and prioritise things but on reflection is it really in her nature to do this?
I completely understood her reaction to her Dad Nigel’s news. After all Chantal would become her stepmother and she was several years younger than her. It felt really awkward and I didn’t envy Zoe having to navigate this new and unusual situation arising in her life. The arrival of Chantal and Nigel to the village brought Lennon also, Chantal’s brother, and boy was it rotten to the core. Clearly he wasn’t a right fit for the village and his aspect of the storyline brought troubling times for people. He was nasty, underhand, vicious and spiteful and I hated that he dragged the tone of the book down and made people angry, fearful and apprehensive and that’s not how Thimbleberry works. There is Zoe caught in the middle of it all and she feels the pressure mounting to so something about the developing situation which seems to be going from bad to worse and really she wants her life in Thimblebury to be happy and content not filled with anguish and worry.
I loved the different women that Zoe gets to know through her job as they are all so different and dealing with various things. Zoe is like a surrogate mother to them and thinks of everything they will need. I loved that she is always there for them and will come up with any solution. Fern is a young mother-to-be living on a commune and I enjoyed how her story was subtly played out throughout the book. Zoe instinctively knows when to poke and prod here and when to back away and I felt she did the same with Billie. It’s different with Billie as she wants to be there for her but doesn’t want to tread on her toes or do anything which would in turn affect her own relationship with Alex. Especially as things have been going so well on this front. Billie’s storyline has been woven throughout all of the books and it is perhaps the best developed of all the storylines throughout the series. Zoe could see what was beginning to happen, but she had to be wary. For to rush into things would cause more upset and do more harm than good. I admired her patience but also her willingness to involve others to help with the situation. I thought Tilly Tennant dealt with this issue which so many mothers with great tact and sensitivity.
Family Ties for the Village Midwife was another fabulous and welcome addition to the series. I read an awful lot of historical fiction and it’s lovely to break it up with more lighter reads. But yet this had a few serious and heavy topics to deal with but was done so in a brilliant way. It’s brilliant that storylines continue to flow throughout the books and not everything is all wrapped up in a tidy bundle buy the end and nor is there a rush to do so with only a chapter or two left in the book. I hate when that happens as it feels contrived and just what wouldn’t happen in normal life. I’m really enjoying this series and am eager to see what is next in store for Zoe and all her friends in Storm Clouds Ahead for the Village Midwife which will be published in June.
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