Hartley’s Grange / Nicole Hurley-Moore / Arena Books / 2016 / ISBN 9781760295059 / 300 Pages / Fiction
Book Blurb –
In one short day Lily Beckett’s life falls apart when she loses her dream job in fashion and finds out her boyfriend is having an affair. Totally devastated, she ends the relationship and flees the city.
Lily heads to the country town where she grew up to seek sanctuary with her big sister, Violet, and niece, Holly. But bad luck hits her yet again when she crashes her car on the way. Fortunately, a local grazier, Flynn Hartley, arrives on the scene to find her dazed but uninjured.
Gradually Lily’s life picks up and she decides to stay put for a while, helping her sister and renovating the beautiful old shop she inherited but has never had time to focus on.
Meanwhile, Flynn showers her with attention, but Lily is aware of his bad-boy ways and isn’t willing to risk heartbreak by becoming his next conquest. And yet, he won’t give up and insists he’s turned over a new leaf.
My Thoughts –
When you walked into Kmart and stumble around looking for a book to read, and they only have a small selection to choose from and all of them are old or romance novellas, but you are craving a new book and just take what you can. Well this was one of those books. And even though I am a fan of romance books, I am glad that this one was better than I thought it would be.
When down on her luck Lily stumbles in on her boyfriend making out with one of his clients, Lily grabs her stuff and does a runner. She heads to the town where she grew up and where her older sister Violet lives. After a not so smooth entrance to the town, Lily finally makes it home and to her loving family. Stuck grieving for her ex-boyfriend and the amazing job she gave up, Lily doesn’t know what to do with herself. But soon a lightbulb turns on and Lily doesn’t have enough hours in the day to make her dreams come true. A shop, that has been in the family for generations is now Lily’s and with her heart and mind made up, Lily makes herself a home and place of work to love every day, as well as find herself a new companion too.
“On the fourth day, Lily decided that she needed to get the tatters of her life together again and work out what the hell she was going to do. Lily was unemployed, homeless, single – a triple threat in the negative.” page 35.
This down to earth, romantic, fiction novel is going to make your heart swell. Set within Australia, with a picturesque backdrop of rural farm towns as its setting, Hartley’s Grange is about more than finding romance, the story is about finding a home and people who love you for who you are, and finding out who you really are and what you want to do with your life. I like the simplicity of this book, yes, it’s a cliché of a girl in distress fleeing back home and falling for the town bad boy. I mean who doesn’t love a cliché every once and a while. But this book is a little bit more than that. It is also about family and growing up with people who don’t love you and the consequences of abandonment issues and commitment issues. The story is also about revenge and unrequited love, and tragic Australian bushfires.
Filled with a romantic notion and a little bit heartbreak Hartley’s Grange is filled with everything you would want in a book to take away with you on a holiday or even to binge read on a Saturday night. You will get through it immediately with much appreciation. The writing is great, and will make you feel like you are part of the story and will make you want to a life like Lily’s, maybe without all the disasters.
If you are looking for a feel-good book that will make you feel good on the inside, then go out and grab this book. Its more than your ordinary chick lit book.
I give this book 4.5 out of 5 Booky Stars!
You can grab a copy of this book from links on the right-hand side of this blog.
Stick around…
♥ GWAP
Girl With A Pen 