I’m doing well with my light NetGalley reads while I work through the large tome of “Snow Widows” and here’s the next one I’ve finished. I will admit to giving up finally on “The Love Songs of WEB DuBois” – while it’s an essential work to have been published and explains both the effects of slavery as it happened and its legacy, it was a brutal and distressing read (I know I have privilege in being able to look away; I also need to look after myself to an extent). Also, “Why We Read Non-Fiction” wasn’t really about why we read NON-fiction at all, and without any introductory text or author bios, it was fragmented and not a smooth read, so I abandoned it. Onwards and upwards: I’m enjoying “You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty” more than I thought I would, given reviews out so far!

Lorraine Wilson – “Daisy’s French Farmhouse”

(6 May 2022, NetGalley)

First of all, I need to say that this is part of a series called “A French Escape” and because there are only two other couples in the book plus the one this one involves, you do get massive spoilers in the back history if you want to go back and read the others. So maybe read this fourth (two novels and a novella) to get the full story and enjoyment.

Daisy is having an unlucky time in England and asks to go to stay with her friend Poppy in France – she will help out in her guesthouse in return for board and lodging. The first chapter of the book is all her emails to Poppy, her unconventional gran, currently staying on an ashram, and her colleague at the hotel she settled for working at (this is the second book in a month where working at a hotel is something to escape from!). Off she goes, along with her special talent, which allows her to feel the emotions and previous owners of inanimate objects – an interesting addition to a romance-in-another-country genre book which gave it some more aspects.

Of course Daisy isn’t keen on getting into any more romantic situations and of course she immediately hits it off with a sexy widower, but she must play it slow and not upset him. Their relationship is portrayed nicely and his job as a document appraiser and hobby studying the history of the area – well-researched by the author – give opportunities for plot and more meatiness to the book.

Looking at other reviews, people seemed to take exception either to the number of dogs in the book or the very spicy and long sex scenes. The dogs were fine – sets of them belonged to different people, there were some excellent chihuahuas and nothing apart from some mild peril happened to them (there is some back story about rescue from abusive backgrounds that might be upsetting in the other books in the series). The sex scenes were a bit much for me, but obviously some people enjoy this aspect, and it was sex-positive with a confident woman with no hang-ups about her body or appearance, which was refreshing.

A nice summer read with some interesting added extra themes, but you would probably want to read the others in the series.

Thank you to Sara from One More Chapter for offering me this to read via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Daisy’s French Farmhouse” is published on 26 May 2022.