For the ones that dream about living on a Cotswolds farm and running your own farmshop. Waking up everyday to undulating hills, green valleys and smatterings of tiny stone cottages with gardens brimming with colour and scent.... and of course.... a VERY hunky farmer, and not forgetting Pickles the pig.
The relationship between Jack and Emma is so sweet, yet filled with such longing..... I could have written a whole book, just about the way he felt, the second he touched her hand.
Second Chances
Remember the boy from school? The one you always admired from a distance? The one you were never brave enough to approach? What if....eighteen years later you stumbled across him? Would the tables turn?
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Jack Seymour filled Emma’s teenage dreams. With his dark eyes, strong physique, and easy-going attitude, he had been everything she’d ever wanted. But he wouldn’t be attracted to a scruffy schoolgirl like her, would he?
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Apparently not.
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Eighteen years later, Emma finds herself unexpectedly on the doorstep of Jack Seymour’s small dairy farm. Homeless and jobless she seeks sanctuary amongst the rolling hills of the peaceful Cotswold countryside trying to rebuild her life while juggling the demands of Jack’s younger sister and the farm's financial battles.
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As her heart starts to heal and the long summer days encourage her to bloom, she soon attracts the attention of the handsome village squire. Will she find happiness within the walls of an affluent country house or will her heart be tempted to discover if second chances really do exist?
*** Teasers!!!***
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Emma stared at him feeling pole axed. Those dark eyes, messy hair, and chiseled cheeks. He’d broadened out, but other than that, he hadn’t changed. How many years had it been since she’d last seen him? She inwardly rolled her eyes at her own rhetorical question. It had been eighteen years, two weeks and probably about five days since he had left Redsworth. Jack Seymour. Even saying his name still caused her toes to curl in shame and her disloyal hormones to clang around her body.
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Over time, crushes come and go, but when the object of your attention happened to be the big brother to your best friend, Josh, and lived in the house next door, getting over him wasn’t an option. Their childhoods had been intertwined. Josh taught her how to fight, climb trees and make water bombs. Jack had taught her the call of the birds and how to fish. He’d also unwittingly taught her how to fall in love.
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Acres of luscious green hills and fields rose and fell as far as the eye could see, all shimmering under a fine veil of morning mist. Grazing cows interspersed the view along with the rooftops of churches, farms and tiny cottages, smoke trailing lazily from their chimneys, even at this unearthly hour.
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Second chances - book reviews
This book is full of everything I love, cosy cottage, farm shop and hot farmers. Full of twists and turns with a romance building all the way through. The way that the writer describes each person and their mannerisms makes me feel like I am there. I can almost smell fresh bread and flowers when I am reading, I so want to visit the farm shop. A lovely read, perfect for a cosy night in with your favourite drink. Oh and of course the gorgeous Jack..
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Much like Louise's first book, this novel centres on a will-they won't-they relationship and a flurry of side-stories from a cast of well-realised small-village characters. Where this book differs is in the intensity of that central relationship; every page is filled with a very real tension, there's passion and frustration throughout. These are fully fleshed out protagonists, with meat on their bones and blood in their veins.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a fun and light-hearted book at heart. There's as much written about farmyard mishaps, cupcakes, and ditzy dates as ever. But by the end, I could've sworn I'd lived a part of this myself.
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If you want to read a book about chance meetings, love, overcoming the hurdles that life throws our way, then this book is definitely for you!
I couldn't put this book down. I laughed and I cried. What a lovely book!
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