The Accidental Family by Rowan Coleman

The Accidental Family by Rowan Coleman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 416

Publisher - Arrow Books

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

A wonderfully warm and witty novel about starting again, from the author of The Memory Book.

Six months ago, city girl Sophie Mills gave up everything to move to Cornwall. All to be with the man she thinks she loves, and his two daughters who she knows she loves.

But adjusting to life as a semi-permanent mother in the countryside isn't quite as easy as Sophie imagined it would be. Designer shoes aren't nearly so readily available - not that she ever has any occasion to wear them - and her best pair of vintage Manolo's have already found their way into the girls' dressing-up box. Sometimes Sophie doesn't recognise herself; which most of the time makes her happy but every now and then scares her to death.

The hardest thing of all is making that final commitment to actually move in with Louis and the girls - she's been the longest paying guest of the Avalon B&B, St Ives in the history of the establishment. And as she tries to adapt to country life, her newly adopted family and discovering more about Louis's past, she begins to wonder if she's got what it takes to make it all work ...



My Review

It says book two on here but according to FantasticFiction this is book 3, I hadn't read the first two so this was my introduction to all the characters. So Sophie moved from everything she knew and loved for Louis and his two little girls. As I hadn't read the previous books I had quite a lot of catching up to do, for example the weans mum who died had been Sophie's bestie :O Louis is her husband (they were estranged ad he ran out on her and the kids after an affair), when she died Sophie had been left to care for the kids, he came back and they fell in love. Obvs there is a lot more to it but that woulda been covered in books 1 and 2. Anyways Sophie has issues fully commiting/moving in but all that will change when they are committed to each other and the weans can't wait. However when something from Louise's past comes to the forefront everything is turned on its head and Sophie isn't too sure where she stands.

I think my problem is Louis went from being super focused/in love and seemingly perfect to quite a character turn and I really didn't like him. I wanted Sophie to get a backbone and Wendy needed high fived in the face with a chair lol.

It has drama galore, perfect for poolside reading with my pina colada, I absolutely felt for those wee girls, they were absolute scones and you just wanted to hug them. They seemed quite mature for their age but they had lost their mum and had a lot of change in a short time period and I think it is a credit to the author to sculpt their characters to reflect that in their behaviours/attitudes.

A wee bit car crash tv, you didn't want to put the book down because you wanted to see what was coming next. I can't say I loved the characters, I found them to be infuriating at times but a bad character is open a good pull into the story. 3.5/5 for me, I would read the previous books if I came across them but I don't feel the need to go get them, I would be interested in a book 4 of these though.

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The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman Blog Tour

About the author




Rowan Coleman lives with her husband and their five children in a very full house in Hertfordshire. She juggles writing novels with raising her family. Rowan’s last novel, The Summer of Impossible Things, was selected for Zoe Ball’s ITV Book Club. Rowan has an everlasting love for the Brontes, and is a regular visitor of Ponden Hall. You can find rowan at www.rowancoleman.co.uk and on Twitter @rowancoleman

About the book




The Girl at the Window is a beautiful and captivating novel set at Ponden Hall, a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors and famously used as a setting for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Known as the place where Cathy’s ghost taps on the window, Emily Bronte used to visit often with her sisters and use the extensive library there. It’s a magical place full of stories. In The Girl at the Window, Ponden Hall is where Trudy Heaton grew up, but also where she ran away from…

Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, Trudy returns home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead. While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present...

The Girl at the Window is hauntingly beautiful, and centred on an epic love story with a twist that draws you in fast. The strong themes of grief, absent fathers and maternal instincts are consistent emotional pulls throughout. Trudy and Abe are the ultimate love story, but there is also a wonderfully atmospheric ghostly mystery to be solved as well.


The book is available to buy now, from AMAZON, ebook and treebook format.


Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman, I have my review for my stop, enjoy.


The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over 5 days

Pages - 464

Publisher - Ebury Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A house full of history is bound to have secrets...

'Spine-tinglingly beautiful. Prepare to lose your heart' Lisa Jewell

Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It's also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from...

Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead.

While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present...

A hauntingly beautiful story of love and hope, from the Sunday Times


My Review

Trudy heads back to Ponden hall with her son Will, to mend their broken heart after her husbands plane goes missing, presumed dead. Ponden Hall has always been special to Trudy, her beloved Bronte sisters, spent time there, there house has so much history and maybe even a ghost or two. Her relationship with her mother is strained, she is facing things she ran from and her obsession with the past, the Bronte sisters, particularly Emily and her love of literature will keep her busy. Ponden hall has so much history, character, stories, ghosts, love and secrets, now that Trudy is home again the house may be ready to give some of those secrets up.

Guys, don't shoot me when I say this but I have never been hugely bothered by the Bronte sisters, writing or their history. In actual fact, I would say it is more I have been ignorant of a lot of it, I may have one of the Bronte books on my huge to be read shelves but I don't think I have read them and knew nothing of their history. Trudy LOVES them, particularly Emily, the inspiration for her book where Trudy grew up. Coleman is a huge lover of them and you can see this in her creation of Trudy and this book. As a reader with almost zero interest in the Brontes I feel between Coleman and Trudy I may have caught a wee bit of the bug. I found myself putting the book down to google them, the house, what works had been published and her siblings. I actually need to bump Wuthering Heights up my tbrm after reading this.

The Girl at the Window has more than a few layers to it, we have present day with Trudy and her son heading back home and Trudy having to face her mother after so many years apart. Trudy and Abe (her hubby) back when they first met and Agnes - a young lady who is linked to the home and a sad and dark history. The timelines and shifts are well written and flow, teasing out secrets and written accounts that will bring them all together, past and present with secrets and scandal. There is also a spooky, ghostly vibe throughout, nothing horror or anything like that but woven in so well it brings the home to life and the hairs on the readers neck up a wee bit. An atmospheric read that covers love, relationships, deceit, secrets, lies set mostly in or around a historical house that I am now dying to go visit! 4/5 for me this time, I have a fair few Coleman books on the tbrm, I need to bump them up for sure!

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A Home for Broken Hearts by Rowan Coleman

A Home for Broken Hearts by Rowan Coleman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - dipped in and out over 3 days

Pages - 381

Publisher - Ebury Press

Source - Book shop

Blurb

Once upon a time, Ellen Woods had her 'happily ever after' moment when she married her beloved Nick. But fifteen years later her husband's tragic death leaves her alone with their soon-to-become-a-teenager son and a mountain of debt.

On the verge of losing the family home Ellen decides to rent out some rooms, and all too soon a whole host of characters enter her ordered but fragile existence – each with their own messy life in tow. But will this be enough to pull her out of her grief so she can learn to live – and love – again?



My Review

Ellen's whole world is turned upside down when her husband Nick dies, leaving her and her young son Charlie to pick up the pieces. The bills are rolling in when Ellen's sister Hannah comes up with a plan, rent out the rooms of the house. Soon Ellen has there lodgers, Sabine who has left her husband, Matt is beautiful, young and a Lothario and writes about his exploits for a male audience. Lastly one of Ellen's all time favourite authors, Allegra is in need of somewhere to stay and Ellen's services with her newest book. But Ellen soon finds that bringing strangers into her home is bringing them into her life and to move to the future we need to address our past.

There is so much going on in this wee book and so many issues and emotions covered. Matt is a playboy, it works with his job and he is a bit of an empty vase, pretty to look at it, hollow inside. However, coming into the domesticity of Ellen's home he sees there is more to life than "kiss and tell". Charlie is trying to look after his mum whilst dealing with growing up and the loss of his father. Ellen is now a and lady, still a grieving widow, lost in a sea of emotions and problems she wasn't even aware of. Allegra is a bit of a spoiled madam, set in her ways, popular author and very good at what she does, however even she comes into her own in the brief glimpses she is in the book. We also get to read some of her new book, in italics so you know it isn't the main story, of a heroine in peril at cruel men with one track minds.

Despite it being a busy book it is very easy to follow, life lessons aplenty without being preachy or in your face. The characters are easily to get into and despite having this author on my tbrm for a long time this is my first dance with her. 3.5 stars for me this time, she has a lovely writing style that invites the reader in and you can easily loose yourself in it for a few hours.

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