Wild Designs: From the #1 bestselling author of uplifting feel-good fiction

Katie Fforde

Dec 2010 · Random House

About this ebook

It must be love . . . A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A Wedding in the Country and One Enchanted Evening.

‘The queen of uplifting, feel good romance.’ AJ Pearce
'Delicious - gorgeous humour and the lightest of touches' Sunday Times
'Top-drawer romantic escapism' Daily Mail
'Warm, brilliant and full of love' Heat
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Can love be about to bloom? A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.

Althea lives in a too large a house with worrisome mortgage payments, has a bossy younger sister and an irksome ex-husband. She always manages to muddle through no matter what, but everything changes when she loses her job.

Althea decides to seek solace in a borrowed greenhouse and to develop her passion for gardening.

When she wins the opportunity to design a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show with the unexpected help of the gorgeous architect Patrick Donahugh, it looks as though Althea may have unearthed a new man as well as a new career . . .
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Reader's love Wild Designs . . .

***** 'My all time favourite Katie Fforde. Witty writing, great characters.'
***** 'Wild Designs is my favorite book by Katie Fforde. I've read it several times.'
***** 'A gorgeous and funny read.'
***** 'It's cheerful, funny and sweet.'
***** 'Cozy, warm, easy and delightful'

Ratings and reviews

Three and a half stars. I'm slowly working my way through Katie Fforde's back catalogue - every time one of them is on sale at 99p I snap it up. Althea is the divorced mother of three teenagers. Her ex-husband lives in Hong Kong with his glamorous girlfriend. Althea's younger sister Juno is Althea's opposite: thin, sophisticated, organised, childless and with a lucrative career. Althea on the other hand is expecting to be made redundant from her job as school secretary now that her school has merged with another one. Althea's true love is gardening and she dreams of turning her odd-job work for a few elderly neighbours into a full-blown career. One of her last jobs is to accompany some of the school children on a trip to France where she is introduced to the new school governor, Patrick Donahugh, who has recently moved into the area and bought a large dilapidated house where Althea has secretly been growing plants in the ramshackle greenhouse/conservatory. When opportunity strikes in the form of Althea winning a competition which might give her the chance to create a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show she pulls out all the stops enlisting friends and family along the way. Of course Althea is the curvy, overweight, disorganised woman in a sea of athletic, driven women: her sister, Patrick's girlfriend, even her lodgers. A word of warning, the book is quite old and so there are references to the old TV series Gladiators and what I believe is a Nescafe Gold Blend coffee advert which will puzzle younger readers. But otherwise the writing is fresh and lively and the characters are interesting. Although I enjoyed the book I didn't feel Patrick's motivations were altogether clear, he seemed to blow hot and cold and ignore what I thought were Althea's quite real concerns about bringing a new man into her children's home. And it did seem to be a bit of insta-lurve without any real substance, they escorted teenage children on a weekend trip to France and boom! Love. Nevertheless, I was engaged throughout.

Quite a good read. But, pages were missing...

About the author

Katie Fforde lives in the beautiful Cotswold countryside with her family, and is a true country girl at heart. Each of her books explores a different profession or background and her research has helped her bring these to life. She’s been a porter in an auction house, tried her hand at pottery, refurbished furniture, delved behind the scenes of a dating website, and she's even been on a Ray Mears survival course. She loves being a writer; to her there isn’t a more satisfying and pleasing thing to do. She particularly enjoys writing love stories. She believes falling in love is the best thing in the world, and she wants all her characters to experience it, and her readers to share their stories. To find out more about Katie Fforde step into her world at www.katiefforde.com, visit her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @KatieFforde.