Gaele Hi
Tobias and Megan are newly married, expecting their first child and settling back in to life at Treweham, with Megan being a local girl who fell in love with the “laird’. Her best friend, Finula having just had her heart broken by local vet Nick is flirting with (and thinking about) the guest at the pub, Marcus, a documentary filmmaker, until he ups stakes to head home. Tobias’ brother Sebastian is an up and coming actor, receiving rave reviews of his portrayal of Richard III, while nursing his own private grief about the betrayal Nick wrought on his life. Tobias’ two best friends and fellow ‘darlings of the bad boy headlines’ from the tabloids are all settling, with the last to fall being jockey and race horse trainer Dylan, now setting up his yard in the old stables of Treweham with his second in command, Flora, a twenty year old girl with a clever way with both horses and customers to be his assistant. So – having come into this book not knowing whether or not there was one before it – I found the background stories were missing, and while ‘some’ were flushed out during the telling of the current moments, most were left as “I touched on that already’ so it’s done. How Megan and Tobias’ relationship grew, Finula and Nick, Nick and Sebastian, even how Dylan and Flora came to be. And we won’t even start with Marcus and his single-minded determination to despise Tobias, unearthing yet another way to ‘discredit’ him in the press with a documentary – and his using Finula to get ‘into’ the manor house. Using his ‘associate” Vera (her real name) and her bunny-boiling approach to those who don’t instantly fall for her “enhanced’ appearance and her general demeanor which vacillated between obsequious and downright slimy – the multiple moments in this story from several different stories never really allowed for any one story to be developed fully – as it was “off to the next”. While I appreciated the attempt to give some sort of resolution to all of the ‘twists’ and storylines, every one felt rather quick to resolve and didn’t feel as if the multitude of characters were given more than a moment in the spotlight before their stories were, conveniently, concluded. I assume those familiar with these characters and place may enjoy this more than I did, but it was a series of revolving points of view, small and large emotional conflicts and quick resolutions, making this under 300 page read feel more like 500, and requiring plenty of ‘put it down for something else’ time. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
