Review: A Cottage in the Country by Linn B Halton

What do you do when your best friend has an affair with the man to whom you've been married for twenty-five years? The father of your two children and the person you trusted with your heart? Not to mention the best years of your life ...
Well, you pack your bags, grab half of the equity in the house you've both lovingly restored and run away to an idyllic little cottage in the country.
I suppose not having the cottage surveyed was the first mistake—buying with your heart, and not your head, isn't the wisest move. The second was moving in six days before Christmas, the day the heavens decided to open and the rain just kept on coming.

Maddie Brooks grits her teeth and hires the highly recommended man who can, ex-soldier, Lewis Hart. As he rips out the very shabby and decidedly not-so-chic kitchen, reality sets in. Not only is he the most abrupt person she's ever met, but the man is a Neanderthal!
As the flood waters rise, and the village is cut off, everything that could possibly go wrong, does. How bad can it get, Maddie asks herself? Well, that was before she found herself living with no central heating and no kitchen, and the man who can, as an unexpected house guest.

Hitting the big five-o two days before Christmas is the final straw. No presents, family, or friends—just Lewis Hart, who can’t leave because the flood has now cut off his exit. How on earth is she going to get through this and put her life back together?
Can Maddie Brooks become that ‘fifty-and-fabulous’ woman of her dreams?

What defines YOU? Wife, mother, grandmother, colleague – or is there another person buried deep within, who is struggling to be heard?

Shona's review 5 of 5 stars

I'm not quite sure when Haltons work became an 'insta-read' for me, but it's as I'm writing my review that I realise there wasn't a blurb for this book when I agreed to read it, there wasn't even a cover to entice me. Just an email asking if I'd be interested. I cant even say that I had nothing to read, my TBR list is out of control but I still jumped at the chance.

I love Haltons writing, her books are beautifully written, and this one especially just seems to ooze emotion. When Maddie walks in to Ash Cottage for the first time, I felt like she did.... I wanted her to have that cottage, even though I knew it was probably going to be more problematic than she wanted or expected. When she meets the very gruff Lewis for the first time, I too felt both annoyed and intrigued by him. When she was torn between staying at Ash Cottage and fleeing to warmth, I was there feeling it too, begging her to stay...

I love the interactions between the characters, not everyone is exactly how they portray themselves to everyone else and Maddie has a few surprises in store throughout this book. There are a few scenes I would have loved to have seen, but.... having taken some time to mull over my thoughts since finishing the book and I think Halton ended it perfectly. We don't need the answer to every thing placed in front of us. At the end of the book Maddie is so much stronger than she was when we first met her, almost a different person. She's learning to reach out for what she wants. And you cant ask for more than that...

Buy links 

Amazon.co.uk  

http://hyperurl.co/ACottageInTheCountry