When everything seems to change, can it also take a turn for the better?

Synopsis

Rosie feels like there’s something missing in her life.She loves her job as the manager of Willowdale Hall Riding Stables, caring for the horses and teaching children to ride, and she loves the home she shares with her mother in the beautiful Lake District. But she can’t help wondering how her life might look if things had been different. What if her father had been around to help care for her mother? And what if she’d found someone special herself?

When Hubert Cranleigh – the owner of Willowdale Hall – is taken ill, his son Oliver steps into the breach. Brooding and distant, Rosie is furious when he claims not to know who she is. Especially when they have a history.

Rosie’s life is about to be turned upside down, but with the New Year comes new opportunities. What Rosie feels is missing from her life might be closer than she thinks, and with more significant consequences than she could ever have imagined…

Take a breath of fresh air and escape to the Lake District with million-copy bestseller Jessica Redland, for an uplifting story of family, friendship and love

My review

Although Rosie loves managing the Willowdale Hall Riding Stables and living in the Lake District, she feels that there is still something missing in her life.
Of course not knowing her father, has left Rosie with many questions, and taking care of her traumatized mother isn’t an easy task, even if she would do anything for her mother.
Luckily her best friend and pen pal Autumn has just moved around the corner and their long – distance friendship didn’t fail to prove how strong their bond is.
But when Hubert Cranleigh, the grumpy owner of Willowdale Hall has taken ill, and his son Oliver has returned, Rosie hasn’t got a clue about how her life will change.
But what she does know, is that she still cannot understand Oliver’s behaviour now, as he pretends he doesn’t recognize her. But also Oliver’s behaviour in the past has left her with many questions. Because there was a time that Rosie and Oliver were much more…
With the New Year looming around the corner, Rosie perhaps will find the answers to all her questions, together with new opportunities making her take that breath of fresh air she didn’t know she was missing… 

Having a book of Jessica Redland in my hands always takes me to my happy place. Even before I have read one single word of the book, I know I will be captivated by the story, fall in love with its characters and wish I could stay in the marvellous places Jessica chose as a setting. 

And sometimes, just like in this book, I just loved a book that much that I even find it difficult to put into words why it touched me and which bits were the best.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my bets shot! 😊 

Rosie isn’t a new character, as we already got to know her in The Start Of Something Wonderful. But I was happy she got her own place in the spotlight, because I knew there was so much to learn and discover from her.
And Rosie was exactly how I imagined her to be, even behind closed doors! She is a loving, caring and passionate person. If you are lucky to be in her inner circle, you can always count of having someone in your corner, fighting beside you, no matter what. 

With the flashbacks, we also see that even at a young age, Rosie is very perceptive and genuine. She doesn’t care who you are, it’s your actions that speak for them. And those actions will let Rosie decide if you are worthy of her friendship or not. 

She is also a wonderful daughter. Not only that, but she is an amazing one! I don’t know how many people would actually do what Rosie does for her mother, or would just stay with her mother. It was terrible to read how an accident many years ago affected not only Rosie’s mother but also Rosie herself.
Yet Rosie doesn’t leave her mother’s side, and she even adapts her schedule to her mother’s, or rather the weather predictions, just to be there for one of her mother’s attacks.. 

If this book would only be going about the above, it would already be something wonderful (yeah yeah, pun intended 😊). But the forced return of Oliver on the premises added that something more special to already a special something. 

Oliver doesn’t make a great first impression, as he behaves like he doesn’t know Rosie, he acts standoffish, and is rather cold. When Oliver arrives, I would have thought he would be worried dead about his father, and that Oliver would show us immediately that he was a great, even swoon – worthy material. 

But Oliver’s backstory, even affecting Rosie’s background, shows us that we never know what happens behind closed doors. And that no matter what our heart tells us what to do and what to feel, sometimes there are people there who don’t have our best interest at heart, even if they specifically should have… 

We see Rosie and Oliver growing up together, but we also see the mistakes that are being made. And while at the moment self it was difficult to comprehend some actions, the revelations of them with adult Rosie and Oliver broke my heart…
And while initially some behaviours left me bit flabbergasted, in the end they all made sense and I was glad the dots were linked in a way that made me like Oliver even more, instead of making me dislike him. Even what he did was wrong, I now know why he did it, and I couldn’t possibly be mad at him for that. 

Now, Jessica Redland wouldn’t be the amazing author she is if there wouldn’t be a few secrets and revelations that would leave you shocked and speechless.
But that is also part of the charm of this book. Because life isn’t a fairytale, filled with rainbows and unicorns. And some bits are truly heartbreaking, but that is part of life. There are many highs in life, but also several lows… 

There is another elephant in the room that I feel I need to address… the epilogue of the book ends with a kind of cliffhanger and I know that there are reviews in the wide world expressing their anger with it. I say ‘kind of cliffhanger’, because for me it was more of a question that was left open, and with resolution in the hands of the characters.
And while I did actually scream as the book didn’t go any further, as curiosity almost killed me 😊, it didn’t take away any joy I had from reading the book.
It didn’t take away any love I had for the characters, it didn’t make me suddenly dislike the whole book. 

But I do for sure hope that Jessica won’t leave me hanging for all too long, because I want to grab the next book A-S-A-P. And that is not only because I want to discover the mystery, but because this whole series give me so much warmth, love, satisfaction and sense of contentment. And once again, I was capable of reading without an overuse of tissues! Sometimes it’s the small victories that count! 😊