When a red squirrel gets you even closer to your best friend

Synopsis

A long-held secret, and a beautiful heart hoping to be understood.

Cressida Tarbet loves her job at an animal rescue centre, even if it means she’s resigned herself to scrimping to make ends meet – a lifestyle far removed from her best friend Ivo’s, in his ancestral gatehouse stuffed with antiques and art.

But although their upbringings were different, Ivo has held Cress’s heart ever since she clapped eyes on him at university. The trouble is – she has never told him. So, when a mystery and a baffling crime throw Cress and Ivo together, she can’t help but wonder if fate is telling her something.

As the puzzle takes them from beautiful Yorkshire, to the stunning Isle of Wight, the pair get closer. Ivo begins to understand the cause of Cress’s risk-aversion and she puts her irritation at his brilliant mind to one side as she starts to appreciate Ivo’s uniqueness. But then the unthinkable happens and their worlds are turned upside down, and Cress has to wonder if fate was calling after all…

Uplifting and unforgettable, settle back to enjoy this one-of-a-kind novel about falling in love with a one-of-a-kind man. Perfect for fans of Jessica Redland, Beth Moran and Jo Barlett.

My review

Cressida Tarbet is used to calls at the most unusual hour because of her job at the animal rescue centre.
Even if it doesn’t give her the flashiest lifestyle, she loves what she is doing. The contrast couldn’t be bigger with her best friend Ivo, who live in his ancestral house filled with antiques and art.
Cress and Ivo couldn’t be more different, yet since they met on university, they have become friends. But what Ivo doesn’t know, is that Cress feels more than friendship for him, but hasn’t told him.
So when Ivo calls Cress, even when she is on a sick leave, with an animal in need, Cress cannot refuse.
However, what starts with an animal in need, Cress learns that there is more to the red squirrel, and it becomes clear that an actual crime has taken place.
With their curiosity piqued, their investigations take them from Yorkshire to the Isle of Wight. And there they get the perfect chance to understand each other even better, but with the investigations taking a dangerous turn, where will they end?

Being a big animal – lover myself (even if I don’t have any pets), I immediately liked Cressida. She isn’t making any big money from her work at the animal rescue centre, but she has a passion for her job. I truly believe you have to be a person with a big and generous heart, to care so much for animals, even if it puts you in not perse a bad situation, but in a situation that for sure could be a better one.

But beside that, Cress is just a nice and accepting person in every way. That is seen in her friendship with Ivo. Her world couldn’t be more different than his, yet they are each other’s best friends, and I believe that is also thanks to their differences.
And it was in a way sweet to see how Cress has been always in love with Ivo, including his ‘weird’ antics and how his brain can go from one extreme to the other.

Trying to understand the dynamics of this pair wasn’t always that easy, as Cress finds it hard to refuse Ivo anything, and Ivo is the kind of person that once he has set his mind on something, he doesn’t give up.
But I also saw the genuineness of their friendship. They know each other’s quirks, and even if they don’t understand it completely, they accept it as a part of being Cressida or Ivo.

It warmed my heart to see how Cressida sees Ivo’s behaviour not as something ‘bad’ but it only adds to Ivo’s uniqueness. I found it great how the author managed to turn something with perhaps a negative connotation in something positive, adding something to one’s character, making it a trait instead of an oddity.

Now, the whole red squirrel, also known as Fred, went a bit over my head. I was a bit flabbergasted to learn that Fred is a trained squirrel, and I didn’t even know that also squirrels could be chipped.
But just like Cress and Ivo, I learned a lot about the wonderful world of squirrels! 😊

This book was a great blend between romance and mystery. I didn’t know where the mystery would take me or what the bigger picture would be, or how all the pieces of the puzzle would fall. But the more the story evolved, the more I saw the pieces coming together, and I even wanted to warn Cress as I saw too many red flags that would end badly, while Cress didn’t see them.

And the romance was showing us love at its core. Because we see that love is acceptance of how someone is. It’s about not wanting to change someone but wanting that person with all his traits. It’s also about wanting to understand someone better, because it’s easy to just accept someone’s fears and demons, but only love makes you want to dig deeper and understand the base of them.

Jane Lovering wrote once again a story that kept me reading. Not only was it the mystery that I wanted to see revealed, but I mainly wanted to see how so opposite people would find not only the courage to understand the depth and admit their feelings, but also attempt to find a way to not let their differences tear them and keep them apart.