Published 29th September 2022 by Boldwood Books.
From the cover of the book:
After ten years of loyal service Lily Butterworth has been made redundant. Like any clever woman, she knows the cure to redundancy is a little too much wine and her best friend.Only the next morning, Lily has more than a hangover . . . she has a whole new house – in France!
Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a disaster, she’s excited about finally moving to France, just as she and her husband always dreamed of. However, Lily is in for another surprise. Despite planning to move there for over 20 years, her husband never actually intended to go.
So begins a year in France, alone, renovating the gorgeous old farmhouse that is held together by wallpaper and wishes.
Will a year at the French farmhouse be just what Lily needs? Or could it be the previous owner, Frederique, that is the answer to Lily’s dreams?
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Forty-four-year-old Lily Butterworth has always wanted to live in France, but somehow the time has never been right to make the move. When she is blindsided by being made redundant from her job, she wonders if perhaps the time has finally come to seize the day, but when she broaches the subject of upping sticks to her husband of 20 years Ben, he is unsure about leaving their son Ty alone - even if Ty is about to leave home to go off to university.
More than a little miffed at Ben's unexpected reluctance, Lily indulges in a bit too much wine during a late night web-surfing session, and the next morning she discovers that rather than booking a gite holiday, she has somehow bought a dilapidated farmhouse in the French countryside. At first Lily is panic- stricken, but then she reasons that Ben will be persuaded that this could be fate giving them another little push. However, Lily is in for a shock. Rather than being excited by the prospect of the realisation of all their plans, Ben confesses that he has never really wanted to go at all.
Heartbroken, but determined to keep her dream alive, Lily heads off to France on her own. If Ben does not want to be part of her future, then perhaps she can find her own little piece of her favourite film The Good Year without him? And it just so happens that Frederique, the very handsome previous owner of her new home, looks rather a lot like a young Russell Crowe...
A Year at the French Farmhouse is an absolutely gorgeous story that carries you away on an escapist tide to picturesque rural France, as Lily tries to keep her dream of expat life alive. Shaken by the shattering of her long-held belief that Ben shared her vision, Lily unexpectedly finds herself undertaking a daunting solo renovation project, as well as the break-up of her marriage. It is hardly surprising that she gets overwhelmed with it all at times, but her determination to succeed has you rooting for her from the very start, and you so want her to find happiness in her new life.
The romantic elements of the story are enchanting, with Lily being torn between her enduring love for her husband Ben, and the exciting prospect of Russell Crowe look-alike Frederique. And like any rom-com worth its salt, there are equal quantities of pleasure and pain among its emotional twists and turns. Lily does not really know where her heart lies for most of this story, which builds in delicious romantic suspense, and the moments when she reflects back on the memories of her life with Ben are especially poignant. I was not sure where I wanted her destiny to lie until the heart-warming conclusion either, as Harvey does such a brilliant job of changing your perspective on things as the story unfurls, but for me this ended perfectly - and with me in floods of happy tears.
Gillian Harvey clearly draws on her own experiences of expat life in the French countryside in telling Lily's tale, particularly when it comes to the less obvious challenges that she faces. There is so much comedy in the frequent 'lost in translation' misunderstandings that occur as Lily tries to navigate unfamiliar surroundings, new neighbours (of the plant, animal, and human kind), tangled red-tape, and the complexities of conversational French, and I chuckled a lot throughout the story. But it touches on a surprising wealth of deep themes along the way too, especially as Lily is an older female protagonist, as Harvey uses this to explore some interesting themes in respect of long relationships - especially when it comes to expectation, communication, mental health, and the courage to take on new challenges in middle life.
This has everything you want in a rom-com in terms of characters, layered storylines, romance, laughs, and charming locations, making it an ideal snuggle up on the sofa as the nights draw in book!
The Year at the French Farmhouse is available to buy now in paperback, ebook, and audio formats from your favourite book retailer, of via the link HERE.
Thank you to Boldwood Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for and honest review, and to Rachel's Random Resources Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
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