Published 15th March 2024 by Boldwood Books.
From the cover of the book:
Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.
So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.
But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…
As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…
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Leah and her husband Nathan moved to rural France for a piece of the 'Good Life', but recreating themselves as Tom and Barbara Good from the 1970s sitcom has proved to be anything but the self-sufficient idyll they thought it would be. Afraid to tell Nathan that she hates this constant uphill struggle to coax their allotment into plenty, fearing it would shatter his dreams, Leah is feeling dissatisfied with her lot. It does not help that Nathan suddenly seems to be acting strangely and spending more time away from the garden that working it, or that their once delightful daughter Scarlett has hit the tempestuous teenage years.
Feeling the need for some time away from her own life, Leah reluctantly joins the new book club her friend Grace has formed, even though she is not sure she really likes Grace's propensity to involve herself in everyone's lives while revealing very little of herself in return. But it cannot hurt to lose herself in some good books for a while, can it?
Leah finds herself discussing literature with an eclectic mix of fellow book clubbers, who seem to have very little in common, other than the ability to speak English. Alongside bossy Grace, there is handsome, rough-and-ready builder George, who has not picked up a book in years; new mum Monica, whose husband is away a lot, leaving her alone in their beautiful apartment with just a tiny baby for company; and painfully shy student Alfie, years younger than the others, but with a lot on his shoulders. Their ideas about the characters in the books they read differ wildly, but as they come together to talk about them they begin to reveal parts of themselves, and their troubles, to each other. As real friendship blooms over books and wine, the members of the Bordeaux Book Club discover ways to get to grips with their own lives too - and Leah realises that the happily-ever-after she was hoping for might actually look rather different to the one she pictured.
I love settling down with a Gillian Harvey as she has such a talent for combining escapist storylines with emotional themes around love, marriage, family, and rediscovering yourself, by examining the trials and tribulations of characters taking on the expat lifestyle in France - and this brand new gem does that in style.
Having read all of Harvey's lovely books published by Boldwood, which address different aspects of the hopes and dreams people aim to achieve by packing up their lives and heading for the French countryside, The Bordeaux Book Club brings with it a cast of characters who all need support with many different challenges right across the age spectrum, which makes this one particularly relatable. Beyond the usual ex-pat bumps in the road thrown up by language problems and culture-shock, which Harvey's own expat experiences make so real, these characters also need help with recovering from heart-ache, dealing with loneliness, loss, and in making themselves heard.
I found Nathan a bit of trial, but the interweaving storylines of the characters gradually drew me in, and before long I was completely tied to the fates of Leah, Grace, George, Monica, and Alfie, and their loved ones - and entertained by their discussions about some very well-known classics. As expected, Harvey packs this with emotion fit to make your heart burst, as the barriers between the group are broken down, opening them up to new possibilities. There are a gentle romantic threads for the 'ahh' factor; and a few humorous moments, which are tied up so much with the poignancy of the characters' stories that this is definitely more of a weeper than a chuckler, so keep the tissues handy - I definitely needed them at several points along the way, and at the lovely ending.
This really is a book that works its way into your heart, and in many ways I think it might be Harvey's most complex, and emotionally charged story to date - and that is saying a lot! I loved it, and became very fond of those Bordeaux Book Clubbers... I know you will too.
The Bordeaux Book Club is available to buy now in hard cover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Boldwood Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Rare Resources Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
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