The Village Cafe In The Loire by Gillian Harvey

 

The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey.

Published 12th July 2025 by Boldwood Books.

From the cove of the book:

High-flyer Becky Thorne cannot believe what she’s being told. She doesn’t need to be signed off for burnout! Life has been a bit chaotic lately, that’s all. As if dealing with her enviable job and permanent meddling from her mother aren’t enough, she’s also inherited a café in the Loire from an estranged great-aunt, complete with sitting tenant who refuses to budge.

But nobody stands in Becky’s way! Ignoring her best friend Amber’s advice, she decides to storm over to France and sort the tenant out. Then she can finally get the café sold and jump back on the career ladder.

What she doesn’t count on is the tenant being Pascale, who is six feet of tall, dark, handsome and extremely grumpy about her plans for change. Not to mention the village and the secrets it holds about her past.

Becky’s path to success is all planned out. But the Loire has a magic she might not be able to resist…

***********

Becky's career was going well, or so she thought, but the pressure of being a director at a London advertising agency gradually crept up on her unawares. After an unfortunate incident in which a laptop was sent hurtling in the direction of the office intern, Becky finds herself signed off for a month due to 'severe burnout'. As someone used to climbing the ladder to corporate success, Becky does not know what to do with herself. Relaxing is simply not part of her make-up, but she needs to get her head together if she is going to achieve a coveted position on the board of the advertising agency.

She decides to head to France, where she has recently been bequeathed a little cafe in the Loire by her great-aunt Maud, who she had not seen since she was a child. She had been planning to sell the cafe and invest in a swanky new London apartment, but now might be just the time to tackle the unexpected headache the news of a sitting tenant at the property has brought...

After a heart-breaking diversion in Harvey's last book, Midnight in Paris, she is back to her more typical fictional fare with a story of new beginnings in the beautiful Loire. The story begins with Becky suffering a melt-down at work which forces her to reassess the things she really wants in life, through the revelations that come with returning to a place she loved in her childhood.

Becky begins her visit full of big plans for the the cafe, but as she bumps heads with the 'sitting tenant', handsome writer Pascale, and reconnects with her past, she begins to realise she has been ignoring almost all other aspects of her life in pursuit of her career - including being a terrible friend to her bestie Amber. 

New beginnings dawn, including a lovely slow-burn romance with gentle Pascale, via all the necessary bumps in the road you need in this kind of story. There is plenty of humour, lots of charming French content, a heart-warming twist or two, and the kind of examination of complicated family relationships that Harvey does so well,  particularly when it comes to the expectations of over-protective (aka domineering) mothers.

Time to slow down with a cup of coffee, and the perfect slice of summer escapism Gillian Harvey style!

The Village Cafe in the Loire is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Boldwood Books for granting me access to an e-copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Rachel's Random Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Gillian Harvey is an author and freelance writer who lives in Norfolk.

Her novels, including the bestselling A Year at the French Farmhouse and The Riviera House Swap, are often set in France, where she lived for 14 years.