#Review #win: The Truth About You, Me and Us | Kate Field @katehaswords @BrookCottageBks

It’s a real pleasure today to be sharing my review of The Truth About You, Me and Us by Kate Field, published by Accent Press on 25th August. When I first met Kate, we were at opposite ends of a long table at the Book Connectors Christmas lunch in Leeds and didn’t have much opportunity to talk, but we were able to put that right at the recent RNA afternoon tea in York. I don’t know about other bloggers and reviewers, but I always think it’s possible to get a “feel” of someone’s writing from your feelings about the author – Kate is warm and funny, the best of company, so I found I was very much looking forward to reading this one. Kate’s last book – The Magic of Ramblings – won the RNA’s Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Scheme Award in 2017, and I’ve read some wonderful reviews. And do you know, I think I’ll be reading a large number of equally impressive reviews of this one too – this book was just excellent.

Sometimes the hardest person to be honest with is yourself…

Five years ago Helen Walters walked out on her ‘perfect’ life with the ‘perfect’ man. Wealthy, glamorous and bored, she longed for something more.

Now a talented artist with a small business, Helen creates crazy patchwork crafts to support her young daughter, Megan. Penniless, content and single, she is almost unrecognisable.

But when her past unexpectedly collides with her new life, Helen finds herself torn. She knows what the easiest choice is, but is it what she wants?

Isn’t it lovely when a book turns out to be everything you really want it to be? Helen and her daughter Megan held my heart in their hands from the very beginning. As well as being beautifully written – a lovely smooth, easy to read style – the story was just perfect with its slowly revealed secrets from the past, complicated relationships and quite beautiful developing love story. The backdrop of the craft co-operative needing to relocate their operation brought to mind the novels of Emma Davies – another of my favourites – and offers the opportunity to create the most wonderful cast of characters, all vividly drawn with their various quirks and oddities, and I do rather want to add one of Helen’s crazy patchwork kindle covers to my Christmas wishlist. The settings were perfect too – the church, the barn with its beams, the adjacent cottages… are you getting the impression I really enjoyed this one, I wonder?

And did I mention Christmas? This isn’t necessarily a “Christmas read”, but that’s the timing for the story and there’s a seasonal warmth around the story that makes it perfect for reading at this time of the year – and isn’t Christmas the time when all those feelings and family stresses and strains can be nearest the surface? As for the love story, that was just perfect – where can I find a man like that do you think? – and his smile made me feel all fuzzy every time it appeared. And I equally loved all the family sorting-out – relationships beautifully and realistically handled. And yes, I even loved Megan – she’s totally enchanting, and even a child-phobic reader like I am was happy to allow her access to my heart.

This was a thoroughly gorgeous read, sheer enjoyment from its beginning to its perfect end – now, how soon can I fit The Magic of Ramblings into my reading schedule?

Giveaway

With thanks to Kate and promotion organiser Brook Cottage Books I’m delighted to offer the chance to win a paperback copy: there are two copies up for grabs (open internationally). Here’s the rafflecopter for entry:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author

Kate Field writes contemporary women’s fiction, mainly set in her favourite county of Lancashire, where she lives with her husband, daughter and hyperactive cat. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

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