I’m really delighted today to be joining the blog tour for Love Lindisfarne, the debut romantic comedy from Kimberley Adams, and sharing my review. Independently published on 12th September, this lovely book is now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited) and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the author for my advance reading e-copy.
You’re always taking a bit of a chance when signing up to review a self-published debut, but this book appealed to me from the first glimpse of its lovely cover. And I’ve really enjoyed following Kim’s journey to publication across a few Facebook groups – she’s worked so very hard, very clear about what she wanted to achieve, asked for advice from others, and it’s been so lovely sharing her excitement as her big moment came ever closer. A few weeks ago she shared the fact that an agent asked her to change it from being a Christmas book, and make it less nice – the very things that made it look so appealing, so I’m delighted that she stuck to her guns and wouldn’t change her vision. I was rather looking forward to this one…
LOVE LINDISFARNE… Take a Christmas trip to magical Northumberland and find love amongst the stars in this feel-good novel, which will transport you to iconic Holy Island where dreams really can come true!
Dumped at the office Christmas party, Ellie is about to vent her spleen on social media when a photo of a cute little dog advertising a charity catches her eye. Her world suddenly changes dramatically when she is offered a month’s stay in Northumberland to help look after rescue animals.
Ellie isn’t too sure where Northumberland is, but accepts, eager to start a new life away from London. Her destination is Lindisfarne, and her arrival on the small island in the North Sea is terrifying, fearing for her life on the causeway as the tide comes crashing in.
Ellie finds herself living in a hilltop castle, and far from the cats and dogs she expected she would be looking after, she is faced with all kinds of furry and feathery animals – and she doesn’t have a clue about any of them!
Welcomed to island life by the warm-hearted residents, she quickly embraces living in this special place, and from the moment she spots the mesmerising Zen with the gorgeous coffee bean eyes, her plans to stay single and mingle begin to fade fast.
Thanks to a severe storm, Lindisfarne is cut off from the mainland, and the islanders work together to salvage the planned Christmas events. Ellie is kept so busy that she hasn’t much time to think about her future when her time on the island ends.
Will the universe give Ellie its blessing? Will she find her happy ever after on the enchanting island of Lindisfarne? If it’s in the stars, then it’s in the stars…
You’d need a heart of stone not to feel for Ellie when she’s so very publicly humiliated – and it was a good thing that she had such a great group of friends to support her. But a fresh start is what she really needs for so many reasons – some drunken emails get her entangled with an animal charity and (although she’s really not sure where Northumberland is) she ends up travelling to Lindisfarne for Christmas as a volunteer (avoiding near disaster on the way – who knew it was an island?). A few dogs, she thought – she’d already fallen for the loveable little Nacho, and a few more wouldn’t make life too difficult. But no – horses, alpacas, donkeys, turkeys and more, and she needs to learn quickly. And, after a short time staying with the lovely Meg and Bert who help her find her feet, she finds herself living in an apartment in the castle – with one gorgeous man on hand (Zen) who she’d love to get closer to, and another (Aidan) that she struggles to keep at arm’s length (and is sometimes none too sure whether she wants to).
I will admit that I did have a moment at the beginning of this book when I did wonder if it might not be the book for me – and I only mention that in case you find yourself feeling the same. It was only because I was finding everything a little bit… maybe raucous would be the right word? But I soon got over that – even before Ellie began to find her feet on Lindisfarne, showing she was capable of caring and working hard, making friends across the generations (and with some of the more difficult animals, giving them a good talking to!), and I entirely took her to my heart. But all the characterisation really was excellent – Meg and Bert (both elderly) were beautifully drawn and impossible not to adore, I enjoyed her new friendship with Aurora, and Zen certainly had a lot more to make you love him than his shaggy hair and coffee bean eyes. Aidan’s an absolute hoot, refusing to take no for an answer but with nothing about his dogged persistence remotely uncomfortable (even if I couldn’t quite see the attraction!) – and there’s also a bit of a baddie (mean girl…) making life that little bit more difficult for everyone.
It’s a very contemporary story, and I know an old pensioner like me would probably never have been its target audience – but it really is so beautifully told. There’s that community feel where everyone pulls together when the going gets tough that always draws me to a book – and it’s set at Christmas, adding all the right emotional touches. And the setting really is absolutely perfect – that part of the Northumberland coast is a real personal favourite, and the author’s love for it is something you can feel in every lovely description. Mind you, I’ve never been there in the depths of winter, when life is rather less comfortable for everyone when the storms come in – so there are some well written moments of particular drama too. The central romance – a particularly slow-burn one – was one I could really feel and totally believed in. And there’s plenty of humour, with some of the best one-liners I’ve come across in a while – but there are many other moments that are both touching and extremely moving. The ending was a tad unexpected (and I’m certainly not going to spoil it…), but I really thought it was absolutely perfect.
This was a romantic comedy I’d thoroughly recommend – and an author I’d certainly love to read again. In fact, I’d be more than happy to read a sequel, find out what happened next – or if not, definitely another book with that gorgeous Northumberland setting. A really lovely read.
About the author
Kim might be new on the writing block, but she was first published as a teenager writing happy ever after stories for other teens. She progressed to women’s magazines before life and work got in the way. Kim began writing again seriously a few years ago and during that relatively short time has won and been placed in several well-known writing competitions.
Love Lindisfarne started off life being shortlisted by Penguin Michael Joseph which gave Kim the impetus to finish it, and Kim turned down the opportunity of traditional publishing because she wanted to keep the cover and content she had dreamed of since the book’s concept!
Like buses that take forever then two come along at once, Kim will soon be traditionally published too – she was a finalist in this year’s Comedy Women in Print competition, and her prize was to see her work (this time based in Newcastle) in The Book of Witty Women to be published in April by Farrago.
Fabulous review, lovely book.