A Good Year for the Roses -- Book Review

From the cover :

Life hasn't been a bed of roses for Londoner Molly Taylor lately. Newly divorced and struggling to find a new home and a way to support her three boys, she's stunned when her beloved Aunt Helena dies and leaves her Harrington Hall, a three-hundred-year-old manor house on the Devon coast, where Molly grew up. But does Molly really want to run a bed-and-breakfast in an old house where the only thing that doesn't need urgent attention is Aunt Helena's beautiful rose garden? Or care for Uncle Bertie, an eccentric former navy officer with a cliff-top cannon? Or Betty, his rude parrot that bites whomever annoys it? Yet Molly's best friend Lola is all for the plan. "My heart bleeds. Your very own beach, the beautiful house, and Helena's garden. All you have to do is grill a bit of bacon."

But with Molly's conniving brother running the family hotel nearby, the return of a high school flame with ulterior motives, and three sons whose idea of a new country life seems to involve vast quantities of mud, this is not going to be easy. And then Harrington Hall begins to work its magic, and the roses start to bloom...

Warm, witty, and chock-full of quintessential British charm, A Good Year for the Roses is a story for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting over...with or without bacon.

My thoughts :

It was impossible not to be taken in by A Good Year for the Roses by Gil McNeil. The idea of inheriting a manor and running a bed and breakfast just seems so cozy (even when the furnace isn't working and the roof is leaking). Really, that's how I would describe the book--cozy. With solid writing and quirky characters, it's a good, quick read.

Molly is a sensible sort of gal whose wit is amusing and not much gets her down. She's not an overly passionate person so her relationships are pretty evenly keeled and when people disappoint her, she moves on with remarkable swiftness. She always makes the wise choice. Molly would be a great best friend and is inspiring but also ends up being a little bit dull on the page.

A Good Year for the Roses is comfortable. It's buttery toast dipped in hot cocoa. It's a fragrant flower garden right after a rain shower. It's the kind of book I'd recommend to my grandma. In fact, I would definitely recommend this book to my grandma if it weren't for the occasional swearing.

A Good Year for the Roses is published by Hyperion and released in July 2014.

**I received a complimentary copy of A Good Year for the Roses. All opinions are my own.**