Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book.
Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, alongside a deeply conventional sister who escapes home as soon as she can, fiction is
eminently preferable to reality.
The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world.
When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s
tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels.
But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction and it’s not long before Andi questions if she’s living in a romance novel or a whodunnit. Bumps in the night, a missing heir, ghostly apparitions and secrets that have been kept for generations – the mysteries mount up. Then there’s the inscrutable gardener who seems to appear when needed – is Andi right to hope for a happily-ever-after end to her story?
Jane Lovering is a bestselling and multi-award winning romantic comedy writer. Most recently Jane won the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel Award in 2023 with A Cottage Full of Secrets. She lives in Yorkshire and has a cat and a bonkers terrier, as well as five children who have now left home.
Facebook: @jane.lovering
Twitter: @janelovering
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My thoughts: This was a lot of fun, I liked Andi, and her job cataloguing the dusty and neglected library is pretty much my dream (although the dust is a health hazard, I’m asthmatic!) accompanied by resident feline, The Master.
She’s supposed to be looking for the diaries of the house’s one time master, grandfather to Hugo, Lady Tanith’s father-in-law, with whom she is obsessed. But the diaries don’t seem to be anywhere Andi can find, and Lady Tanith is not happy.
What Andi does find is a whole heap of secrets, and considering that there’s only a few people in the house, it’s impressive that they’ve managed to keep them. She also finds a deaf gardener, Jay, with whom she develops a slightly awkward relationship. He almost drowns her in the fountain, she catches him peeing in the bushes, it’s very rom-com esque.
She’s slightly worried that Lady Tanith will either sack her or marry her off to poor Hugo, who doesn’t really want that either. Although he does need a friend. His mother is completely nuts and horrible.
As Andi’s time at the house is under pressure, and she’s still sort of falling for Jay, things take a few twists and turns. It’s lots of fun to read, but probably quite stressful to live, so maybe I won’t hire myself out as a librarian archivist just yet.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 