I am afraid I plodded through this one a bit - and it was quite a big book to plod though!Neither of the main characters engaged me. Did enjoy Eadies slightly odd family and next door neighbour. Thought there would be a happier ending.

I don't know if this book caught me at the wrong time, or whether I just couldn't read it in a couple of sittings as I might have chosen to do, but it didn't grip me in the same way McFarlane's other novels have. The wittiness and the warm characters were all present, but the story didn't do as much for me as previous novels. I also didn't like the extreme open-endedness of the novel. I like my HEA to be more visible than what we saw here. It was more realistic in some ways, but escapism is my thing in novels. This ending would probably have worked well for other people, however. I suspect if I read this novel again, my rating might be a little higher. Timing is everything in reading for me, and the timing was all wrong for this book.