The Artisan Heart, Dean Mayes

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:Woman's fiction, romance

First a quick rant – why “women's” fiction? Why exclude 50% or readers....this categorisation makes me so cross. Who's to say sex determines what we enjoy reading?

Its a great story, written so intelligently, not dumbed down as so many are now. No grunting heroes here, no page after page of repetitive sex, but a romance in the truest sense for me, where the characters really spend time getting to know each other. Having said all that there were times when I floundered a bit within the story, where I got a bit bored with the pacing – but that's my issue, my problem not the book.
There are some terrific characters here, Hayden and Isabelle, and Isabelle's little daughter whose a real star. Max and Annette, friends of Hayden's parents, Chas, one of those characters that makes a village, eccentric,at times careless but so full of life, so joyful he brightens others day. I had hoped for a bit more unpleasantness from Bernadette, she's pretty ambitious and will stop at nothing to get ahead, and her plans and Hayden's don't necessarily match. All the things I love from a “nasty” character but she really wasn't in the story that much, enough to throw a few spanners but nothing more.
Its an interesting read, Hayden's initial issues really felt so genuine, its something I could see playing out all too easily and as he says, that could end his career. All that hard work, years of study, gone in a moment. I loved Isabelle and her determination, adored little Genie, so irrepressible and entertaining, loved the way the village rallied round its inhabitants. I really wanted to give this book five stars and yet...I kept putting it aside, losing interest and I'm really not sure why. It had everything I love, intelligent writing, real characters, excellent plots, not just a sweet, simple romance but a more involved one but for whatever reason it didn't pull me in to a cant-stop-reading mood.

Stars: Four, a good story, well written with terrific characters, but not quite the magic five for me.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

THE ARTISAN HEART – Dean Mayes
Perfect 10
Central Avenue Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-77168-142-1 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-77168-143-8 (E-book)
September 2018
Contemporary Romance

Adelaide and Walhalla, Australia

Doctor Hayden Luschcombe is an emergency paediatrician in the city of Adelaide in the South Australia territory, married to event planner Bernadette Magnion. As he is about to leave the hospital for one of her events, for which he has promised he would arrive on time, an emergency calls him. It is not the first time Bernadette had found him wanting, but when he comes home and finds her in bed with another man, he leaves his house. Then another emergency has Hayden fending off the attack of a father whose daughter Hayden suspects suffers not from an accidental failure to test the bath’s water temperature, as claimed by the mother, but a purposeful scalding of the little girl’s lower body. The hospital releases him from duty until the case can be sorted out. Escaping his life, Hayden travels to the village of Walhalla in the mountains of New South Wales. Here is the cottage where his parents lived, where he grew up, and which he closed up three years ago when his father died.

While working on the cottage’s leaking roof, a small girl, this one deaf, attacks Hayden. He knows sign language because his mother was deaf. He learns her name is Genevieve, and he recognizes her mother, Isabelle Sampi, who as a young girl taunted and tormented the young, shy child Hayden. She is a baker now, trying to reestablish a bakery in an old and dilapidated nineteenth century building. What neither Hayden nor Isabelle know is how much they share, including love for the mischievous but kind and intelligent Genevieve.

The Artisan Heart is a riveting romance whose protagonists have troubled pasts but find the courage to start again in the small, close-knit community of Walhalla. Serious danger comes from Isabelle’s past, and certainly Bernadette has an agenda to encourage Hayden to continue their marriage, which creates some great drama. Author Dean Mayes, who lives in Adelaide, wonderfully presents the Australian setting. While many romances share some plot points, Hayden’s perspective made this story different and unique. All the characters in THE ARTISAN HEART read as real people, another wonderful aspect of the story that earns it a Perfect 10.
Robin Lee

This book was lovely... such a great heart-warming story with a gritty edge, and a romantic, hazy feel. How you get gritty and romantic/hazy together in one novel is a challenge, but Dean Mayes does it beautifully.
I love the start of this novel. We meet Hayden, a bike-riding doctor in the children's hospital in Adelaide. He has his own unique way of doing things in an emergency ward, but he gets away with it because he's a genius at what he does.
We meet Bernadette, Hayden's wife. She's in PR and she's going places... and quite quickly we get the sense that she'll be going places without Hayden.
As the reader, I thought it was such a clever ploy to gain reader sympathy for Hayden by juxtaposing these two careers. Hayden's emergency is a child burned in a scalding bath... Bernadette's emergency is the keynote speaker running late to a high-stakes business dinner.
Their marriage really is a train waiting to come off the tracks.
It's this marriage breakdown, and a meltdown at the hospital for Hayden, that lead him to return to his hometown of Walhalla, where the bulk of The Artisan Heart is set.
Hayden needs time to lick his wounds and recover, and recover he does with the help of a supportive town and a place that nurtures the artistic side of life.
He meets Isabelle, the local baker, and her daughter Genevieve - a wonderful character in her own right. Over time he learns about Isabelle's history, and the events that left Genie deaf.
It's just a gorgeous story of healing in a place that soothes the soul. It's a gentle pace of life out of the rat-race, where Hayden can work with his hands to restore his family's house and garden, and restore his damaged heart.
That's the 'nice' storyline for The Artisan Heart. As I mentioned, this also has gritty themes running at the base of it. These include the opening events at the hospital which lead to Hayden having an altercation with the father of the little girl admitted with scalding burns. We also have a point of view character that is Isabelle's estranged husband, and father of young Genie, Mitchell Crowley. Mitch has been in jail and is just about to get out. We know very early that he intends to defy court orders to come find his daughter, and we also know he's not a man who has been wrongfully jailed. This is one nasty pasty.
There is the inevitable showdown between the entire town of Walhalla (but particularly Hayden and Isabelle) to save Genie from Mitch - which I found really well written - and there is also the inevitable showdown between Hayden and Bernadette, when Berni decides she wants her husband back.
I know the author works in the nursing industry, and I appreciate that child injuries described in The Artisan Heart are quite likely drawn from events he has seen in his working life. This is where the 'gritty' comes through because it reads as ultra authentic.
I highly recommend this book to those who are looking for an extra layer above rural or small-town romance, with a realistic storyline, and original characters.
Thank you Dean Mayes for the read.