The latest novel from Jill Mansell does not fail to disappoint. Lou is visiting friend Sammy in a Cotswold village and bumps into Edgar Allsopp. Edgar is grouchy, unfriendly and determined to make his and everyone else life miserable, for no real reason.
But Lou has the experience of dealing with the Edgar’s of the world and when he offers her a job, she thinks she doesn’t have anything to lose by accepting it. Besides, she has just lost hers as well as her home, husband and lately mother. Moving to be near friends Sammy and his brother Remy seems the perfect temporary solution. At least for a while.
An unlikely friendship also starts to develop between them and Lou finds herself settling into the village and Edgar finds himself becoming more amenable to others. Especially when Captain Oates arrives. who captures Edgar’s heart. A lost love of Edgar also reappears, Della along with dashing son and weird daughter but nothing is as it seems anymore and Edgar and Lou perhaps have to learn the hard way.
As always richly driven by the characters and all their little sub plots, this book shows the worst and best of people into this lovely novel. Comic and sad in equal parts with an abundance of love sprinkled throughout, this is a great novel and probably reflective of our times, especially when it came to Della’s children! They could have done with a jolly good shake. What I did like was the romance which included Lou was not the main focus of the book, it was nice for it to be happily moving along without all consuming every plot line.
This is the perfect book to start a new year of reading off, full of hope and warmth and the perfect tonic to the grey days.
Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
Promise Me is published on 19th January 2023.
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