Starting over at Sunset Cottage – Lisa Hobman

I was immediately drawn to this book for two reasons: The cover was instantly appealing to me, but more importantly I was drawn to the author. I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous titles from Lisa Hobman that I have read, and so it was with great anticipation that I started this story.

A relationship breakup is always sad, especially when it’s not overly apparent as to why it has happened and both parties emit the semblance of being inherently decent people. The way that this breakup was portrayed felt how; so real that I felt genuinely sad for the breakup and particularly for Jim, who seemed positively devastated by the turn of events. I had initially warmed to both Flick and Jim, but quickly changed my mind about Flick, after how she treated Jim at the very end of the first chapter. what was a bit of a ‘last hurrah’ for Flick, most certainly wasn’t for Jim!

It seemed wrong for Flick to be taking time sick off work ’to get over it’, when ’it’ seemed to be entirely her doing. It also seemed wrong that she felt her marriage breakdown was something she could ’get over’ in a couple of days. As you can tell, I had really warmed to Jim and I was struggling to come to terms with Flick’s treatment of him. Flick’s behaviour did seem to be driven by her meddling Mother to an extent, but I did wonder why she ever agreed to get married even? As to why Flick would allow her Mother to interfere so, when she is a fully fledged adult?

I was drawn to Ed, Flick’s Father. He came across as a thoroughly decent human being. I respected the way that he was prepared to speak up for what he believed in and was prepared to tell his Wife what he thought about her interfering. He was a true, loyal friend to Jim. i must confess that his wonderful letter to Jim was beautiful and caused me to cry real ugly tears; actually make that emotional tears, as nothing ugly should be associated with his wonderful, heartfelt writing.

I liked the way the story dipped in and out of the past, although I found the relationship breakup all the more confusing, reading about how Jim and Flick met and about how happy they were for much of their time together. It just seemed such a waste of a good relationship. I really did feel strongly that Flick had behaved badly towards Jim though, and to that end I hoped that moving to a new area might herald the start of something new on the romantic front, for Jim. He was just such a good, honest, decent man.

When the couple meet again, I felt more compassion for Flick and I confess to laughing out loud at Penelope’s ’sordid secret’.

I am not going to spoil the end of this book by revealing too much. I did love the story, despite the wide range of emotions it instilled in me and I cannot urge you enough to read the book for yourself.

Purchase link: https://amzn.to/3zD8cLO

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