Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

This book is a multi POV story told by 4 characters: Stevie, Ned, Fay and Zeke. All have found themselves in rural France and as it is a small village they constantly run into each other. Middle-aged Fay takes a plot in elderly Zeke's allotments while pondering her ailing marriage to boring Hugh who thinks gardening as a hobby is beneath his wife. Ned tries to get musicians gigs while his cancer-stricken mother is dying, and Stevie has run from the memory of her dead parents. Zeke also has trauma from the past. There's a lot of death in past and present!

In my opinion there is no story and it is boring. It's a novel in which gardening plays a big role in healing and yet we don't see much of it. The story relies heavily on telling instead of showing which means to me nothing has much impact. The romance is half-hearted, and there is no real conclusion to Fay's marriage. The chapters are very uneven in length and there is no light-hearted fun, instead there is a case of animal cruelty and a building maliciously set on fire.

The one thing I liked was that the realities of Brexit are addressed. Stevie has an Irish passport and I'm guessing Ned has dual citizenship with France through his mother. Fay has to get a visa to stay longer than three months at a time. Thank you for that. Every other romance book has people still happily move to an EU country as if Freedom of Movement had never ceased.

However, this alone doesn't make me like a book. Apparently you will love this if you love David Nicholls, Jojo Moyes and Nicholas Sparks. They are all masters of schmaltz so you know what you can expect. Unfortunately, it's not for me.