Tuesday 22 April 2014

The Guestbook by Holly Martin


What They Say:

Welcome to Willow Cottage – throw open the shutters, let in the sea breeze and make yourself completely at home. Oh, and please do leave a comment in the Guestbook.

As landlady of Willow Cottage, the young widow Annie Butterworth is always on hand with tea, sympathy or strong Norfolk cider - whatever her colourful array of guests require.  A flick through the messages in the leather-bound cottage guestbook gives a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of everyone who passes through her doors.

This includes Annie herself - especially now celebrity crime writer Oliver Black, is back in town. He might grace the covers of gossip magazines with a different glamorous supermodel draped on his arm every week, but to Annie, he’s always just been Olly, the man who Annie shared her first kiss with.

Through the pages of the Guestbook Annie and Olly, along with all the guests that arrive at the seaside retreat, struggle with love, loss, mystery, joy, happiness, guilt…and the odd spot of naked rambling!

Forget sending postcards saying ‘wish you were here’ - one visit to Willow Cottage and you’ll wish you could stay forever.

What I Say:

Omg I can't believe it took me so long to get to this book, as I loved Holly's previous book The Sentinel, The Guestbook is totally different from The Sentinel.

First of all I have to mention the cover to the book it's just perfect.

It is set around Willow Cottage and Annie Butterworth, I loved Annie, she wasn't fazed by anything her guests did, even the guest that turned up with a hoard of animals, including a python, tarantula and a 3 legged goat.

The book is told from different characters POV and is refreshingly different, I just couldn't get enough of it, I finished the book in one night.

The village where the cottage is set sounds so idyllic, so close to the beach.

There is of course a story running through the Guestbook, of Annie, her husband, his brother Oliver who is also a guest at Willow Cottage.

Without giving anything away about the story or the book, I laughed at the crazy guests, cried with some of the sad guests, held my breath in certain parts of the book thinking ohh no....

It simply is a lovely read and having read it, it took me back to a time I used to work in a warehouse, we had a handover book and the things we wrote in this should never be told, let's just say it was interesting to say the least so I can see where Holly got her ideas from.....

I love Holly she is really lovely and her writing always has me glued never knowing what will happen and will be definitely reading more and I hope there is more from Willow Cottage.

5 out of 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thanks

Jo x

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