Fliss Brown has grown up living with her mother on the Rossi family’s Italian fruit farm. But when her mother dies, Fliss finds out she has a family of her own, and heads back to England with Nonna Rossi’s recipe for cherry and almond tart and a piece of advice: connect with your family before it’s too late…
Fliss discovers that her estranged grandfather owns a fruit farm himself, on the outskirts of Wynbridge, and she arrives to find a farm that has fallen into disrepair. Using her knowledge gleaned from working on the Rossi Farm and her desire to find out more about her past, Fliss rolls her sleeves up and gets stuck in. But what will she discover, and can she resurrect the farms glory days and find a taste of home…?
I had often heard that Heidi Swain was a good comfort read, but had never had the chance to read one of her books myself. I count myself lucky that I was able to borrow a copy of A Taste Of Home right before heading into A&E for the evening – something that undoubtedly saved my sanity.
The story is sweet and comforting – there is a lot of stress on the importance of family, plenty of descriptions of good food, with a generally wholesome theme of outside life and good company.
If some of the unravelling of the moderately predictable plot is a tad twee at times then please understand that I am not about to complain about this. I devoured this book in a single sitting – I felt awful, and needed 9 hours in a plastic chair like a (second) whack to the face, but courtesy of Ms Swain those hours passed far quicker and more comfortably than they otherwise would have.
This book made me feel comforted and is written well enough that you find yourself sinking into it like your bed after a long day. Fliss herself can be a bit of a muppet at times (Yes we are talking about Anthony – what were you thinking?!), but she is genuinely kind with a pleasant narrative and plenty of lively characters to keep the story spicy. The love interest is typically predictable, but then I’m not entirely sure that this genre is meant to surprise us – I think it exists to make us feel better on days that absolutely suck, and for me that was yesterday evening.
To summarise my opinions on this book in the most succinct way possible, I am absolutely looking for more books by Heidi Swain – they are going to join my Trisha Ashely and Katie Fforde collection of Bath Books.
Happy reading 🙂
If you liked this, you may also like:
Book Review: A Country Escape by Katie Fforde
Book Review; The Garden Of Forgotten Wishes, by Trisha Ashley
Becky's Book Blog 