Review & Giveaway - The Flower Shop on Foxley St by Rachel Dove

Good morning! Today I have a review of The Flower Shop on Foxley St by Rachel Dove to share with you. There's also a giveaway! I have to say, like Rachel, I dream of immaculate make-up and floaty dresses too.

The Flower Shop on Foxley St.

by Rachel Dove

Series: Westfield series – Can be read as a standalone.

Genre: romantic fiction

Release Date: 26th July 2017

Publisher: HQ Digital/Harper Collins

A new love could be about to bloom for Lily in this bright, warm women’s fiction title that fans of Holly Hepburn and Cathy Bramley will love.

Lily Rose Baxter loves her little flower shop on Foxley Street and the freedom and independence from her family that it represents.

Lily can't help but feel that something is missing from her life…, but when mysterious stranger Will Singer comes into her shop looking for the perfect bouquet of roses, all that could be about to change.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

EXTRACT

Will Singer looked every inch the thirty-two-year-old man he was. The bathroom mirror rarely did anyone any favours, but this particular winter morning it appeared to be magically channelling the mirror from Snow White in terms of stark clarity and downright truth. Who’s the hottest man of them all? Certainly not you, dude.

He had badly needed a shave. People were starting to comment on it, but the clean-shaven Will was not a great improvement. At least his dark stubble had detracted from the huge Kardashian-sized luggage wedged under his eyes. Without his hairy mask, Will felt naked, unable to hide.

Even worse was the fact that the lack of hair on his face left people free to roam over his other features, in particular the mop of hair sprouting from his head. He looked like Lionel Messi mixed with Mufasa the lion. It did well for them, but Will wasn’t sure it was such a great style for him. Any longer and he would have to buy an Alice band like Beckham. Start sporting a man bun. He was pretty sure the villagers had never seen a man bun. It might scare them enough to dust off the pitchforks and torches. He had a sudden vision of his uncle Archie dressed like Braveheart, rallying the twin set and mohair-clad villagers into action from atop a horse. ‘People of Westfield, we shall not lie down and die. The man bun must be destroyed!’

He chuckled to himself at his own humour. He would have to tell Lily that joke later.

My Review

The Flower Shop on Foxley St starts off nice and gently. An introduction to Lily, the new owner of the shop, her newly retired and not happy parents, her friends and stranger, Will. And Will is where the intrigue builds. A customer to the shop, Will turns up regularly and places the same order, and each time Will and Lily meet it's in a professional manner only. After all, Lily is happily in a long term relationship - or is she?

After a conversation where wires get crossed, you discover that Lily and Will have a few things in common, so a friendship develops between the pair. There is obvious chemistry between them, but for some reason Will holds back and Lily isn't about to cheat.

The plot sets off at a steady pace. There were times, at the beginning, that I got a little distracted by characters who weren't relevant to the story and for me it seemed to slow the pace down, but I have to say I really enjoyed the secondary characters. The sub plot of Lily's parents fracturing marriage is interesting and the dialogue between Lily and her friends is funny and natural.

It's when Lily's relationship and then her feelings towards Will are tested that the story picks up pace and becomes gripping and at times emotional when Will's heart breaking secret is revealed.

The author has a natural voice which brings the characters to life. Rachel Dove adds the perfect blend of humour and emotion in this lovely, warm story.

3.5 Butterfly Rating

ABOUT RACHEL DOVE

I am a wife, mother of two boys, perpetual student, avid reader and writer of words. I sometimes sleep, always have eye bags and dream of retiring to a big white house in Cornwall, with 2 shaggy dogs, drinking wine on my seafront balcony whilst creating works of romantic fiction. All done with immaculate make up and floaty dresses. In the meantime I nearly always remember to brush my hair, seldom have time to look in a mirror and write many, many to-do lists. My first solo novel, Crossing Life Lines is out now in Kindle and paperback format. Look out for my horror shorts, published through Bayou Brew Publishing: The House of Sugar Blood, August 2013 and Uni Assassin, out now, and my short story, Mallow Girl, out now. In July 2015, I won the Prima magazine and Mills & Boon Flirty Fiction Competition, with my entry, The Chic Boutique on Baker Street, out now in ebook and paperback, and the follow up novel in the series, The Flower Shop on Foxley Street.