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emmacr2024's review
4.0
At the beginning of this book it mentions that Cathy Lake writes uplifting stores about strong women, family, friendship, love, community and over coming obstacles and all these characteristics certainly shone through when reading this book. It’s a wonderful story, a quick read which I loved from beginning to end. I hadn’t read the previous book, The Country Village Christmas Show, but that didn’t matter in the slightest as I could tell from little snippets what had already happened and I felt I was fully able to engage with everything that happened in this new story. I will say though that the fete of the title doesn’t occur until near the very end and it’s not the sole focus of the book. But really it didn’t need to be at all as this was about one women’s journey to figure out where she needed to be in life and to deal with past events and a trauma in order for her to be happy, supportive and at peace in her current life. So the fact the fete was more of a background event didn’t bother me in the slightest because the main storyline focusing on Emma was very well written.
Emma Patrick lives in London and it’s clear from the outset she has been working too hard and hasn’t felt right within herself for quite some time. When you find yourself in the local Tesco in your pyjama’s in the early hours of the morning buying vodka and not really knowing how this has happened it’s clear something needs to change. Emma feels disjointed and unhappy and the feelings niggling away at her that things need to change, well she has done her best to ignore those. Up until now she has enjoyed her single life and her work as a freelance editor having left the office behind to work from home. She has flexibility in her life and no one that relies on her and she hasn’t allowed to tradition to claim her. But is that what she really wants and needs from her life? Has she alienated herself from friends who have moved on to the relationship, marriage and kids stage of life? Not that there is anything wrong with being single but she has worked herself to the bone, to the point of exhaustion and deep down she knows she is but a mere step from a breakdown that may be very hard to come back from.
When she receives a phone call to say her father has been found at the local bus station in the village of Little Bramble in the early hours of the morning, appearing lost and confused, she knows she needs to return. Emma has only been back to the village in recent years for fleeting visits. We can tell something has kept her away and the way she acted all those years ago leaving a trail of devastation, loss, hurt and anger behind her will be difficult to reassemble into some form of acceptance and forgiveness. That’s even if she is willing to try and make amends and confront what she has spent so long running from. Her father’s mental health and general ability to cope on his own raises questions as to whether he is suffering from dementia. She knows she needs to return but can she cope what Little Bramble will throw in her path.
Emma was a brilliantly developed character. There were aspects of her that we could all identify with. She feels like she is on a treadmill where social media and losing hours on various media platforms has turned her into a ball of anxiety. Work dominates and she has made no time for the people who were once her friends. It’s clear she needs a complete break and to step back and evaluate what could be changed in her life for the better. What needs to go and what can she do to make her feel better? She works so hard on her career and not on her physical and mental health and I think a lot of us do the same. The deep reasons for not returning long term to the village, well Emma has kept those hidden, but she longs to assuage the guilt she feels and to turn back the clock and make things right. But the person she caused so much damage, complications and heartache to may not be willing to listen to what she has to say. That’s even if she can pluck up the courage to get everything off her chest.
I loved the village of Little Bramble. The rural setting felt fresh and vibrant and there were just the right amount of characters introduced so as not to feel overwhelmed keeping up with everyone’s story. The relationship that Emma has with her father Greg is a tentative one at first and I could see why this was the case. She didn’t want to admit to herself that if suspicions were true then maybe she would end up being his career. But also the unspoken words between them surrounding the loss of her mother weigh heavily in the silence. I thought the way that particular situation was developed was excellent and the overall outcome it could have been a cop out as to the specific explanations but instead it felt real and that yes this could have happened and relating it back to the loss Emma and Greg experienced was excellent. Little Bramble was comforting and there was something special knowing that people cared. But the explosive decision she made 30 years ago, well the after effects are still very much being felt. She feels that some things are better left ignored never to be waded through or stirred up again but we all know avoiding what needs to be said and dealt with head on is perhaps not the best policy to adopt in life.
The guilt and burden Emma feels relating to her mother and also the big event that caused her to leave the village weigh enormously on her. She tries to avoid dealing with things but having to take care of her dad brings new emotions out in the open and when she delves back into the past and reopens her mother’s studio at the bottom of the garden something is ignited in her and a change begins to happen slowly and tentatively. The studio was used for making jams and chutneys by her mother and has remained untouched. Having this connection to her mother starts to alleviate some of the guilt she feels with regard to this aspect of her life. She sets about making jams and chutneys for the village fete and this is where the fete finally starts to come into play but if it had not been present I wouldn’t have minded at all because this was a real character driven story rather than being fuelled by events. There wasn’t this urgent need to try and save something through community effort and hard work as has featured in many other books and I think I enjoyed the story all the more for it. Although the scenes at the fete were lovely and heart-warming and really brought the story full circle.
The book also focused on Connor. He runs his own business, The Lumber Shed, and has a daughter Grace who is 25. We get chapters from his perspective which I thought really broke up the story as Emma did feature strongly. His ex partner Sadie is a nightmare and she doesn’t seem to have gotten the hint that things are over and perhaps really they should have never have been together in the first place. She was such an annoying character, forever demanding of Connor and not getting the hint or giving him any freedom. You instantly want to know more about Connor and exactly what had devastated him in the past leading to such animosity with a particular someone. His storyline was wonderfully intertwined amongst the overall plot and I couldn’t wait to see would things that had been left unsaid for so long finally come out into the open and allow for rejection to turn into acceptance?
The Country Village Summer Fete was an impressive read infused with warmth and human understanding. It had me from page one and I was sad to finish it. If you like books in the vein of Cathy Bramley then this is definitely a read for you. It captures your imagination for the simple but effective way it conveys so many important life messages and lessons. The characters are so well crafted and developed and it will provide you with the perfect slice of escapism. I am delighted to have discovered such a fabulous author with a lovely writing style and I will certainly be reading The Country Village Christmas Wedding as soon as it is published later this year.
Emma Patrick lives in London and it’s clear from the outset she has been working too hard and hasn’t felt right within herself for quite some time. When you find yourself in the local Tesco in your pyjama’s in the early hours of the morning buying vodka and not really knowing how this has happened it’s clear something needs to change. Emma feels disjointed and unhappy and the feelings niggling away at her that things need to change, well she has done her best to ignore those. Up until now she has enjoyed her single life and her work as a freelance editor having left the office behind to work from home. She has flexibility in her life and no one that relies on her and she hasn’t allowed to tradition to claim her. But is that what she really wants and needs from her life? Has she alienated herself from friends who have moved on to the relationship, marriage and kids stage of life? Not that there is anything wrong with being single but she has worked herself to the bone, to the point of exhaustion and deep down she knows she is but a mere step from a breakdown that may be very hard to come back from.
When she receives a phone call to say her father has been found at the local bus station in the village of Little Bramble in the early hours of the morning, appearing lost and confused, she knows she needs to return. Emma has only been back to the village in recent years for fleeting visits. We can tell something has kept her away and the way she acted all those years ago leaving a trail of devastation, loss, hurt and anger behind her will be difficult to reassemble into some form of acceptance and forgiveness. That’s even if she is willing to try and make amends and confront what she has spent so long running from. Her father’s mental health and general ability to cope on his own raises questions as to whether he is suffering from dementia. She knows she needs to return but can she cope what Little Bramble will throw in her path.
Emma was a brilliantly developed character. There were aspects of her that we could all identify with. She feels like she is on a treadmill where social media and losing hours on various media platforms has turned her into a ball of anxiety. Work dominates and she has made no time for the people who were once her friends. It’s clear she needs a complete break and to step back and evaluate what could be changed in her life for the better. What needs to go and what can she do to make her feel better? She works so hard on her career and not on her physical and mental health and I think a lot of us do the same. The deep reasons for not returning long term to the village, well Emma has kept those hidden, but she longs to assuage the guilt she feels and to turn back the clock and make things right. But the person she caused so much damage, complications and heartache to may not be willing to listen to what she has to say. That’s even if she can pluck up the courage to get everything off her chest.
I loved the village of Little Bramble. The rural setting felt fresh and vibrant and there were just the right amount of characters introduced so as not to feel overwhelmed keeping up with everyone’s story. The relationship that Emma has with her father Greg is a tentative one at first and I could see why this was the case. She didn’t want to admit to herself that if suspicions were true then maybe she would end up being his career. But also the unspoken words between them surrounding the loss of her mother weigh heavily in the silence. I thought the way that particular situation was developed was excellent and the overall outcome it could have been a cop out as to the specific explanations but instead it felt real and that yes this could have happened and relating it back to the loss Emma and Greg experienced was excellent. Little Bramble was comforting and there was something special knowing that people cared. But the explosive decision she made 30 years ago, well the after effects are still very much being felt. She feels that some things are better left ignored never to be waded through or stirred up again but we all know avoiding what needs to be said and dealt with head on is perhaps not the best policy to adopt in life.
The guilt and burden Emma feels relating to her mother and also the big event that caused her to leave the village weigh enormously on her. She tries to avoid dealing with things but having to take care of her dad brings new emotions out in the open and when she delves back into the past and reopens her mother’s studio at the bottom of the garden something is ignited in her and a change begins to happen slowly and tentatively. The studio was used for making jams and chutneys by her mother and has remained untouched. Having this connection to her mother starts to alleviate some of the guilt she feels with regard to this aspect of her life. She sets about making jams and chutneys for the village fete and this is where the fete finally starts to come into play but if it had not been present I wouldn’t have minded at all because this was a real character driven story rather than being fuelled by events. There wasn’t this urgent need to try and save something through community effort and hard work as has featured in many other books and I think I enjoyed the story all the more for it. Although the scenes at the fete were lovely and heart-warming and really brought the story full circle.
The book also focused on Connor. He runs his own business, The Lumber Shed, and has a daughter Grace who is 25. We get chapters from his perspective which I thought really broke up the story as Emma did feature strongly. His ex partner Sadie is a nightmare and she doesn’t seem to have gotten the hint that things are over and perhaps really they should have never have been together in the first place. She was such an annoying character, forever demanding of Connor and not getting the hint or giving him any freedom. You instantly want to know more about Connor and exactly what had devastated him in the past leading to such animosity with a particular someone. His storyline was wonderfully intertwined amongst the overall plot and I couldn’t wait to see would things that had been left unsaid for so long finally come out into the open and allow for rejection to turn into acceptance?
The Country Village Summer Fete was an impressive read infused with warmth and human understanding. It had me from page one and I was sad to finish it. If you like books in the vein of Cathy Bramley then this is definitely a read for you. It captures your imagination for the simple but effective way it conveys so many important life messages and lessons. The characters are so well crafted and developed and it will provide you with the perfect slice of escapism. I am delighted to have discovered such a fabulous author with a lovely writing style and I will certainly be reading The Country Village Christmas Wedding as soon as it is published later this year.
jo_bookworm's review
3.0
Little Bramble Village is the childhood home of Emma and since she has left, she has hardly returned for more than a few days if that. But on the edge of her forties and with her fifties looming fast, she suddenly feels that perhaps she has achieved nothing and certainly doesn’t have anything to show for it.
Returning to Little Bramble, with the reason to look after her widowed father who seems to have lost his way is Emma’s excuse to perhaps take stock of where she is in life and where she wants to go next.
However going back means she needs to face what she left behind in the village all those years ago – her first love. Confronting her actions from the past and the villagers who have long memories too, means that perhaps Emma needs to stop and reassess what she was really running away from. Can the answer be found in her mother’s workshop, full of jams and chutney? Can the answer be found in making friends and catching up with old ones? Can the answer be watching your dad deal with the widowhood? Can the answer be in the past?
Clear, really from the start where and how this book was going to pan out, it was a pleasant diversion and was great to return a place I have visited before, in the first novel. They work well as standalone books and there is no need for any prior knowledge. I would have like a bit more intrigue, ‘will they, won’t they’ jeopardy before the happy ending. It was just a bit too neat for me.
A book to while away the hours, but for me perhaps a series I would not return to, when there are perhaps stronger books out there.
Returning to Little Bramble, with the reason to look after her widowed father who seems to have lost his way is Emma’s excuse to perhaps take stock of where she is in life and where she wants to go next.
However going back means she needs to face what she left behind in the village all those years ago – her first love. Confronting her actions from the past and the villagers who have long memories too, means that perhaps Emma needs to stop and reassess what she was really running away from. Can the answer be found in her mother’s workshop, full of jams and chutney? Can the answer be found in making friends and catching up with old ones? Can the answer be watching your dad deal with the widowhood? Can the answer be in the past?
Clear, really from the start where and how this book was going to pan out, it was a pleasant diversion and was great to return a place I have visited before, in the first novel. They work well as standalone books and there is no need for any prior knowledge. I would have like a bit more intrigue, ‘will they, won’t they’ jeopardy before the happy ending. It was just a bit too neat for me.
A book to while away the hours, but for me perhaps a series I would not return to, when there are perhaps stronger books out there.
portybelle's review
4.0
The Country Village Summer Fete is a book which is ideal for reading in the sunshine. If you have lovely sunshine too just now, get yourself a copy and sit outside somewhere to enjoy this summery book.
I really did enjoy visiting the village of Little Bramble and I felt for the main character, Emma. Approaching her 50th birthday she starts to realise that she’s been so focussed on work that life has passed her by somehow. When it seems that her elderly dad needs her help, she somewhat reluctantly goes back to the family home in the village she left almost 30 years ago. I say reluctantly because the reason she left and had rarely gone back was still in her mind and she felt sure that she would be judged for her decisions of long ago.
One things I so enjoyed about this book was that the people of the village were in fact really welcoming to Emma. The author introduces us to lots of characters who live the village. There’s Clare who becomes a close friend and encourages Emma to take a stall at the summer fete. There’s her dad’s lovely neighbour Dilys who has been keeping an eye out for him. There’s Jenny, mum to twins in her 40s and who provides quite a few humorous moments. And there’s Connor, who Emma used to be in a relationship with and who she tries hard to avoid for many reasons.
The author wrote about the relationship between Emma and her dad Greg so movingly. They were both still very much missing her late mum and in starting to makes jams and chutneys using her mum’s recipes for the summer fete, Emma recalls so many memories of happy times they spent together. The love between father and daughter was clear to see, as it was for another significant father and daughter in the book. Much to her surprise, Emma finds herself enjoying the slower pace of life in the village and finds it just as fulfilling as her busy city life, though in different ways.
With its themes of friendship, community and second chance romance I thoroughly enjoyed The Country Village Summer Fete. It’s a perfect read for lazy summer days and a really heart-warming read. I was pleased to read at the back of the book that there is to be another book set in Little Bramble and I’m looking forward to returning to attend The Country Village Christmas Wedding.
I really did enjoy visiting the village of Little Bramble and I felt for the main character, Emma. Approaching her 50th birthday she starts to realise that she’s been so focussed on work that life has passed her by somehow. When it seems that her elderly dad needs her help, she somewhat reluctantly goes back to the family home in the village she left almost 30 years ago. I say reluctantly because the reason she left and had rarely gone back was still in her mind and she felt sure that she would be judged for her decisions of long ago.
One things I so enjoyed about this book was that the people of the village were in fact really welcoming to Emma. The author introduces us to lots of characters who live the village. There’s Clare who becomes a close friend and encourages Emma to take a stall at the summer fete. There’s her dad’s lovely neighbour Dilys who has been keeping an eye out for him. There’s Jenny, mum to twins in her 40s and who provides quite a few humorous moments. And there’s Connor, who Emma used to be in a relationship with and who she tries hard to avoid for many reasons.
The author wrote about the relationship between Emma and her dad Greg so movingly. They were both still very much missing her late mum and in starting to makes jams and chutneys using her mum’s recipes for the summer fete, Emma recalls so many memories of happy times they spent together. The love between father and daughter was clear to see, as it was for another significant father and daughter in the book. Much to her surprise, Emma finds herself enjoying the slower pace of life in the village and finds it just as fulfilling as her busy city life, though in different ways.
With its themes of friendship, community and second chance romance I thoroughly enjoyed The Country Village Summer Fete. It’s a perfect read for lazy summer days and a really heart-warming read. I was pleased to read at the back of the book that there is to be another book set in Little Bramble and I’m looking forward to returning to attend The Country Village Christmas Wedding.
ljwrites85's review
5.0
The Country Village Summer Fete follows the story of Emma Patrick, who returns to the village of Little Bramble to look after her elderly father when he gets ill. She left the village behind years ago for a successful career in London and coming back is full of bittersweet memories, especially when it comes to an old flame of hers.
This story was just a delightful read with plenty of sweet and heartwarming moments. I also enjoyed the fact it was a second chance for romance novel, focusing on older characters who are proud to be older, as they should be!
This is the second in the Little Bramble series but works perfectly well as a standalone. I only noticed when I went looking for more books by Cathy Lake and found the first book.
The characters are all so likable and sweet, I really enjoyed meeting them. I felt for Emma, she's burnt out and a bit isolated when we first meet her, trying to keep up with her freelance editing work and running herself into the ground. On top of all that, she gets the dreaded news about her father who might have dementia then having to face up to her old heartbreak... I just wanted to give her a hug!
The Country Village Summer Fete is a combination of gentle humour and sweet romance that is the perfect summer read. I'm looking forward to more books from Cathy Lake!
This story was just a delightful read with plenty of sweet and heartwarming moments. I also enjoyed the fact it was a second chance for romance novel, focusing on older characters who are proud to be older, as they should be!
This is the second in the Little Bramble series but works perfectly well as a standalone. I only noticed when I went looking for more books by Cathy Lake and found the first book.
The characters are all so likable and sweet, I really enjoyed meeting them. I felt for Emma, she's burnt out and a bit isolated when we first meet her, trying to keep up with her freelance editing work and running herself into the ground. On top of all that, she gets the dreaded news about her father who might have dementia then having to face up to her old heartbreak... I just wanted to give her a hug!
The Country Village Summer Fete is a combination of gentle humour and sweet romance that is the perfect summer read. I'm looking forward to more books from Cathy Lake!
thewoollygeek's review
4.0
A pleasant read, lovely story and nice characters, maybe a bit over descriptive at points, but a nice bit of escapism
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
readingwithels's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
3.5