Title:- A Helping Hand for the Village Nurse
Author:- Tilly Tennant
Date published:- will be published on 24th May 2024
Publisher:- Bookouture
No. of pages:- 418 pages
Genre:- Romance
Rating:-
Plot:- 3/5
Writing:- 3/5
Overall rating:- 3/5
Among the emerald hills of the Lake District sits the village of Thimblebury and Wordsworth Cottage, its garden bursting with wildflowers. It is the perfect place for village nurse Ottilie to make her brave new start…
Ottilie Oakcroft never thought she’d live in a place like Wordsworth Cottage. Nestled close to the river, her new home in the tiny village of Thimblebury means all her patients are just a stone’s throw from her front door. As they drop in for cups of tea and cosy chats she ignores all the jobs on her to-do list and gets to know her new neighbours.
Yet maybe keeping busy is just what Ottilie needs, even if she’s barely had a minute to unpack her suitcase. Heartbroken after the death of her husband Josh, as she offers advice and hot soup from her kitchen to the villagers who clearly need a helping hand, she starts to feel part of a community again.
But disaster strikes when a terrible storm causes the river to burst its banks and flood Ottilie’s ramshackle cottage. She has sunk every penny she has into what she’d hoped would be her forever home, and now she’s faced with the prospect of losing it.
But the villagers have other ideas. They can’t bear to lose Ottilie and they make a plan to save her house. Leading the effort is handsome Heath, and as he rolls up his sleeves to get involved in the repairs, he and Ottilie start to open up to each other. Ottilie tells him about her loss, and he shares the pain of a marriage that ended in heartbreak for him.
Ottilie hasn’t talked to anyone like this since Josh’s death and while it scares her, a tiny grain of hope begins to grow. Could Heath be the man to make her feel life is worth living again – not just for her patients, but for herself?
A completely beautiful and romantic read about healing after heartbreak and learning that the darkest clouds have a silver lining. Fans of Shari Low, Jessica Redland and Jo Bartlett will lose their hearts to A Helping Hand for the Village Nurse.
Ottilie moves to a ramshackle cottage in a small village named Thimblebury to start new life after her husband’s death and after leaving behind the city. She is a nurse and soon she gets surrounded by the villagers themselves, inviting her to many things and Ottilie even does favors to others. But one day a storm comes in a flood her small cottage. Ottilie contemplates on leaving behind the village and move back to the city but the villagers wouldn’t even hear of it and soon, she meets a handsome man named Heath through one of the patients, Flo.
Good points- I actually like the setting of the story. The warm scenic places away from the bustling city, the community overall trying to help you with the life in the village, I really like that setting. Also, I think I also liked the plot of the story as well.
Bad points – I felt the story as a whole was too long–this could have been a shorter novel. The flooding started somewhere towards the middle of the book and I actually got bored at some parts of the story. There were too much repetitions as a result which made the whole story sounded slightly boring in my opinion.
Overall verdict– if this was a shorter novel, then I would have enjoyed the book as a whole. But the story was slightly too long, which made me bored reading and which lowered the rating of this book. However, I like the setting of the book, the cozy atmosphere, the community helping and above all, the book cover is very appealing. I may not read the series but then I mgiht give it a try. Worth 3 stars.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.
Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.
Tilly is represented by the wonderful, gorgeous Peta Nightingale at LAW.
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