Review: The Tapestry of Love - Rosy Thornton

Genre: Contemporary fiction
Pages: 352
Published: July 2010 (US December 2010?)

A warm and uplifting story of how a woman falls in love with a place and its people: a landscape, a community and a fragile way of life.

A rural idyll: that's what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. With her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and her dream is to set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you're no longer just here on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, not to mention the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbours, including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that's before the arrival of Catherine's sister, Bryony.

This book was a pleasant read. I think I am gonna go in for a description now. It was like sitting on the porch, drinking wine (well juice for me), seeing the sun set on a warm summer evening, perhaps reading a book. Everything very pleasant and relaxing. That is what this book is to me.

It's the story about Catherine, a woman of 49 who leaves England. Her kids have grown up, she is divorced and she wants something else. So she buys a cottage in France, and wants to make a living there. But French bureaucracy is not that kind to her, but at least she makes some good friends among her neighbours. But then her sister shows up, and then there is this man...

I liked Catherine, to just leave everything behind and start anew, I could not do it. All alone up on a mountain. But she makes it work.

There neighbours are good secondary characters. The elderly woman whom Catherine drives to places, the couple further down the road, and then there is Patrick. The woodsman not far from her. There is this quite chemistry between them. They become good friends, but no one makes a move. I am not going to give anything away though. Some things needs time. You can't rush love.

Sure, not much happen, but at the same time so much happen. There is her dealings with her children, the neighbour, getting to know Patrick, and quite drama when her pretty sister shows up. There is the dealings with wanting to set up a business in a protected area, and seeing a village living on the edge. Kids don't want to become farmers, and how can then rural areas prosper?

It was a good story that kept me reading, there was a lightness to it, and humour between the lines. It's a book that make you smile.

Blodeuedd's Cover Corner: I like it, and it fits the story and the mood.

Reason for reading: From the author

Final thoughts: I liked this book,it was yes pleasant, I honestly can't come up with something else to describe reading it.