Wednesday 9 September 2020

Hopeful Hearts at Glendale Hall by Victoria Walters

 


Heather Douglas appears to have it all. But living on a farm in the Scottish Highlands with her partner, Rory Fraser, all while bringing up their adorable toddler, Harry, isn’t easy. As a former librarian, Heather is worried that she’ll never fully fit into life on Fraser Farm. And after the death of her beloved mum eight years ago, Heather feels lost, as well as guilty for holding back accepting Rory’s marriage proposal because she can’t imagine her wedding without her mother.

So when ex-boyfriend, Stewart, appears in the village of Glendale, it’s a shock to the system. The man who broke her heart years ago now has big plans for the neighbouring farm and wants Heather to be part of the development. Knowing that she’s living a very different life to the one they had planned at university leaves Heather wondering if she has made the right choices since she and Stewart broke up. Especially when things start to go very wrong on the farm ...

This Christmas, Heather will need to face her fears and let go of the past or risk losing everything. She will need love, faith, and a whole lot of hope!



Hopeful Hearts at Glendale Hall is the latest release by Victoria Walters and sees us returning to Glendale on our third visit, reuniting us with some much loved and familiar faces. This time Heather is taking the lead role and as we peel back the layers that Heather has hidden behind, we begin to see the real Heather and she really did touch my heart.

Heathers first love Stewart unexpectedly arrives in Glendale which stirs up a whole heap of emotions for Heather. Stewart has plans for the neighbouring farm which could have a detrimental effect on Rory and Heathers farm so when Stewart offers for Heather to come onboard in the set up of the farm she contemplates taking the job to protect their farm but will there be too many emotions involved that could make Heathers world crumble?

Victoria Walters always excels in creating such strong believable and supportive friendships in her novels and this novel continues to show the strong bond between Heather, Beth and Emily. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses but they are always there with a listening ear and will always support each other in everything they face.

I sympathised so much with Heather and as we got to know more about her character unravelling the layers behind which her anxiety and vulnerabilities lie I felt like I warmed to her character. It became clear as the storyline flowed that events from her past had had an effect on her which has had an effect on her confidence and self-belief and that’s why with each little step she took and each little nugget of positivity she created with her Instagram posts she slowly started to believe in herself and was beginning to find out that she truly does belong on the farm and that although she may not be the most natural at day to day farm life others skills she has can still help in a big way.

Rory really is the perfect patient loveable and hardworking man and I have to say at times I did feel sorry for him and disappointed in Heather.

The storyline also looks at how grief can hold you back in certain aspects of your life but that sometimes it can just take one thing to change your mindset and look at something in a different way that will then help you to move forward and gently let go.

I enjoyed this visit to Glendale getting to know Heather, Rory and Harry a little more as well as catching up with the other characters to see how things are changing for them too. This book gets another thumbs up from me.



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 Head over to Love the Smell of a Book and Ginger Book Geek blogs today to read their thoughts on this novel.

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