I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Heidi's latest book today.
Fliss Brown has grown up living with her mother on the Rossi family’s Italian fruit farm. But when her mother dies, Fliss finds out she has a family of her own, and heads back to England with Nonna Rossi’s recipe for cherry and almond tart and a piece of advice: connect with your family before it is too late…
Fliss discovers that her estranged grandfather owns a fruit farm himself, on the outskirts of Wynbridge, and she arrives to find a farm that has fallen into disrepair. Using her knowledge gleaned from working on the Rossi farm and her desire to find out more about her past, Fliss rolls her sleeves up and gets stuck in. But what will she discover, and can she resurrect the farm’s glory days and find a taste of home…?
Heidi's books are the sort of books that I have come to crave over the past few years. You start a new one knowing from the outset that they are going to be lovely and whilst they are always a new story you know there is going to be familiarity in the setting and in the secondary characters who pop up who are often those whose story you have already read. In the awful year we've all had I think we've all needed that bit of comfort and Heidi's books are always my comfort read. I save them up for weekends when I can lay in bed just that bit longer and gobble them up in one greedy sitting.
A Taste of Home was no exception. In short I loved it completely and it will be a strong contender for my book of the year (lol as if there is ever one book of the year - I can never be that mean to all the booksies).
A Taste of home focuses on new character Fliss who has arrived in Wynbridge looking for her family who she has never met. The story that unfolds sees Fliss get to know her grandfather and and then she sets about trying to help him get his fruit farm back on track. I particularly loved seeing the relationship between the two develop over the course of the book and seeing Fliss find a home in a new foreign setting to her previous life.
I was the type of child who loved reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five books. While the adventure was all very well I particularly loved all the scenes featuring the food, the food they were eating on picnics, what they were planning to take camping and I think one of the reasons why I love Heidi's books (and this one particularly so) as it appeals to that bit of my brain completely. This book features so much food. When reading it I could almost taste the strawberries and I'm now desperately awaiting the summer season to kick in when I can get hold of some as there's nothing more joyless that imported ones.
I would be amiss if I didn't mention Elliot somewhere in this review. He's a certain kind of special and I loved every scene with him. I loved seeing the friendship between him and Fliss develop over the course of the book but I also particularly loved how he flips the stereotype of carers being a male motorbike riding carer. Seeing his work looking after Fliss's Grandfather was really lovely.
All in all I loved this book do yourself a favour and get hold of a copy.
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