Widower, Dr David Adams, has recently moved to the village – where no one knows him, ergo there's no fuel for neighbourhood gossip – to start afresh with is ten year old son, if only he can get to a place where his son wants to speak to him. Angry and withdrawn, Jake blames his dad for the death of his mother, and David doesn't know how to reach him.
Andrea Kelly has too many balls in the air. With three children and a "nuts" mother to care for, her fiancé can't fathom why she wants to throw something else into the mix and change her career. Surely she already has too much on her plate? Because her plates are skew-whiff and her balls are dropping off all over the place, Andrea points out. She needs to make changes. Still her fiancé, who has a hidden agenda, is dead-set against it.
When Andrea's house burns mysteriously to the ground and Andrea and her entourage are forced to move in with the enigmatic Dr Adams, however, the village drums soon start beating, fuel aplenty when it turns out someone does know him – the woman carrying his baby.
Andrea Kelly first meets her new neighbour, Doctor David Adams under rather awkward circumstances; her somewhat bonkers mother is inspecting the tax disc of his car and giving him the short end of her temper. He also is not in the best of moods as his young son, Jake, is making life difficult for him. They are having problems interacting after the death of Jake's mother. Andrea Kelly, who is also a teacher at Jake's school notices the problems between them and begins to worry that things in the household are not what they should be, especially with the good doctor's temper seeming incredibly short.
Andrea is not having an easy time either, she is at the end of her tether with her poor mum, Dee, as she is getting very forgetful and doing worryingly out of character things, so much so that Andrea's had to move her in with them, and her fiancé Jonathan is not happy about it, making out that Dee is far worse and more dangerous than she really is, and aside from that she has her three children to care for.
She is desperate for change and wants to open up a new venture, a pre-loved designer clothes shop, but Jonathan is very discouraging and not at all supportive. Her dreams are shattered when her house catches fire. Luckily the mysterious and aloof Dr. Adams is there to rescue all her family.
As Andrea stays with David, she uncovers the secrets tearing him apart and the root causes of his problems with Jake, and learns a little about herself along the way.
I loved this book, I loved watching the characters develop and the relationships grow, my favourite was the blossoming brotherly relationship between Ryan, Andrea's eldest son and Jake as he manages to break down the walls the boy has built. I also loved to see Dee save the day when things take a possibly tragic turn for the worst.
The ending was perfect, I loved the way it was written and I think the storyline was extremely well written. I would highly recommend it!
Find Sheryl here on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SherylBrowne
Here on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sheryl.browne.1?fref=ts
Sheryl's other books -
