3.5* I really enjoyed the book but felt the ending was a little rushed. ( )

A very enjoyable character-based book set mainly in Somerset. Two feuding families find themselves meeting, in various circumstances, and then having to sort out a complicated inheritance.

While I couldn't relate very well to the main female character, she felt very believable. I could relate better to her cousin and cousin's parents, but several of the people in this book got under my skin and I found it quite difficult to put down. Just as well as the family relationships are quite complicated, and some of them not quite what they seem.

Definitely recommended if you like this genre of women's fiction.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-home-from-home-by-veronica-henry.... ( )

What a gorgeous feel-good book A Home From Home is. I loved, loved, loved it.

The Melchiors and the Culbones have been enemies for generations. It all started when a Culbone stole a Melchiors' girl from under his nose. The family legend often gets told, even now. Rushbrook House is on one side of the river in Somerset and Dragonfly Farm is on the other and ideally never the twain shall meet.

First of all, can I just say how well-portrayed the setting is in this book. Even though both houses are a bit decrepit, it still all came across as beautiful and magical and idyllic. Tabitha and Georgia are cousins. Tabitha is a bit of a wild one, living at Dragonfly Farm, picking apples from the orchard and making cider amongst several other jobs. Georgia is a script editor with ambitions to maybe become a scriptwriter. When their great-uncle dies they are left a third of Dragonfly Farm each. To their shock and surprise, the other third is left to a Culbone, Gabriel.

I loved all three of these characters, all so well-drawn and three-dimensional and all the kind of people I think it would be a pleasure to know. Gabriel has no idea why he has been left a third of the farm but it does become apparent as the story progresses and it's such an intriguing aspect to it.

A Home From Home feels very much like the first Veronica Henry book I read, Honeycote as it was then (it's been renamed A Country Christmas). It has the extended family feel, the coming together of the members of that family and that cosy family business side to it. I think this is something that this author does incredibly well. There's such a warmth to this book and it gave me a really happy, fuzzy feeling when I got to the end.

It's completely delightful and taps into those dreams that many of us have of a country escape and living off the land in a beautiful place with close family and friends around us. Family secrets are revealed, and new relationships are forged. This book is a real treat from beginning to end and I'll say it again, I loved it! ( )