Blog Tour, Book Review

A Family Affair by Julie Houston #BookReview #BlogTour #Aria #NetGalley #5*

From the bestselling author of A Village Affair comes a brand new, laugh-out-loud novel!

Joining the family business was never going to be easy…

Frankie Piccione is done running away from her responsibilities – well, for now, anyway. Two years after fleeing Westenbury with a shattered heart, it’s time to return and take up her place on the board of the family business. Piccione’s Pickles and Preserves is floundering, and Frankie knows she can turn it around.

But with her brother Luca and the new, rather attractive, Cameron Mancini watching her every move, she’s going to have to come up with something special to persuade them that she belongs on the board just as much as they do.

With the help of her Aunt Pam and best friend Daisy, Frankie begins to thrive with her new sense of purpose. Until someone from her past walks right back into her life and threatens to ruin everything…

Perfect for fans of Heidi Swain, Milly Johnson and Cathy Bramley.

Also by Julie Houston

Novels

Goodness Gracious Me

The One Saving Grace

Looking for Lucy

A Village Affair

Coming Home to Holly Close Farm

Sing Me A Secret

A Village Vacancy

Novella

An Off-Piste Christmas

A Mouth-Watering Sheer Delight!

How I’ve been looking forward to this one!

Two years ago, Frankie Piccione went travelling two years ago but now she’s back. The family business of pickles and jams needs some new input and she joins the board with the remit to sort it out. Her brother Luca and his new hire, Cameron Mancini, are watching her and she knows she needs to impress them. Settling back into life in Westenbury, her friend Daisy and her Aunt Pam make her feel at home – until a blast from the past appears and she yearns to just take off again . . .

I’ve loved every book set around Westenbury and this one is no different. With a small connection to previous characters this joins up to previous stories but it is a tale all of it’s own. Frankie is a fascinating character and I loved that we followed her both in the present whilst finding out about past events which made her look out her passport. With a wider family, a touch of romance, a lot of humour (yes, back to giggling in bed again and trying not to waken my other half), this is a sheer delight from beginning to end. I would love a map of Westenbury – I’m beginning try to imagine where everyone fits in! Oh, how I want to taste Aunt Rosina’s recipes; as someone who is very fond of everything containing lemons my mouth watered every time any dish was served containing them. Talking about dishes, Dev Patel’s name pops up more than once! I feel a gap now that I no longer have this on my list. If I absolutely had to come up with a criticism, it would be the speedy ending but then, as we all know, great books are always too short and this is, without hesitation, a five star read and one I’m so happy to recommend.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Vicky Joss for my spot on this tour; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: romantic comedy

Author Details

Julie lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at ‘Bridget Jones’ author Helen Fielding’s old junior school and her neighbour is ‘Chocolat’ author, Joanne Harris. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior school teacher. As a newly qualified teacher, broke and paying off her first mortgage, she would spend every long summer holiday working on different Kibbutzim in Israel. After teaching for a few years she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now teaches just two days a week, and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children. She has been a magistrate for the past nineteen years, and, when not distracted by Ebay, Twitter and Ancestry, spends much of her time writing. Julie is married, has a twenty-four-year-old son and twenty-one-year-old daughter and a ridiculous Cockerpoo called Lincoln. She runs and swims because she’s been told it’s good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger and a jolly good book – preferably with Matthew Mcconaughay in attendance.

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2 thoughts on “A Family Affair by Julie Houston #BookReview #BlogTour #Aria #NetGalley #5*”

  1. Grace, what a fabulous, lovely, super review for Frankie and Pam! I can’t tell you how much I adored writing this one and the sense of loss I had once I had to let Daler (Dev Patel!!) and Rob go and send them off to be published!! LOL!! Thanks, Grace you are a total pal!!
    Julie xx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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