Book review The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey 

 

Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!

 

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yields a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.

 

So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.

 

But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…

 

As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…

 

A gorgeously escapist read from the bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse, perfect for fans of Veronica Henry, Jo Thomas and Fiona Valpy.

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

My Review

The Bordeaux Book Club is another engaging read from Gillian Harvey that I looked forward to falling into each evening. As well as the relatable characters we meet at Grace’s inaugural book club, the cameos played by the heroes and heroines of the classics they chose to read, totally ticked my book worm boxes, and had me adding a reread of some of these books to my ‘to be read’ pile.

 

The book group are a mix of ages and personalities, most of whom would never have crossed paths with each other without the initiative of Grace. Things may have begun a little awkwardly at first, but they soon appreciated the new friendships they found. This book cleverly weaves many aspects of life in France and the adjustments needed when you arrive in a new country, into a plot where friendship is at its heart. It is emotional, with the ups and downs of life changes for them all, but most especially Alfie. It is also a book about books, well-known characters and the power of the great classics and what they can teach us today. 

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

I can’t work out whether I was amused or horrified that I saw a little bit of me in bossy Grace, the association queen, Monica, a stay-at-home mum whose husband works away, and Leah, doing her best to juggle a veggie garden, chickens, and family life, despite the hard work and many setbacks thrown her way. I’m putting this down to Gillian’s expert eye on the British arrivals she has met over many years of living in France and nothing to do with the life I’ve carved out for myself here these last twenty years being weird enough to be a book plot….

 

Grace especially stole my heart with her wise words to the others, when they needed them most, so I thought I’d share my favourite quote here:

 

“But that’s why it’s important to have a good relationship with yourself. To be your own champion, cheerleader. To be the person who forces you to get up, to go out and try something new.” 

 

If, like me, you have devoured Gillian’s previous books (see below), or are a lover of classic authors like Bronte, Dickens or Flaubert, I am sure you will get a lot of enjoyment and entertainment by joining The Bordeaux Book Club. I know that I want to move to Bordeaux just to join Grace’s book club!

 

Previous books by Gillian Harvey:

A Month in Provence 

The French Château Escape 

One French Summer 

A Year at the French Farmhouse 

 

Purchase links

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

 

Amazon UK link 

 

Gillian Harvey

About the author

Internationally best-selling author of contemporary, emotionally compelling and humorous commercial fiction.

 

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The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

 

Book review Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Wow, what a read! This is a beautifully written memoir about an incredibly difficult time for Caro and husband Sean, that will stay with me for a while. This international, career-focussed couple decided in their thirties that parenthood was something they wanted, despite it not having been the focus of their five-year plan. Their life was in Dublin, their families in South Africa and Canada, but with a network of good friends with young children, Caro had support during her pregnancy. 

 

Following her journey from no bump to maternity leave, and then their arrival at the hospital, brought back so many vivid memories of my pregnancy, Ed’s birth and those early days of breastfeeding and motherhood. We had our dramas and tears, but nothing to compare to the devastating news Caro and Sean received that saw their baby daughter being whisked off to the special care baby unit with her future uncertain. 

 

Caro bravely shares this emotional and heart stopping time openly and honestly. The wait between diagnosis and operation, the long road towards recovery, even when reading it, time seemed to slow down, but I couldn’t put this book down. With so much to take in it must have terrifying – was there anything that could be done, would it be successful, what would her outcome be? So many questions, so much at stake and so much trust that had to be given to the incredible medical team they found themselves surrounded by. Everything compounded by pregnancy hormones. I was heartbroken for them, at the trauma and pain they had to go through at what should have been such a happy time for the family.

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

 

Having ‘met’ the Feely family through reading Caro’s previous memoirs about their life on an organic vineyard in France, it is no surprise that a lot of this book is dedicated to their learning curve in this area. Caro questions her old lifestyle decisions, diet, and anything else she can think of to understand what could have caused baby Sophia’s problems. She shares her reasons for ditching the ready meals and going organic, backed up by her now vast knowledge in this field. She also shares her struggles with breastfeeding, giving a real account of how testing and painful something so natural can be.

It was certainly more complicated for her when Sophia was in intensive care, but the benefits to both mother and baby soon become obvious, even in these difficult and unusual circumstances.

 

Any parent will feel the tug of emotions as they read this book. I also came away with a stronger appreciation for the miracle that is life and a greater understanding of how precious it is and how every day must be treasured and lived to the full. 

Thank you, Caro for sharing yours and Sophia’s incredible story.

 

You can read my reviews of Caro’s previous memoirs here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions (previously known as Glass Half Full)

Cultivating Change 

My France et Moi interview

Amazon purchase links for Caro’s memoirs can be found here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions 

Cultivating Change

Saving Sophia 

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

Book review Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

This is the fourth memoir from Caro Feely set on her family’s organic vineyard near Bordeaux and once again, she has written a book that really hit home as I read it and spoke to me on a level not all memoirs do. 

Cultivating Change is so much more than an update on their family and wine-making journey, it is a punchy, inspiring read that highlights the climate change problem viewed from organic farmers on the front-line. Recent summers saw not only severe hailstorms hitting the vineyards around Bordeaux (something that is becoming more common), but the area has also been victim to huge forest fires that devastated acres of woodland as they burned for weeks. 

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

 

As well as sharing their interesting and inspiring life in France, Caro takes us along with her as she attends conferences to speak about climate change issues. It is an honest account of the good times as well as their stresses and personal struggles. I learned a lot from this book, about the issues they are facing on a daily basis, and also ideas on how to make more changes to our life. Thermals rather than too much heating, and bikes over cars have been the norm for us for many years, but I realise there is more we can do. It was good to know that there are others out that who share my fears about the gravity of the situation we have created in the world.

 

I hope that as well as her regular readers enjoying a catch-up on life at the vineyard, the climate change element in this book will give it the wider audience it deserves.

You can read my reviews of Caro’s previous memoirs here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions (previously known as Glass Half Full)

My France et Moi interview

Amazon purchase links for Caro’s memoirs can be found here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions 

Cultivating Change

Saving Sophia  

Book review Monsieur Moonlight by Lise McClendon

Monsieur Moonlight by Lise McClendon

Monsieur Moonlight by Lise McClendon

 

What a great start to a New Year of reading, slipping into the pages of a new book, with familiar characters and a cracker of a mystery. Monsieur Moonlight is the nineteenth book in Lise McClendon’s Bennett Sisters Mysteries series, that I fell in love with in book one, Blackbird Fly.

 

Merle and Pascal are busy people and adding a new property with a vineyard, Château des Corbeaux, only increased their workload, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. It was Pascal’s dream to make his own wine and in this book they continue to settle into life at château, tending the vines in spring as well as working on their accommodation. In a previous novel, they had found some long-hidden treasures on the land that they’d donated to a museum in Paris, and it seems that adventure isn’t quite done with them yet.

 

As Pascal spreads himself thinly between Merle, the vineyard and his wine fraud investigation work in Bordeaux, things take a sinister turn at work. While not directly involved in the enquiry that follows the sudden death of a collegue, he and Merle can’t help but feel something has been missed out and are soon delving into the detail.

 

As Merle busies herself making the château their special place, a mystery visitor makes an unexpected appearance, dragging up Pascal’s childhood. This proves to be yet another problem for him to solve, and Merle to cope with in her own way.

Monsieur Moonlight by Lise McClendon

 

I do love the chemistry between these two. Their enquiring minds, sixth sense for trouble, and dogged determination to solve a mystery and right a wrong, are perfectly balanced with their tenderness for each other and their pure enjoyment of a good wine, a delicious homecooked meal, or a special dinner out together.

 

Set in the Dordogne, Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast, both location and food play strong roles, and I couldn’t think of better destinations to escape to in January. This book would be best accompanied by a full-bodied glass of Bordeaux’s finest red wine.

 

Thank you, Lise for yet another gripping update to Merle and Pascal’s exciting lives.

Here are some Amazon purchase links: 

Monsieur Moonlight

 

Blackbird Fly 

 

Chateau des Corbeaux 

 

Bennett Sisters Mysteries series 

 

French-themed reading bingo

This year I’ve set myself a reading challenge bingo, with twenty-five different types of French themed books to tick off. Monsieur Moonlight fits for a few categories, but I think I’ll tick off “A mystery set in France”.

 

If you fancy joining in, here is my bingo card:

 

My French-themed reading bingo card 2024

 

Book review of One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

 

Only child out of the house – so far out that she’s gone all the way to Australia! A husband, who has requested a break. Life isn’t quite going as planned for Katy.

 

She’s suddenly at a loss, but she still has her friends Sam, Vicky and Ivy. The girls have been there for her through thick and they’re not about to stop now. However, they think Katy might need more than boot camp . . . so they kidnap her and head off to France on a last minute retreat.

 

Can a reset give her a new lease on life or help her win back her husband? Or could there be a new love in her life?

 

She went for a holiday, but it could become the start of a second chance . . . 

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

My Review

This is a book about a middle-aged wife and mother struggling to come to terms with the changes thrust upon her, and Katy was a great character, whose story tugged at my heart strings. What I especially loved was the dynamics between the group of friends, and that it was this friendship group who were core to the story, not the rest of Katy’s family. I didn’t always agree with the choices she made, but I did understand 100% why she made the decisions she did. It was easy as the book moved on, to want her to find the happiness she deserved.

 

As her friends whisk her off for an art retreat, they are all on the verge of learning more about each other and themselves and I felt like I was there alongside them. France as a location ticked all my boxes as they perfected their techniques on the canvas with the local market, cafés, vineyards and more, providing the perfect backdrops. Then there was the romance of France, found in the stones of an abandoned cottage, the meals eaten on a poolside terrace, or in the promise of a new direction. It was easy to fall under the spell.

 

If you would like to escape the winter gloom, you are sure to enjoy basking in the warm glow that One French Summer will leave you with.

Purchase Links

Amazon 

 

Gillian Harvey

Author Bio

 

Gillian Harvey is a freelance journalist and the author of two well-reviewed women’s fiction novels published by Orion. She has lived in Limousin France for the past twelve years, from where she derives the inspiration and settings for her books. Her first title for Boldwood A Year at the French Farmhouse was published in September 2022 (read my review here).

 

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One French Summer by Gillian Harvey

 

Book review Chateau des Corbeaux by Lise McClendon

Château des Corbeaux by Lise McClendon

Château des Corbeaux

 

Locations: Dordogne and Bordeaux

 

Lise McClendon has done it again. I can’t remember what year I read Blackbird Fly, book one in the Bennett Sisters series, but I can still recall where I sat and how much I enjoyed it. Every new book, and this one is number seventeen, deepens my relationship with Merle Bennett and her French partner Pascal d’Onscon, as well as leaving me wanting more.

 

As Pascal nears his 50^th birthday, life is getting him down. He loves his job as wine fraud investigator but detests that he is now more office based than out in the field. The tiny rented flat close to his office in Bordeaux holds no appeal, but neither does the alternative of leaving Merle alone during the week, in her cottage in a bastide town in the Dordogne. His dream of growing his own grapes and making his own wine seems impossible, but driving between Bordeaux and Merle, he can’t help but be drawn to one vineyard in particular, Château des Corbeaux. 

 

Life is never dull for Merle and Pascal, there is always something cropping up in their personal lives that overlaps somewhat with Pascal’s work. When trouble hits the British owners of Château des Corbeaux, they might just need Merle and Pascal’s assistance to unravel a mystery, right a wrong and save the vines.

 

Pascal and Merle now feel like good friends, and I enjoy every page back in their company, sharing a chilled glass of rosé or a meal cooked by Merle, as well as seeing France through their eyes. I love the little nuances of ‘real’ France and French ways that Lise weaves into the storyline, giving her books a rounded sense of place. I feel I am there, with someone who has a deep understanding of how things tick in France. 

 

Travelling to France with Lise is more than just reading a romantically penned location in a novel.

 

I can’t wait to join Merle and Pascale for more adventures again soon. If you enjoy a good mystery with lots of delicious food and wine on the side, I’m sure you would love Château des Corbeaux, or any of the Bennett Sisters books. You can read more about the books in this series on Lise’s website here or follow her on Facebook here. 

 

 

Book review of The Women Who Ran Away by Sheila O'Flanagan

The Women Who Ran Away Sheila O'Flanagan

 

The Women Who Ran Away by Sheila O’Flanagan

 

THE NO. 1 IRISH BESTSELLER!

'One of my favourite authors' Marian Keyes

'If you've had to cancel your holiday plans this summer, don't worry - this beautiful new novel will transport you to sunnier climes...' - HEAT'S READ OF THE WEEK

In Sheila O'Flanagan's stunning new novel, two women face up to shocking truths about the men they've loved - and start to make their own decisions about what to do next...

Deira isn't the kind of woman to steal a car. Or drive to France alone with no plan. But then, Deira didn't expect to be single. Or to suddenly realise that the only way she can get the one thing she wants most is to start breaking every rule she lives by.

Grace has been sent on a journey by her late husband, Ken. She doesn't really want to be on it but she's following his instructions, as always. She can only hope that the trip will help her to forgive him. And then - finally - she'll be able to let him go.

Brought together by unexpected circumstances, Grace and Deira find that it's easier to share secrets with a stranger, especially in the shimmering sunny countryside of Spain and France. But they soon find that there's no escaping the truth, whether you're running away from it or racing towards it . . .

 

The Women Who Ran Away paperback release 4th March 2021

My review

This was such an easy book to get into, but a difficult one to put down. 

 

Grace and Deira were engaging characters, thrown together on the ferry from Ireland to France; two very different women, in the similar situation of holidaying alone whilst coping with the traumatic grief that comes with unexpected life-changing events. 

 

They form an unlikely bond as they both try to unravel their thoughts and work out what comes next in life, while solving the clues to a rather unusual treasure hunt. As they make their way from Nantes, to La Rochelle, Bordeaux and down through Spain to Cartagena, their journey takes them to museums and cafés where the lives of literary greats including Jules Verne, George Simenon, Earnest Hemmingway and Cervantes are remembered. This book actually made me want to look up these authors and learn more about their works and especially the places in France they were connected to. I found myself thinking about the clues and the characters even when I’d put the book down, and as much of this book is set in the west of France, close to home for me, it was great to glean some new understanding of some of my favourite places to visit. 

 

This book is more than just a literary road trip, it takes us on an emotional journey too. The destructive emotions we all experience when situations beyond our control throw our lives into chaos, like grief, anger, hurt and regret, were normalised as Grace and Deira learned to put the past behind them and began their road to recovery.

 

I was sorry to get to the end of the journey with them but felt a lovely sense of peace and calm descend in my head when I finished the book.

 

The Women Who Ran Away is available in ebook and paperback formats and if you enjoy a good book that will whisk you along on a journey and open your mind to new experiences, then this is one for you.

 

Purchase Links

Sheila O'Flanagan

 

Author Bio

Sheila O’Flanagan is the author of bestselling chart-toppers, including Her Husband’s Mistake, The Hideaway, What Happened That Night, The Missing Wife, My Mother’s Secret and All For You (winner of the Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award). After working in banking and finance for a number of years, Sheila’s love for writing blossomed into curating stories about relationships in all their many forms.

 

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The Women Who Ran Away
Publication Day Push 4th March 2021

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE WOMEN WHO RAN AWAY:

'Didn't want it to end' *****

'I would have given this 6 stars if I could'

'Within the first chapter, I had left reality and social distancing behind and joined two amazing women on a life-changing adventure' *****

'A great summer read'

'Five stars all the way!' *****

'Sheila O'Flanagan never disappoints' *****

'Fantastic read!'

'Couldn't put this book down!'

French Village Diaries reviews of books set in France

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day twenty-nine

Macron addresses the nation

Day twenty-nine

President Macron’s third address

Last night we gathered as a family to listen to President Macron’s third public address in just over four weeks. It came on the day that the number of deaths in France reached almost 15,000 people, and with 32,000 currently being treated in intensive care.

He began by thanking France. Those who work in the health sector, those who are working in other essential roles, those who are volunteering, those who are keeping the country going and those who are doing their bit by staying at home. He stressed he can offer only hope for the coming weeks as nothing has yet been won in the battle with Covid-19, but research, planning and making decisions are being made a priority.

Our period of confinement has been extended once more, for another four weeks until 11^th May, but he is hopeful by then we can enter a new era where France will begin to open, bit by bit, beginning with schools and nurseries. He has given no date for the opening of bars, restaurants etc and there will be no large social events or gatherings until at least the middle of July. The most vulnerable were advised to remain at home, for their own safety, after 11^th May.

The next two weeks will be crucial for the government to plan for life after confinement, in terms of financial aid packages, virus testing and vaccination research and treatments, but he was honest when he said there are no answers to the big question of what lies ahead. He urged France to remain united and come out stronger and more united than we were before.

For me, it was a powerful message that conveyed the severity of the situation as well as offering some hope for a future, without making promises that would be hard to fulfil. 

Looking back to the first announcement of a two-week period of confinement, I am not sure what I was expecting, but as the weeks have gone by and the world has changed, visualising things going back to how they were is impossible. I certainly hadn’t planned to blog every day for over a month when I began this daily update, but now I am into a rhythm, I’m going to attempt to keep it going for as long as I can. Even now, as weekdays roll into weekends and public holidays pass unnoticed, I can’t remember what I did and when I did it. I’ve already found myself reading back on those first few weeks and it’s interesting to see how life flows between days when things felt good, and days that didn’t. This has become my record to look back on as proof it happened and to see how I was feeling and what I filled my days doing. Your kind words of thanks and encouragement, here on the blog and on Facebook and Twitter are also great motivators to keep writing. Thank you.

#KTTinyTourer Bordeaux to Toulouse April 2019

April holiday memory

On 14^th April last year we set off from Bordeaux to cycle to Toulouse, our first Brompton touring adventure. We left the hotel in air just moist enough to dampen our spirits, but not wet enough to call rain. Bordeaux wasn’t looking her best that Sunday morning; jaded after a night of partying and in a bit of a state with broken glass on the cycle paths and underpasses stinking of piss. The perched carrolet fishing huts in various states of disrepair were soon replaced with smart villas, partially hidden behind impressive gates, giving a clean and tidy contrast to the muddy banks of the Gironde river. Sunday morning Bordeaux cyclists were as miserable as Bordeaux herself, never acknowledging our bonjours and giving the impression that fast-paced, Lycra racers are too good for small-wheeled tourers. 

Bordeaux vineyards 14th April 2019

Once we reached the old railway line that is now the Roger Lapépé voie verte, everyone was much friendlier, especially the café that wasn’t quite open, but served us coffees with homemade biscuits anyway. We know from experience that many old railway cycle routes are hidden in cuttings with nothing to see except the straight path ahead, this one was refreshingly different. With many open stretches where we cycled between vineyards, with views of chateaux and church spires in the distance, I was sad to leave it behind when we reached the end of the line in Sauveterre, but more than happy to refuel on hot chocolate when we struck gold, an open café in rural France on a Sunday afternoon.

Lockdown Library

My reading selection today is the memoir series from Caro Feely, about buying and running an organic vineyard in Saussignac, not far from Bordeaux.

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins
Glass Half Full