Promise Me: The most heart-warming novel of 2023

Product Information

In dit nieuwste boek van Jill Mansell maken we kennis met Lou, maar zoals altijd in de verhalen van Jill, ook met andere interessante personages. Meanwhile Sammy’s brother Remy has begun to catch Lou’s eye. Handsome and charming, with women falling at his feet, Lou is determined that she will not become another notch on his bedpost. Resisting temptation is not easy! Naast deze hoofdpersonages volg je ook Lou’s jeugdvriend Sammy, die graag een beroemde zanger wil worden, zijn aantrekkelijke broer Remy en een oude bekende van Edgar, een bont en boeiend gezelschap, de één sympathieker dan de ander. De leuk neergezette personages brengen leven in de brouwerij, creëren opschudding en drama maar zijn er ook voor elkaar, ze zorgen voor verrassingen en schuwen grote gebaren niet. Hierdoor blijft het verhaal afwisselend, wordt het geen moment saai en worden de verschillende perspectieven mooi met elkaar verbonden, al had ik over enkele elementen en achtergronden graag nog uitgebreider willen lezen. In fact is was Red Masons' story that possibly intrigued me the most early on, he is a real character, and it felt as though he was rather charismatic even while being rather frail. His son Shay is the reason for the book's title, and I really enjoyed the various dimensions to his personality too.

MY REVIEW: Hurrah! The new year can now officially begin, because we have a brand spanking new read from Jill Mansell to devour. En ondanks de voorspelbaarheid van het genre, weet Jill je in dit verhaal toch weer te verrassen met wat leuke en spannende twists in het verhaal. Covered in trifle.’ Lou winced; she hadn’t meant to utter those words aloud. They’d spilled out in response to the mental image her brain had conjured up.There’s something on the floor. It’s like an ice rink.’ Crouching, she tested the surface with her hand. ‘Did you spill oil on it?’

They’re building a snowman , sharing a bottle of Prosecco, getting know each other, getting so close to share an intimate kiss: yes, we’re introduced to our MCs: Didi and Shane at the first chapter but then we move forward: 13 years later, Didi works at her family hotel in Cotswolds, getting engaged for the third time, bumping into her first love Shane who stays at the most expensive hotel suit: the same boy whose father was in prison, suffering from poverty, working at several jobs to keep roof over his head at his young age becomes a tech millionaire. Lou heaved a sigh. This was getting silly now; she’d got herself into a situation with a truculent pensioner who was a stranger to manners. And much as she wanted to say no to his demand, her conscience wasn’t letting her.I did have someone. She left, same as all the rest of them.’ He pointed at an area beneath a chair. ‘You missed a bit.’ Fast Friends is her earliest book which was published in 1991. It is a book which is readable and still resonates with the current generation. It is about life on the fast lane. The plot is very intriguing and as is common with her novels the lead characters are female such as Camilla Stewart and Roz Vallender.

I love Jill Mansell’s sweet, heartfelt romcoms and I’m looking forward to read more of her works in near future. Dit verhaal bracht mij pure ontspanning. Het kwam precies op het juiste moment. Rijkelijk gevuld met feelgood, doorspekt met humor, soms wat voorspelbaar én toch ook een beetje hartverscheurend. Jill Mansell heeft weer een succesformule op het papier weten te vangen die het begin van de lente inluidt. She found a pen on the dresser along with a battered tear-off pad. When she placed them in front of him, Edgar said, ‘You can write it. Six mornings a week, general cleaning, cooking and helping out.’ He paused, then added generously, ‘They can have Sundays off.’ Lou wrote everything down as he dictated his phone number. When it came to the hourly rate, she said, ‘Employers generally pay a bit more than that,’ and with a sigh of annoyance, he upped it.De immer knorrige Edgar heeft echter wel een voorwaarde, waar Lou over moet zwijgen. Kan Lou zich aan die belofte houden? Not forgetting an equally grumpy chihuahua to give Edgar a run for his money, and her best friend who may finally be about to get a break from an unlikely source. So ten minutes ago you thought I was a mugger, yet now you’re happy for me to poke around your house.’ Bijna iedereen die feelgood-boeken leest, heeft weleens iets gelezen van Jill Mansell of in ieder geval haar naam gehoord. En terecht, want het zijn heerlijke boeken voor in de zomer. Haar humoristische romans zijn vermakelijk, gemakkelijk te lezen en uiteraard grappig. De cover van het boek straalt ook een en al vrolijkheid uit.

Jill Mansell is a incredibly talented author who has delivered flawless books over and over again and her latest novel Promise Me is no exception. We have the warmth and depth of emotion that we are accustomed to in Jill’s novels but there is also a modern spark to this storyline too. I loved both of the characters a lot and I truly wished their HEA but Didi was already engaged with Aaron and after the love triangle problem seemed to be solved when she broke up, Shane found an adorable actress to date which pissed me off a little! The last thing Lou wants is to move to a tiny Cotswolds village. She certainly doesn’t intend to work for curmudgeonly eighty-year-old Edgar Allsopp. But Edgar is about to make her the kind of promise nobody could ignore. In return, she secretly vows to help him fall in love with life again. Lou is een personage om wie je meteen gaat geven: ze heeft een groot hart, tomeloze energie en een positieve instelling, ze is zorgzaam en altijd op zoek naar manieren om andere mensen gelukkig te maken, al laat ze daardoor ook wel eens over zich heen lopen en is ze redelijk naïef, ondanks alles wat ze heeft meegemaakt. Haar omgang met de knorrige en botte maar eenzame Edgar maakt je vrolijk, ze zorgt ervoor dat hij weer onderdeel van de gemeenschap wordt en bezorgt hem echte blijdschap door een nieuwe vriend op zijn pad te brengen: de lastige hond Captain Oates, die voor grappige en ontroerende momenten zorgt en de held van het verhaal wordt.After a second’s startled silence, Edgar gave a bark of laughter. It sounded rusty, as if he wasn’t used to doing it, which didn’t exactly come as a surprise. He put down his mug, sloshing tea over the rim onto the table. Lou's relationship with her best friend, Sammy, and his older brother, Remy (who she's been harboring feelings for since their younger days) was one of the highlights of the story. And Captain Oates, of course! Truly man's best friend, in this case, Edgar - their relationship was so wholesome, so very sweet, so very sad at Edgar's final moments, that had me tearing up. He sighed as loudly as if she’d asked him to run a marathon. ‘I’d need them here more often than that.’ Hoe voorspelbaar ze ook zijn, het is steeds weer een feestje om haar boeken te lezen en zo dus ook ‘Het zonnetje in huis’.