A Bloomy Head (Regency Cheesemakers Book 1)

What a ride!!! Loved it! I loved Kate and Thomas and the Gravenors. I especially loved the cows, I kinda wish they’d gotten a little more of the limelight. I would very much like a sequel. Pretty please.

I absolutely adored this book, and all the characters. I desperately hope there’s more in the series! It’s well written and intriguing and I laughed so many times throughout.

Recently widowed Kate is forced to move back to her family's dilapidated farm which she hopes to revitalize with making cheese in the French style. Recently injured Dr Thomas is brought home to the same farm by Kate's brother to recover. Love happens. Also, murder. And the wicked machinations of a dastardly villain. What is the family and visitor to do? It's a simple enough premise that turns into a wild complication of mysteries and the sort of eccentric personalities that one finds in small rural communities. This book is dark and wonderful and hilarious in turns, and sometimes simultaneously. I honestly laughed and cried at the same time during some parts. The mystery is complicated enough to keep you guessing but still satisfyingly resolved after a good buildup of tension. The romance is delightful. All the characters felt very real and grounded - they all had faults that made me want to shake them, and they were all the more relatable and loveable for that. The pacing is good with some nice pauses to catch one's breath between plot twists. The baddy was brilliantly hateful and got what was coming in the end. The French was enjoyably vulgar and idiomatic (if the book has one flaw it's that non-French speakers might like some translation, it's not essential to the plot, but it's great fun - maybe endnotes). I can't say enough good things about this book. I want to eat that cheese! I'm looking forward to re-reading it to pick up all the many, many details I'm sure I…