Sweet Home Summer by Michelle Vernal
Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for Sweet Home Summer by Michelle Vernal, hop aboard and take a look at this brand new publication.
Sweet Home Summer
What’s a Matchmaker? I’m thinking a really, really old Irish version of Tinder…
Isla Brookes was terrified of leading a little life in the small New Zealand town where she was born and where her gran and mum were also born and bred. To escape their fate, she breaks it off with her teenage sweetheart and runs away to London. She’s spent the last ten years climbing the interior design career ladder and meeting the wrong kind of man until one day she wakes up and wonders what it’s all been for. Leaving her latest unsuitable man and job for dust Isla winds up sitting on a beanbag in therapy at a Californian retreat, where she realises it’s time to go home.
They breed em tough on New Zealand’s West Coast. A fact Isla’s grandmother, Bridget prides herself on. Her heart was broken once, and she won’t let it happen again, but now ever since her husband passed away, someone’s been sending her Valentine’s Day cards.
When the dance hall, the scene for this heartbreak, falls into decline, Bridget decides the link to her first love must be restored even if the events of long ago can’t be put right. She’s never heard of dating apps, so in a nod to her Irish ancestry, she decides to hold a fundraising Matchmaker Festival.
Then Rohan Sullivan blows into town on a strange wind offering his services as a bona fide matchmaker; suddenly it’s time for both women to remedy the mistakes of their past.
My Review of Sweet Home Summer
This is the first book that I have read by Michelle Vernal and I have to say I loved it! The cheerful cover enticed me away from the miserable March weather we have been having in the UK, and I was transported to the small town of Bibury in New Zealand.
Isla returns to the familiar town where time stands still and the home of her grandmother Bridget. We also meet Mary and Joe, Isla’s parents and also residents of Bibury. Mary works as a Revlon consultant and sports a fetching orange tan, (which makes Bridget think of Oompa Loompas whenever she sees her). Her father Joe has a heart of gold and spends his spare time renovating his beloved Harley Davidson.
However, it is grandmother Bridget who I really connected with and I loved the time lapses back to when she was a young girl. Bridget understands her granddaughter’s wanderlust and they have a special stubbornness in common, ‘like peas in a pod’.
A warm, witty read with captivating characters, interesting location and a storyline which flowed effortlessly.
Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources, NetGalley and Michelle Vernal for organising the tour and supplying me with a copy of Sweet Home Summer in exchange for an honest review,
About Michelle Vernal
Hello, my name is Michelle Vernal, and by way of introduction, I’m Mum to Josh and Daniel and am married to the super supportive Paul. We live in the garden city of Christchurch, New Zealand with our three-legged, black cat called Blue. BC (before children) Paul and I lived and worked in Ireland, the experiences we had there have flavoured my books.
I’ve always written, but it was only after my first son was born that I decided to attend a creative writing course at Canterbury University. Oh the guilt dropping him at pre-school so I could learn the basics of story writing, but oh the joy of having conversation to contribute other than the price of nappies that week! The first piece I ever penned post course was published by a New Zealand parenting magazine. I went on to write humorous; opinion styled pieces of my take on parenting, but when the necessity for being politically correct got too much, I set myself the challenge of writing a novel. Six books later and a publishing deal with Harper Impulse here I am. These days I write for a lifestyle magazine and my latest book Sweet Home Summer has just been released by Harper Impulse.
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Thanks for this book blog tour post. I enjoyed the author biosketch section too. Will you be writing more book reviews? Best, Deborah
Hi Deborah and thank you! I’m always doing book reviews, I love reading.