.jpg)
A Year at Appleyard Farm by Emma Davies
Blurb
Down a winding lane lined with honeysuckle and wild flowers, there’s a beautiful orchard beside the rushing River Wye. There, in a little farmhouse in the furthest corner, a young woman has a difficult and life-changing decision to make…
Life on Appleyard Farm is all Freya Sherbourne has ever known. Having spent her childhood playing between the blossom-heavy apple trees, Freya can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. But times have been hard since her father’s sudden death, and now that she’s being forced to put the farm up for sale, her world is about to come crashing down.
Holding back the tears, she starts packing boxes while waiting for a buyer. Now the river no longer sparkles and the apples taste a little less sweet. She hasn’t felt this lost since she ran from the altar fifteen years ago to escape a loveless marriage.
Review
Four stories in one, but all connected, with favourite characters dipping in and out, this is a lovely compilation. The farm features throughout, and draws the various stories together, and serving as a backdrop.
Running through three of the stories is a faint seam of otherworldliness, which adds a flavour of the paranormal to spice up events. The fourth deviates from this - instead, the main female character has a disability that is central to the plot, and I think this was my favourite out of the four.
I loved the friendship between the women, their new ventures, and, of course, the romances which bookended the whole thing.
About the Author
After a varied career, Emma Davies once worked for a design studio where she was asked to provide a fun and humorous (and not necessarily true) anecdote for their website. She wrote the following: 'I am a bestselling novelist currently masquerading as a thirty something mother of three.' Well the job in the design studio didn't work out but she's now a forty something mother of three and is happy to report the rest of her dream came true.
After many years as a finance manager she now writes full time, and is far happier playing with words than numbers. She lives with her husband, three children, and two guinea pigs in rural Shropshire where she writes in all the gaps in between real life. It's a county she adores, her love of its beautiful people and landscapes providing endless inspiration for her books, and in fact the only thing that would make Shropshire more idyllic is if it were by the sea.
Pop over to her website www.emmadaviesauthor.com where, amongst other things, you can read about her passion for Pringles and singing loudly in the car. You can also wave to her on twitter @EmDaviesAuthor or find her on Facebook (a little too often than is good for her).
