#BlogTour: COMING HOME TO HOLLY CLOSE FARM @juliehouston2 @aria_fiction

Book cover Publication: 5th February 2019 – Aria

Charlie Maddison loves being an architect in London, but when she finds out her boyfriend, Dominic, is actually married, she runs back to the beautiful countryside of Westenbury and her parents.

Charlie’s sister Daisy, a landscape gardener, is also back home in desperate need of company and some fun. Their great-grandmother, Madge – now in her early nineties – reveals she has a house, Holly Close Farm, mysteriously abandoned over sixty years ago, and persuades the girls to project manage its renovation.

As work gets underway, the sisters start uncovering their family’s history, and the dark secrets that are hidden at the Farm.

A heart-breaking tale of wartime romance, jealousy and betrayal slowly emerges, but with a moral at its end: true love can withstand any obstacle, and, before long, Charlie dares to believe in love again too…

Charlotte “Charlie” Maddison has a good life. A great job as an architect for a big firm in London and a handsome boyfriend who also happens to be her boss and married with children as she discovers when she finds his wife waiting for her on her doorstep. Single, jobless, and homeless, Charlie has no choice but to move back to Yorkshire to live with her parents, her sister, and her grandmothers. Things start to turn up when her 94-year-old great-grandmother Madge asks her to supervise the renovation of her house, Holly Close Farm. The only problem? Nobody in the family seemed to know about the existence of this place. Between her new job and a new love life, Charlie hears the beautiful and emotional story of a forbidden love story set during World War II.

COMING HOME TO CLOSE FARM is a beautiful, moving, and romantic novel. I found myself laughing, especially at Charlie’s family dynamics, but there were also many emotional moments. The characters are very likable: Charlie is engaging and determined, Madge is strong-minded and sharp, Daisy, Charlie’s sister, is lively and fun, and Kate, Charlie’s mother, is entertaining and it’s the character that made me laugh most (I loved that she used to talk to her defunct father whose ashes she kept on a shelf near the gin and tonic – and not in a creepy way).

The small town setting and the characteristic farmhouse fit perfectly with the atmosphere of the story and the author’s brilliant writing keeps the reader engrossed in the novel. COMING HOME TO HOLLY CLOSE FARM is a beautiful story of true love, family, deception, and also murder. A story full of romance, secrets, and second chances and I’d like to thank Vicky and Aria for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

Julie Houston is the author of THE ONE SAVING GRACE, GOODNESS, GRACE AND ME and LOOKING FOR LUCY, a Kindle top 100 general bestseller and a Kindle #1 bestseller. She is married, with two teenage children and a mad cockerpoo and, like her heroine, lives in a West Yorkshire village. She is also a teacher and a magistrate.