Rambling About.. Bella Osborne's Sunshine and Secrets

Amazon Description

**Part one of a new cosy and heartwarming seasonal series, perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley.**
Beth is running away. With her young son Leo to protect, Willow Cottage is the lifeline she so desperately needs. Overlooking the village green in a beautiful Cotswolds idyll, Beth sees a safe place for little Leo.
When she finally uncovers the cottage from underneath the boughs of a weeping willow tree, Beth realizes this is far more of a project than she bargained for and the locals are more than a little eccentric! A chance encounter with gruff Jack, who appears to be the only male in the village under thirty, leaves the two of them at odds but it’s not long before Beth realizes that Jack has hidden talents that could help her repair more than just Willow Cottage.
Over the course of four seasons, Beth realizes that broken hearts can be mended, and sometimes love can be right under your nose…

I had failed to do my typical research when I requested Sunshine and Secrets from NetGalley. I knew of Bella Osborne from Twitter and she seems absolutely darling. It's published by the Avon imprint of HarperCollins UK, which has become one of my go-to publishing houses along with CarinaUK and Bookouture. The cover is precious and makes me want to try my own hand and DIY in order to fix it up. Altogether it sounds perfect, right?

Well..... what I had failed to realize is that as "part one" it's not quite 100 pages. Part two is coming out in October according to Amazon which isn't a terribly long wait but I still would have preferred to have read at least the first two parts together as one. 100 pages is the length of one of my 10-year-old's books when he wants to "slack off."

Luckily, it's a wonderfully splendid little "not quite 100 pages" and a lovely introduction to Beth, her son Leo, her best friends Carly and Fergus, and her new home of Dumbleford. I felt horribly for her when the quaint little cottage she thought that she had purchased turned out to be a disaster area in need of a lot more than a fresh coat of paint. She's definitely a fish out of water -- except, of course, for when the rain caused the ceiling to cave in around her. By the end of this first part it seems like she's at least getting handle on what she needs help with and where to get it.

And then it ends with a big freaking twisty cliffhanger that makes me want to scream... and fast-forward to October so I can find out what the samheck is going on!