A Warm Welcome Awaits

Coming Home To Cuckoo Cottage by Heidi Swain is the most charming contemporary novel about overcoming loss, second chances and learning to live again.

Grief can threaten to sink us. We need to find a way through it. The novel shows a great love that reaches beyond the confines of the grave. It is a love that knows just what is needed for a character to come to life and begin to live properly for the first time. I loved the inclusion of a small dog. Dogs can turn a house into a home.

The novel is set in Wynbridge. It is a small town with a big personality. Your business is never your own for long. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, stays private around here.” The reader sees the importance of seeking the truth for themselves as others with agendas may spread rumours that are not true. The upside to living in a small town is that a warm welcome awaits. “It felt like I was going home.” The reader ‘feels’ welcomed as the arms of the community reach beyond the novel.

It is important to not just exist but to truly live. Past events have meant a character lived a confined life but a new cottage in a familiar location sets a life on fire with new hope and possibilities. A character begins to dream big dreams.

The fragrance of love pervades the whole novel.

The characters were wonderfully drawn. Their interactions were highly amusing at times. There were some big personalities that clashed and there was an atmosphere of love and care for the youngest to the oldest member of Wynbridge.

Heidi Swain has perfectly captured the warmth of summer in her novel with her delicious descriptions. The summer sun reaches from the tale to shine into the reader’s life. The whole novel is perfectly charming, as are all Heidi Swain’s novels. I adore her books.

JULIA WILSON