Regular readers to the blog will be unsurprised to discover that this week’s BotW is the new novel from Trisha Ashley. The first review on this blog (and one of the earliest posts) was of her last book Every Woman for Herself and I’ve been waiting eagerly for Creature Comforts ever since. And I managed to control myself – and read the book across three days, rather in one sitting.
Creature Comforts tells the story of Izzy, who returns to her childhood home of Halfhidden, after years travelling around the world. She’s just broken up with her fiancé Kieran and is looking for answers about a tragic accident she was involved in as a teenager. On top of that, she’s starting a new business and helping her friends with a plan to regenerate the village by getting more tourists in. And her aunt’s dog rescue centre is in a spot of bother – with money and with the new owner of the estate that owns the land…
I love the corner of Lancashire that Trisha Ashley has created – and Halfhidden is a great addition to it. I liked the dynamics of Izzy and her gang of friends – and there’s some fun supporting characters (as usual) who are quirky in a non-irritating way. The plot’s a good one too – as Izzy tries to discover what happened that fateful night. Trisha’s heroines always have a bit of baggage behind them to overcome – and I liked that Izzy’s wasn’t a husband/ex-partner as it so often is with books in this sort of genre. I also really empathised over her ex-fiancé – who reminded me of one of my ex-boyfriends* with his attitude towards her and her life.
As usual, after reading on of Trisha’s books, I wanted to go back and read the earlier ones – this is partly because there are always little references to them, enabling you to catch a glimpse of what’s going on with some of your old friends, and reminding you how much you enjoyed reading about their lives.
Creature Comforts is Trisha’s first book to get a hardback release – you can buy it on Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles and hopefully in stores too. The Kindle edition is available too and you can pre-order the paperback too if you can control yourself and wait until June.
*Although my exboyfriend didn’t cause me any of the trouble that Kieran causes Izzy!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 