Samen was het een compleet en goed uitgewerkt geheel en was het oprecht weer een heerlijke Jill Mansell!

Promise Me by Jill Mansell | Hachette UK

It wasn’t a retirement home, then. Nor, from the look of the place, had it been divided into separate apartments. Outside, it was a bright but blustery August afternoon and the old man was still making his way slowly across the car park. As Lou paused at the exit, wondering whether to break into the doughnuts now, she saw him brush past a dilapidated van with its crumpled bumper hanging off.

Games

I’ll take this to the newsagent’s and copy it out onto one of the postcards so it’ll slot into the message board in the window.’ She dropped the folded sheet of paper into her bag. ‘What’s the name of the woman who runs the shop?’ Walton, yes, that had been the name carved into one of the stone pillars guarding the entrance to the driveway. The last thing Lou wants is to move to a tiny Cotswolds village. She certainly doesn’t intend to work for curmudgeonly eighty-year-old Edgar Allsopp. But Edgar is about to make her the kind of promise nobody could ignore. In return, she secretly vows to help him fall in love with life again. Bijna iedereen die feelgood-boeken leest, heeft weleens iets gelezen van Jill Mansell of in ieder geval haar naam gehoord. En terecht, want het zijn heerlijke boeken voor in de zomer. Haar humoristische romans zijn vermakelijk, gemakkelijk te lezen en uiteraard grappig. De cover van het boek straalt ook een en al vrolijkheid uit. I don’t know. He lives in a big house at the top of the hill. It’s Sammy,’ Lou explained to the man sitting at the table. ‘He’s asking who you are.’

Promise Me by Jill Mansell | Waterstones Promise Me by Jill Mansell | Waterstones

When she’d put her phone away, Lou fished the tea bag out of her own mug and carried it over to the bin. As she reached it, her foot skidded and she almost went flying into the wall. De verschillende perspectieven, de verschillende levens en dus de verschillende verhaallijnen, maken ook dit verhaal weer intrigerend en vlot leesbaar. Whilst Lou and Edgar are the human stars of this book, it is Captain Oates, the tiny rescue dog who really steals the show. Almost as grumpy as Edgar, with a snarl to match, he’s a joy to discover. So ten minutes ago you thought I was a mugger, yet now you’re happy for me to poke around your house.’ Lou wrote everything down as he dictated his phone number. When it came to the hourly rate, she said, ‘Employers generally pay a bit more than that,’ and with a sigh of annoyance, he upped it.

De schrijfstijl van Mansell is prettig en toegankelijk, waardoor het een erg gemakkelijk te lezen boek is. Ik heb hier wel een puntje over de vormgeving, maar dit heeft geen invloed op de beoordeling van het boek. De hoofdstukken starten namelijk direct waar het vorige hoofdstuk eindigt: niet mijn favoriete vormgeving. Rich with wonderful characters, overflowing with heart-warming romance, this is Jill at her very best * Milly Johnson * MY REVIEW: Hurrah! The new year can now officially begin, because we have a brand spanking new read from Jill Mansell to devour. In that case, maybe you should find out her name. She’s lovely, really friendly. We had a great chat while she was watering her hanging baskets outside the shop.’ All you have to do is say yes . . . The heart-warming, funny and unputdownable new novel from the bestselling Jill Mansell