About Books #106: New Beginnings at Glendale Hall

Is there anything better than being able to go back to a literary world you’ve already gotten to fall in love with? Especially if that literary world is a castle in Scotland and looks beautiful around Christmas? It’s time for New Beginnings at Glendale Hall!

I was offered an ARC by Book Sirens in exchange for a review. All opinions are strictly my own.

The story

Emily Prescott’s life isn’t going to plan. Her dreams of starting a family with fireman boyfriend Greg and opening up her own bakery in London feel like they will never come true. So when a wedding
invite arrives from her oldest friend, Beth Williams, Emily is thrilled. Not only will she get to return to her childhood home in Scotland, but best of all – Beth wants her to bake the wedding cake!

However, her excitement is cut short when she discovers that Greg has cheated on her. Devastated by his betrayal, Emily flees to Glendale Hall, Beth’s grand estate in the Highlands, and tries to distracts herself with helping with the wedding plans, but that’s not easy when Greg keeps hounding her to forgive him. Then she’s introduced to Glendale’s new young and handsome vicar Brodie, and things become even more complicated.

When Emily discovers that Greg’s betrayal runs deeper than she imagined, she finds herself with a whole host of decisions to make, especially when she discovers her long awaited dream is finally being fulfilled – at exactly at the wrong time…

The opinion

C – characters A – atmosphere W – writing P – plot I – intrigue L – logic E – enjoyment	8 7 7 8 7 8 7
TOTAL SCORE	7,4

How many times can someone wipe away a tear that was running down their cheek? No matter how many times you guessed, Emily did it at least once more in this book. Luckily, though, that’s also about the only really negative thing I have to say about this entire book – that sometimes, it could be just a tad on the repetitive side.

As I mentioned before, the descriptions of Glendale Hall basically make me want to either dream away, or visit there as soon as possible. Nothing changed there 🙂

What struck me even more so than in the previous book, though, was the delicate way in which Victoria Walters managed to slowly build up any romance – and refrained from making it the main focus of the entire book. It would’ve been an easy thing, after all, to go full romcom. Instead, Walters opted to go for more of a bildungsroman feel, highlighting the growth Emily goes through.

While some elements of the plot were fairly obvious from the get-go (the double whammy in Emily’s life, for starters), the author brings the small-town-Scotland atmosphere to life in such a way that reading this book never became a drag. Rather, I just about started it wanting to have read it already – in the best possible way 🙂

The rating: 3,5/5

If you want a book that will make you crave a piece of cake, preferably to be enjoyed while enjoying the view over the Scottish mountains? Then New Beginnings at Glendale Hall is just the book for you! (Goodreads)

-Saar