A COLOURFUL COUNTRY ESCAPE.

 Today on Pen and Paper another book I won, this one courtesy of The Friendly Book Community, a lovely, welcoming group which if you are on FaceBook you must look up ... you can find them here. 

A COLOURFUL COUNTRY ESCAPE by ANITA FAULKNER.

When vibrant but penniless Lexie is dumped by her posh boyfriend who is looking for a more financially suitable match, she decides to pack up her beloved orange campervan Penny in search of a new path. Stumbling upon a vacancy at a family-run paint company in the Cotswolds, Lexie believes she's found her perfect match ...

Lexie arrives at Nutgrass Hall, home of Carrington Paints, but it seems that owner Benedict Carrington is less than impressed with her arrival, and Lexie realises she'll have her work cut out for her if she's to convince stuffy "Beige Ben" to trust her with rescuing his out-of-touch business. But Ben has more on his mind than just the company - his mother is determined to find him a suitable wife worthy of carrying the Carrington family name.

As Lexie sets to work on injecting some life colour into Carrington Paints, Ben allows himself to be set up with Tewkesbury's finest ladies. But the more time the pair spend together, the more they realise their feelings for each other aren't so black and white. Will Lexie be able to brighten into Ben's colourless world before it's too late?

With a cover that hinted of a good summer read, I was not to be disappointed by this feel good, fun debut novel which rather refreshingly was set in the world of paint. 

Whilst I don't particularly think of myself as a big fan of the romantic comedy {mainly because I have found that the author rarely gets the blend of 'rom' and 'com' to my liking} I have to admit that I did enjoy this one in that I thought it a good mix of the two;not too heavy on the 'rom' and just right on the 'com'.

The characters however ... 

Hmm! The characters I found to be hit and miss. Sadly main character Lexi being the latter; I mean I get it, she's stubborn but there's stubborn and then there's  inexplicably insisting on staying in an unheated, damp, clapped out old camper van when you could be staying in a room inside a hall ... with a heated bathroom.

Then there were the creeping in of Americanisms {the usage of thrift store instead of charity/second hand shop being one that comes to mind} which giving the setting of an ancestral home set in a quintessential country hamlet seemed out of place.

Still, a fun, easily read novel. Hoping there will be future outings for the folk {and of course the peacocks} of Nutgrass Hall, Anita Faulkner is an author whose name I shall certainly be keeping a look out for. 

Anita Faulkner writes warm ad fuzzy romcoms from her upcycled bureau in the south-west of England. She grew up sniffing books and devouring stories. And she insists it was perfectly normal to squirrel boxes of pretty stationary that felt far too magical to actually use. She's also accumulated a brave and patient husband and a strong-willed little boy who brighten up her world.

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