Review – The Perfect Retreat by Kate Forster

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Willow Carruther’s is an Oscar winning actress with three beautiful children and a rock star husband; surely life must be perfect, right? Not at all. Willow is broke; her husband, Kerr, is AWOL, having spent the last of her money on a yacht, and she has to move out of her beloved London house that she decorated herself from scratch. With only a young nanny, Kitty, for support, Willow has nowhere to go and no prospects until Kitty mentions Middlemist. The beautiful Victorian house where she grew up, that has lain abandoned for the last three years since her father died. Desperate to avoid the paparazzi, the family escape to the country, literally, in the middle of the night and when Willow is offered her first acting job for years, a period piece directed by flamboyant British director Harold Gaumont,  it seems like a perfect idea to film the movie at Middlemist, thus restoring the rundown house to its former glory. But it’s not all plain sailing. Kitty’s brother Merritt is back and not happy about the new houseguests, Kerr is planning his devious comeback into Willow’s life and Kitty is harbouring her own dark secret that could ruin everything. I cannot speak highly enough of this book. I was hooked within the first few pages and stayed awake reading well into the night. I love discovering new authors and I feel like I have found a keeper in Kate Forster. The characters make this book what it is: addictive. Willow is by far the most complex; she is beautiful, talented and appears to have it all, but her selfishness and disconnection from her three small children are obvious. Once she moves to Middlemist and begins to take life more seriously her journey is a joy to read. Kitty is instantly likeable and adores her job as nanny to the children; she is an incredibly vulnerable character who needs a dose of Willow’s confidence and when I discovered her secret I liked her even more. There is a sexy side to this book that comes in the form of Merritt and Ivo, the main male protagonists. Willow, feeling deflated and unloved, is perfect for Merritt, who is stubborn and infuriatingly handsome. Their relationship develops beautifully in the book, each complimenting each other perfectly. But will Kitty have the same luck with overconfident dreamer Ivo? The Perfect Retreat is beautifully written.  It has all of the ingredients to make perfect light women’s fiction. Love, sex, intrigue and most of all, this book is full of heart.  I could gush about the plot, the setting, the characters, the storylines, the surprises and the steamy scenes forever, however, I only have 500 words (and I’ve gone over that already!) so, I’ll say this. Buy it, download it, and just make sure you read it. 10/10 MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK