“Just think, Alice, right now Owen could be putting a hex on you!” When Alice Hart’s husband runs off with his secretary, she runs off with his dog to lick her wounds in a North Yorkshire village. Battling with loneliness but trying to make the best of her new start, she soon meets her neighbours, including the drop-dead gorgeous builder Richard Wainwright and the kindly yet reticent café owner, … owner, Owen Maltby. As Alice employs Richard to start renovating the barn next to her house, all is not what it seems. Why does she start seeing Owen when he clearly isn’t there? Where – or when – does the strange crying come from? And if Owen is the village charmer, what exactly does that mean? The Cheesemaker’s House is a gripping read, inspired by a framed will found in the dining room of the author’s dream Yorkshire house. The previous owners explained that the house had been built at the request of the village cheesemaker in 1726 – and that the cheesemaker was a woman. And so the historical aspect of the story was born.Jane Cable’s novel won the Suspense & Crime category of The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition, reaching the last four out of over a thousand entries. The judges of this competition compared her work to that of Barbara Erskine, but it also resembles the more recent works of Alan Titchmarsh or Kate Mosse.The Cheesemaker’s House can be enjoyed by anyone who has become bored of today’s predictable ‘boy-meets-girl’ romance novels. “I desperately want to find out about Owen; a fascinating character… the gift here is to make you want to read on.”Jeffrey Archer
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I enjoyed this read which balances itself on a narrow ledge between reality and the supernatural.
It is slow in the beginning as we meet Alice Hart, a thirty-five-year-old divorcee restarting her life in a small English village after being abandoned by her ex for his younger secretary.
While I didn’t always agree with her choices, I liked Alice …
What an utterly charming and unique read!!! It is a romance with a sprinkle of paranormal that makes this an addictive read.
Alice seeks comfort and solace in a North Yorkshire village after her husband runs away with his secretary. I admire a woman who pulls herself up after her life is turned upside down, and that is exactly what Alice does. …