Books on Tour: New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village by Michelle Vernal

Bookouture's description:- 

 Welcome to the little Irish village of Emerald Bay where the sun is shining, the locals are gossiping, and romance is in the air. But will returning home be the fresh start Imogen Kelly needs?

Thirty-two-year-old Imogen Kelly is meant to be living her best life in Dublin but the bright lights of the city aren’t making her truly happy. So she leaps at the chance to take on an interior design job at the big country manor at the edge of Emerald Bay. It also gives Imogen an excuse to return to the place where she spent an unforgettable summer with her first love, Lachlan Leslie, the heir to Benmore House.

Imogen’s heart is full of hope at the thought of seeing her childhood sweetheart but on the way there she nearly has an accident on the winding, muddy country road. She arrives at Benmore House late and flustered, only to discover the builder working with her on the renovation project is none other than Ryan O’Malley – the class prankster who was forever pinging her bra strap at school.

Within seconds it’s clear he’s still a cheeky charmer, even if he’s transformed into a gorgeous guy who unexpectedly sets her pulse racing. Forced into close proximity with relentlessly cheerful Ryan, who’s forever (badly) singing rock ballads at the top of his voice, Imogen at first finds him an annoying distraction.

With St Patrick’s Day celebrations in full swing, Imogen has her work cut out to keep the job on track. Spending more time with Ryan, she discovers that, behind his warm smile and generous ways, he’s nursing heartache. But when she finally sees blue-eyed Lachlan again, Imogen has to face up to the truth about the secret summer romance they shared.

Will she leave Emerald Bay broken-hearted? Or will Imogen realise that home really is where the heart is?

What the publisher's description doesn't mention is that Imogen actually has a man in her life already - she has a relationship with her rather older boyfriend,  Nevin - "there's a bit of an age difference."  In fact, Nev comes with rather  lot of baggage as he has a previous marriage and grown up daughters who are still curiously dependant on their Dad to rescue them from various scrapes.  He wants no further children and Imogen has acquiesced, seemingly happy to pursue her career in interior design.  Her business is doing well and her success in Dublin is what leads her to accept a commission in her home village, giving her the the opportunity to visit her family and perhaps, at last, introduce her man to her childhood home.

Michelle Vernal has truly written a feel-good story, as warm as the community of Emerald Bay.  Imogen is very much a contemporary protagonist, seeking to find happiness and fulfilment in her chosen career and her personal life, yet not so lost in the glamour of life in the big city to have moved beyond her early life.  There is gentle humour and a great sense of place in the glorious Irish countryside, beautifully and wittily described.  I greatly enjoyed spending hours in Imogen's company as she adjusted to living back in her family home, coping with the fierce interest in her affairs of the community she grew up in, while dealing with her exacting employers, getting contractors to meet deadlines and specifications, her distant and demanding lover, her first real boyfriend and the disconcertingly multi-faceted man the classroom pest has grown up to be.  A deft and entertaining, compulsive read.  Thanks, Bookouture, for the opportunity to read this enjoyable book.

I was interested to learn that Michelle Vernal does not live in the Emerald Isle.  Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humour and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader's Favourite Gold Medal Award for Chick Lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.

If you would like to discover what other readers thought of this book, why not visit the other participants in this  Book Tour, who are listed below: