Book Review : The Year of Starting Over by Karen King
Publication Day: 7th February 2019
Published by: Bookouture
What if – to find yourself – you had to run away?
Last year was meant to be when Holly got her happy-ever-after. But stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, and a relationship that feels more like it’s going backwards… this year Holly has decided it’s time to change her life.
She just has to:
– End the relationship with the commitment-phobic boyfriend
– Go on a proper adventure
– Learn to be herself again
– Definitely, categorically not fall in love.
Cramming her belongings into her little yellow Mini, Holly drives on to a ferry bound to Spain, to stay at a remote farmhouse near a beautiful village in the Andalusian hills.
But the day she arrives she nearly crashes her car into a gorgeous guy on a motorbike. He’s called Matias and their paths keep crossing, much to Holly’s irritation.
Because as she learns to speak Spanish from the locals, finally starts laying out plans for her own design business, and sips sangria in the sunlit village square, Holly is beginning to remember who she is and what she wants.
So she won’t allow herself be distracted by Matias.
Because this year – for Holly – there are more important things in life than love. And she won’t let yet another bad relationship ruin everything… will she?
MY REVIEW
This is the first book of romance I have read by Karen. The only other book I have read by Karen was a psychological thriller – so I was intrigued to see how she would do with the romance – answer – fantastically well.
What a book of hope and love and finding yourself. I loved that Holly left everything, packed her yellow mini and went to Spain. I LOVED her business and her ethics. I always love a good will-they-won’t-they romance when it’s done right. Well, it was 100% done right here.
It was also a slow burn, but after Holly “rescued” Matias their relationship evolved into a beautiful friendship where he was helping with her bucket list. Seriously, I just want to go on a plane and start afresh after this book. It is a book of hope and what can be and the fact the author has done something similar- well they say write what you know.
It was a gorgeous book, perfect for this sunny weather, and pure escapism. I won’t hesitate to get a book by this author no matter the genre as she is one heck of a writer!
I loved Holly and her adventure, and the audiobook narrator easily captured all of this. She was great and allowed me to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Until the next time xxx
About Karen King
Karen King is an Amazon international bestselling author currently writing psychological thrillers for Bookouture and women’s fiction for Boldwood. Her sixth psychological thriller, Girl Next Door, will be published on 9 July 2024 and her first ‘golden years’ novel for Boldwood will be published in March 2025.
Karen has also had 120 children’s books, two young adult novels, and several short stories for women’s magazines published. Her early writing career was spent working on various teenage and children’s magazines. Her thrillers The Mother In Law, The Perfect Stepmother and The Stranger in my Bed and her romantic novel The Cornish Hotel by the Sea all became International Amazon bestsellers.
Karen is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.
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