Flora's Lot - Katie Fforde

The Plot

Flora's Lot is the story of Flora Stanza a young single Londoner who inherits part of an auction house after the death of her uncle. Having no real ties in London she decides to pack up and move to the country to find out a little more about the business she has inherited. Problem is that all Flora knows about the antique business is what she's picked up on programmes like the Antiques Roadshow. Floras' meddling in the business ...
...Charles and his fiancée Annabelle. They want to buy her out and send her back to London but Flora isn't prepared to give in that easily.

Flora and her cat who is about to have kittens moves into a neglected holiday cottage owned by Annabelle which is in the middle of nowhere. It's far removed from her city life with the bars and clubs, here all Flora has for entertainment is the village pub and the local choir. She then sets about ... more

The Plot

Flora's Lot is the story of Flora Stanza a young single Londoner who inherits part of an auction house after the death of her uncle. Having no real ties in London she decides to pack up and move to the country to find out a little more about the business she has inherited. Problem is that all Flora knows about the antique business is what she's picked up on programmes like the Antiques Roadshow. Floras' meddling in the business does not go down well with the co-owner, Floras cousin Charles and his fiancée Annabelle. They want to buy her out and send her back to London but Flora isn't prepared to give in that easily.

Flora and her cat who is about to have kittens moves into a neglected holiday cottage owned by Annabelle which is in the middle of nowhere. It's far removed from her city life with the bars and clubs, here all Flora has for entertainment is the village pub and the local choir. She then sets about to try and improve the family business and make the auction house a profit making venture much to Charles and Annabelle's annoyance.

My Thoughts

I did enjoy this book, it's a nice feel-good kind of story. When I read it I picked up that the story line is a bit like Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" however not quite in the same class in terms of writing style but the basic idea of first impressions clouding our judgement of someone's character is there. Flora feels her cousin is stuffy, boring and arrogant however as the book continues she sees another side to him. Likewise Charles views Flora as a bit of a blonde bimbo, pretty girl but not very sensible and certainly knowing nothing that could help in the antique business. As the story continues they discover that they can learn something from each other and their initial prejudices are gradually worn away.

There is nothing much remarkable to comment on about Ffordes writing style. Its an easy to read book, the story falls into place fairly easily. There aren't too many surprises along the way and you do start to guess what's going to happen. The characters in the book are all quite stereotypical, we have the stuffy Charles, Annabelle the posh fiancée who comes across as a rather "horsey" character very much jolly hockey sticks and all that and there is Henry the potential love interest who is the typical charming but womanising chap out to woo Flora and finally William the rather strange eco-friendly man that Flora comes across who can whip up meals using just things found growing in the hedgerows.

I don't know if you would class this book as a so-called "Chick-Lit" book, I would probably say no. So who will it appeal to? Well I guess I would say it is definitely a womans book but it will appeal to all ages of women. The book I read was initially a present for my husbands grandmother who is nearly 87 years old, she read it and enjoyed it passed it on to my mother-in-law who read it then passed it on to me. I didn't expect to be enjoying a book that my grandmother would have read but I did. I think it's a nice inoffensive book that is a pleasure to read but doesn't challenge you to think much or get too involved, which might be a good thing or a bad thing depending what you want from a book. If you want a book to just read fairly quickly and you want a happy story then maybe this is for you. However if you want something that you can get your teeth into and really capture your imagination then I would recommend giving this one a pass.

The Author

Katie Fforde has written lots of other novels so if you enjoy this book then there are plenty more to keep you going.

Other Information

ISBN - 1-8441-3676-0
Pages - 390
Paperback price RRP £9.99 but currently £5.59 in Amazon.co.uk

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