Wickham Hall

by Cathy Bramley

[Leah]

Wickham Hall is Cathy Bramley's fourth novel, and her most recent, and I've been dying to read it for ages. I really enjoyed her previous books Ivy Lane and Conditional Love, and I still have the delightful Appleby Farm to visit, and her new book The Plumberry School of Comfort Food to dig into once it's released throughout the year. Wickham Hall is by far my favourite of Cathy's books so far, it just had everything I love in a book, without the usual annoyances that come with a Chick Lit novel (namely the heroine and hero having some massive falling out before declaring their love on the last page). Where Benedict and Holly were concerned, it just flowed naturally, and it's almost as if their relationship happened by accident, it was that amazing. The kind that just makes you sigh and wish for your own Benedict.

Stately homes are also my FAVOURITE settings for books. I dream of living in a stately home, and Wickham Hall sounded utterly amazing. I could literally imagine it in my head, helped along by the gorgeous house on the front cover of the book. I could see why Holly wanted to work there, it sounded like the most amazing place to work, and I SO want to become an event planner, it seems like so much fun (and quite a bit of hassle). You could also really feel the warmth radiating from all the staff members, they genuinely wanted to work at Wickham Hall and that's quite amazing, really.

The characters were fantastic, Holly was the narrator and I loved her. Her enthusiasm for Wickham Hall, the way she wanted to help her poor mum out, how she threw herself into her job at Wickham Hall, despite the fact the lass she was supposed to work with ending up having to leave like immediately, and I loved that she was so organised. I like things organised myself, but Holly took it to another level and I loved it. She was so much fun, and Benedict added another level of fun, too. I loved how silly he was, how he wasn't up himself as you might expect someone named Benedict to be (sorry to anyone named Benedict out there), and I loved that he was a painter. I genuinely wanted to buy one of his paintings of sunsets because they sounded magical. Lord and Lady Fortescue were also pretty awesome, Hugh in particular, whereas Lady Fortescue had her moments, and was a bit of a snob.

Wickham Hall really was a delightful read. I loved every bit of it and devoured it in just a couple of days. It's 500 pages, but never once does it feel like it's dragging, and the storyline just moves at quite a decent pace. I'm glad I read the book all in one go, though, because reading it in its four parts would have driven me absolutely insane, what with those cliff-hangers and truths being told! I can't wait to read Appleby Farm, now, Cathy really is one of the most fantastic storytellers around.