#BlogTour The Purrfect Petsitter by Carol Thomas @rararesources #NetGalley

The Purrfect Pet Sitter by Carol Thomas

Ruby Fiction

Publication Date 24th April 2018

286 pages

After having reviewed a fair few creepy, twisty crime/psychological thrillers recently I was pleased to see an invitation to review a much lighter read from Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources. This title looked like a light-hearted, straightforward read but checking the description I saw that the book has an intriguing, more complicated back story which was just what I needed, so I signed up to find out more.

Book Description:

Introducing Lisa Blake, the purrfect pet sitter!

When Lisa Blake’s life in London falls apart, she returns to her hometown rebranding herself as ‘the purrfect pet sitter’ – which may or may not be false advertising as she has a rather unfortunate habit of (temporarily) losing dogs!

But being back where she grew up, Lisa can’t escape her past. There’s her estranged best friend Flick who she bumps into in an embarrassing encounter in a local supermarket. And her first love, Nathan Baker, who, considering their history, is sure to be even more surprised by her drunken Facebook friend request than Lisa is.

As she becomes involved in the lives of her old friends Lisa must confront the hurt she has caused, discover the truth about her mysterious leather-clad admirer, and learn how to move forward when the things she wants most are affected by the decisions of her past.

My thoughts:

My very first impression of this book from its cover was that it was going to be an extremely light, almost fluffy read that might have been too much of a contrast to the gritty thriller genre which I seem to have become entrenched in due to the huge number of those books which are flooding the shelves so far this year.  I am delighted to say that there is so much more than that to this book.  Yes it has an easy to read, flowing writing style but there is a depth to the storyline which doesn't come across through the cover - that will teach me to listen to the old adage of not judging a book by its cover (which I admit is one of my failings: I do love a well designed cover, and the beach huts on the front of this book kinda sold it to me).

Lisa Blake has moved on from her teenage life in her hometown and spent recent years building a new exciting life in London with her boyfriend, abandoning both her best friend Felicity and her family who have always been there for her.  All this crumbles when she sees a side of her boyfriend that she really does not want to spend the rest of her life tolerating and she returns to her parents' house where the ghosts of her past start to filter back into her everyday life.

Lisa's new career as a pet sitter is rather eventful, but among the rabbits, cats and a cross-eyed dog she finds a new friendship with one owner in particular Winnie, with whom she enjoys sharing tea and biscuits and chats in which they put the world to rights.  

I enjoyed seeing the relationship between the two generations build and as Lisa faces the issues which have built up during her time in London, Winnie passes on the wisdom only age can bring.  This wisdom helps Lisa build bridges with old friends where maybe otherwise a great void may have remained. 

Things between Lisa and an old flame however are not quite as straightforward to repair and despite several meetings, some planned others accidental, the messages between Lisa and Nathan continue to be mixed and misconstrued. It's not until they decide to attend the Bonfire Night parade purely for old times sake that they finally manage to untangle what each other wants from life.

This is a great story of friendships lost and found which demonstrates just how much we should communicate clearly with one another so that misunderstandings from the past don't continue to influence our future. A few basic conversations can make such a huge difference to our happiness if only we are open and honest with one another - a lesson which is relayed in a non-judgmental, heart warming way.

This is the first time I have read work by this author and if you are a fan of Carole Matthews, Jill Mansell and other well-established names from the women's fiction world as I am myself, you will definitely be wanting to add Carol Thomas to your list of go-to authors.

About the Author:

Carol Thomas lives on the south coast of England with her husband, four children and lively Labrador. She has been a playgroup supervisor and taught in primary schools for over fifteen years, before dedicating more of her time to writing. Carol is a regular volunteer for Cancer Research UK. She has a passion for reading, writing and people watching and can often be found loitering in local cafes working on her next book.

Carol writes for both adults and children: Her contemporary romance novels, have relatable heroines whose stories are layered with emotion, sprinkled with laughter and topped with irresistible male leads; while her children's books have irresistibly cute, generally furry characters young children can relate to.