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Keys to the Castle
by
Donna Ball (Goodreads Author)
The author of the Ladybug Farm series delivers an exhilarating new novel of a middle-aged woman who follows her heart to love and happiness.
When a dashing French poet swept forty-something workaholic Sara Graves off her feet, she did something completely unexpected: She married him. Then three weeks later he died, leaving her a house she can't afford to keep in a country...more
When a dashing French poet swept forty-something workaholic Sara Graves off her feet, she did something completely unexpected: She married him. Then three weeks later he died, leaving her a house she can't afford to keep in a country...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
January 4th 2011
by Berkley Trade
(first published October 28th 2010)
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Sara Graves was a forty-something year old workaholic when she met Daniel, a French poet. They married at settled on St. John Island, North Carolina. I want to go there; I'm in love with islands. Back to the book. Sara is deeply in love with Daniel, but three weeks after their marriage he dies in a tragic accident. He leaves her a 400 year old castle in the Loire Valley. I also want to go there. It's in France the estate is called Chateau Rondelais. Sara falls in love with it, and with the Danie...more
Keys to the Castle is by the same author of the Ladybug Farms books. While I enjoyed Keys, I didn't think it was as good as LBF, and maybe because Keys was really more of a romance (but not the bodice-ripping kind) than a story of friendship. Bell does have a definite talent for writing descriptions. It was easy to get lost in the description of the chalet and French countryside.
At an age when she thought she'd accomplished all her goals, Sara Graves meets a poet from France. She is literally sw...more
At an age when she thought she'd accomplished all her goals, Sara Graves meets a poet from France. She is literally sw...more
Keys to the Castle by Donna Ball
Contemporary Romance - Jan 4th, 2011
4 stars
Sara Graves is widowed three weeks after her whirlwind marriage to the charming, romantic Daniel Orsay. After his death, she realized that she barely knew anything about him or his life back in France. The only thing he left her is an estate in Loire Valley. Sara travels to France, hoping to sell the house, only to realize that it is a real-life chateaux that comes complete with a huge amount of overdue property tax and e...more
Contemporary Romance - Jan 4th, 2011
4 stars
Sara Graves is widowed three weeks after her whirlwind marriage to the charming, romantic Daniel Orsay. After his death, she realized that she barely knew anything about him or his life back in France. The only thing he left her is an estate in Loire Valley. Sara travels to France, hoping to sell the house, only to realize that it is a real-life chateaux that comes complete with a huge amount of overdue property tax and e...more
Keys to the Castle is the newest contemporary romance novel by Donna Ball, who is not only prolific under this pseudonym but under several others as well including Donna Boyd, Donna Carlisle, Rebecca Flanders and more.
Keys to the Castle is about two of what I call "hoity-toity" middle-aged aristocratic characters who unexpectedly find love under the most unusual and melodramatic circumstances. Sara Graves is the recent widow of an artistic, bohemian French-man who leaves behind a magnificent (an...more
Keys to the Castle is about two of what I call "hoity-toity" middle-aged aristocratic characters who unexpectedly find love under the most unusual and melodramatic circumstances. Sara Graves is the recent widow of an artistic, bohemian French-man who leaves behind a magnificent (an...more
Sara Graves, recently widowed, is at a crossroads in her life. She inherits property in France from her husband and travels to see the property and what her options are. She gets along well with Ash Lindeman, the attorney handling her inheritance, and later on finds that her husband was not completely honest with her during their brief marriage.
I was going to give this book 2 stars because the actual dialogue between the characters, got annoying, but the author described France, the castle, an...more
I was going to give this book 2 stars because the actual dialogue between the characters, got annoying, but the author described France, the castle, an...more
This story really was one I could identify with. Sara is a middle-aged workaholic who suddenly needs to change her life. She has spent her life taking care of her family and is now trying to take care of herself after losing what she thought was the love of her life. She goes to France just wanting to get rid of her legacy and ends up embracing it. The author has done a phenomenal job of telling Sara and Ash’s story. Her descriptions of Chateau Rondelais and the book’s characters are beautifully...more
Keys to the Castle is a modern fairy tale complete with happily every after. Donna Ball has written a fun story featuring a middle aged heroin.
Sara Graves met and married Daniel, a dashing French poet, only to have him die three weeks later. A year later Sara must travel to France to settle Daniel’s estate. When she arrives she finds that the broken down castle Daniel talked about is in reality a estate. Chateau Rondelais, the castle, needs a lot of work but is Sara is soon charmed with the loc...more
I’m dismayed there aren’t more romances written with an older main couple. It seems most love stories with a man and a woman over forty are delegated to second story status. What grabbed me about Donna Ball's Keys to the Castle is that the hero and heroine are over forty-five. Also, Donna, known as Donna Boyd, who wrote The Passion, (one of my favorite all-time books) is an excellent story teller. This is proven perfectly with Keys to the Castle, an endearing romance that has a nice chick-lit bu...more
3.5 stars. A sweet, engrossing book. Main characters are slightly older which I like and the descriptions of the French countryside and the chateau were vivid. I am currently finishing up an audio book of a contemporary romance [why?? I keep asking myself- because it was there- and once begun I see it through] which has 7 discs. The couple were "at it" by disc one and once or twice with increasing anatomical play-by-play on every disc thereafter. Give it a rest!! This book was refreshingly "dis...more
Oh dear. I reaaaaaly hate to give a book a 2 star rating... I really do. This book, while totally fanciful in nature, isn't a bad book.... I just absolutely HATED the male lead. Hard to really enjoy a book when what you really want to do is thwonk the leading man upside his head with said book. I don't find workaholics at all charming. I am married to one. I know all too well about the phone always glued to the ear, the reading of e-mails while ostensibly talking to you, the lack of ability to e...more
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Sara Graves is still struggling to come to terms with the death of her new husband, when an invitation arrives for her to go to France to settle her husband’s estate. Daniel was a talented poet, but she never realized he was also part owner of a 400-year-old crumbling castle in the beautiful Loire Valley!
Sara is intrigued by the secrets of Chateau Rondelais. Its immense polished marble halls and magnificent chandeliers hide the tarnished silver ornamentation and faded wallpaper well. The gardens...more
Sara is intrigued by the secrets of Chateau Rondelais. Its immense polished marble halls and magnificent chandeliers hide the tarnished silver ornamentation and faded wallpaper well. The gardens...more
Talk about unrealistic!! But , that was mainly its charm. A real to life fairy tale when a woman married only a few weeks when her husband dies in an accident, inherits a castle (yes, I said castle) in France. Of course, it's hundreds of years old and partly falling down, but if it wasn't, then the book would be boring, right? She gets along, not one iota, with the executer of the castle...and you know where it goes from there. Just a little too predictable, but a fun read and cute and a great...more
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Thought this would be such a predictable story. But actually it was quite different from what I expected. I thought it was a charming story about an American woman who didn't seem to have her life together. She married a man for 3 weeks until he was killed in a car crash. The story starts after the crash when she hurries to France to find out her husband was not only poor but had a "castle." Next enters his lawyer, and a precious child. This story has many twists and turns. Loved it!
What a fun romance--the hero and heroine are in their forties. He English,she's American, but is the widow of a French poet, who died after three weeks of marriage, leaving her the family chateau. Quelle shock!
This had some charming and amusing characters, some unreal situations, and some places requiring leaps of faith, but it was worth it. Donna Ball wrote the perfect book for me to read this afternoon.
This had some charming and amusing characters, some unreal situations, and some places requiring leaps of faith, but it was worth it. Donna Ball wrote the perfect book for me to read this afternoon.
American widow inherits castle in France, verbal sparring and then romance with dead husband's best friend, an English lawyer. Romance, Castles & France, a pretty good combination. This was a quick, easily predictable, enjoyable read. Good for an airplane trip. I did have a hard time believing the main characters were in their late 40s. They just didn't come across that way for me.
Was this supposed to be fiction or a romance novel? It wasn't really either and that's why I thought it was just "ok." The story was a bit predictable, so was the romance and the end of the story. It was a fast, easy read adn that's about all I can say for it. I certainly didn't hate it, but there was nothing to really love about it either. Overall, a bit disappointing.
I feel like if I give a book a low rating, I should explain why. It really just felt like fluff. Predictable. No big plots twists, not the greatest descriptions. eh, just didn't love it. I like modern day fairy tales, but they still have to be very well done. And I love old buildings, so I thought the setting would be great, but it lacked so many other things.
I'd been in a bit of a reading slump when I picked this book off by TBR pile. It immediately drew me in. I enjoyed the older (46-year-old) heroine and the setting. The book was a light read, just what I needed in this week before Christmas. And while it won't go down as one of the best books I read this year, it was enjoyable and just what I needed at the time.
This was an easy "beach" read. At times a little too predictable, but the characters did seem real. I found the way she described characters during their conversations to be a little monotonous. (The corner of his eye turned up as he spoke...)
Overall, I'm not sorry I read it, but I don't think I'd recommend it.
Overall, I'm not sorry I read it, but I don't think I'd recommend it.
Just what I needed. A modern adult (but not in a lewd way) fairy-tale that started out sad so it could only get better from there! All the characters were likeable with complex, adult emotions and the descriptions of the places and colors were so enchanting I wanted to live there too! :) Nice, enjoyable read.
Far fetched, frivolous and FUN! It reads a bit like a Lifetime movie script, only better written. It is predictable with some surprising twists; just enough to keep you guessing a little. This is most girl's dream....unexpectedly inherit a castle in France, fall in love with a wealthy, handsome English man and live happily ever after. It was just what I needed in the dead of winter. Not good literature, but a great escape. "Calgon, take me away!"
The characters weren't likable and it was very predictable. The thing that bothered me most though was the supposedly 5 year-old-girl who still takes naps and has trouble going up and down stairs. I don't know any 5-year-olds like this girl! She should have been more like 2 or 3. Overall very unrealistic.
This was a good and easy read, but I expected the key to have a little more significance to the story; maybe they could have discovered something really wonderful behind the door that they could not originally find the key for. Maybe something that could help pay for the restoration of the entire castle.
I would really give this book 3.5 stars. It was a sweet story of a woman whose husband dies and she learns she has inherited a castle from him (as well as a daughter and new love interest--surprise!). It all works out in the end, for a fairytale-like ending. A bit (okay, a lot) unbelievable, but still fun to read!
a modern romance/fairy tale by the author of the Ladybug Farm series. Sweet,predictable ,un-realistic feel -good novel. If you like Under the Tuscan Sun- it has a similar feel .
Widow travels to France to settle estate...discovers castle, secrets and love. Quick read and well written. Believe in your fairytales. Enjoyed very much.
OK, I admit I am a francophile, and particularly the Loire valley, so I was bound to enjoy it. But I couldn't put it down, finished it too fast.
A very sweet novel by the author of the Ladybug Farm novels. This takes place in France, after Sara Graves inherits a castle from her deceased husband, and begins a journey of healing and starting a new life. An enjoyable read for a cozy afternoon.
Sep 25, 2011
Kimiko Omura
added it
interesting twist to a sappy romance
Fortunately the author chose to portray the main female character as someone with brains and a backbone
Fortunately the author chose to portray the main female character as someone with brains and a backbone
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