Water Under the Bridge (Chalk Hill #1) in Aussie Readers

Feb 11, 2018 Brenda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle, contemporary-fiction, net-galley, aussie-authors, rural, 5000-books, romance, arc, own-read, 2018-release

4.5★s

Ella Davenport's first listing in the small town of Chalk Hill was a big old home she was keen to sell. The owner wouldn't return her calls, so she prepared the best she could, cleaning out the house - even enlisting her ten year old son Sam to help - much to his disgust.

Jake Honeychurch, owner of his Nanna's home therefore Ella's hope for her new career, didn't want to sell, but circumstances were against him. So when Ella had an offer well below the listed price, she wasn't surprised by t ...more

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Feb 25, 2018 Helen rated it it was amazing

I don’t know how this happened but this is the first book I have read of Ms Malone’s but it won’t be the last, this one was such a great story I loved the setting what a town and the characters come to life on the pages, I felt very comfortable in Chalk Hill and look forward to more in this series.

Ella Davenport has decided that it is time for her she was so close to becoming an Olympian swimmer years before but gave all of that up for her son Sam, she stays away from the water altogether and n ...more

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Jul 11, 2020 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: aww2020, australian, arc, series, romance, kindle-version, netgalley, rural-lit

Ella has moved to the small town of Chalk Hill in south-west Western Australia for a fresh start. She’s working as a real estate agent and has one listing – an overpriced house that has seen better days. She’s doing her best to spruce it up but the owner is reluctant to sell and Ella suspects that her rival real estate agent might be attempting to sabotage her by giving her false advice.

Ella is a single mother of a 10yo and my oldest son is almost 12. When I read some of this, it was like readin Ella has moved to the small town of Chalk Hill in south-west Western Australia for a fresh start. She’s working as a real estate agent and has one listing – an overpriced house that has seen better days. She’s doing her best to spruce it up but the owner is reluctant to sell and Ella suspects that her rival real estate agent might be attempting to sabotage her by giving her false advice.

Ella is a single mother of a 10yo and my oldest son is almost 12. When I read some of this, it was like reading about my own child. My firstborn is at times, a challenge to parent. He has an attitude that started to develop at about 9 or so where he resented anything asked of him, even the tiniest of things and in Sam’s sullen reluctance, I saw a lot of my own child. And in Ella’s frustration to connect with Sam, to make him understand about why she’s asking him to do this or that, I saw myself. I’m not a single parent, I have someone else to ‘back me up’ if required, share the discipline and reasoning. But I’ve had the phone calls from school about incidents in the playground, backchatting the teacher. I know the weariness of it, the feelings that it evokes. And so I sympathised with Ella. In her case though, it’s obvious why Sam is resentful and acting out (not that that makes dealing with it any easier).

Jake Honeychurch is the executor of his grandmother’s will and therefore he has final say over the sale of the house. He’s not actually interested in selling it, but he’s using the fact that it is for sale as leverage against someone, to get information that he wants. Things get complicated when he and Ella start to connect and all of a sudden Ella isn’t just the new, anonymous real estate agent but someone that he gets to know. He starts to see the desperation of her situation, her determination to change her life to do something, to succeed. And that brings conflict and awkwardness, as Jake doesn’t intend to sell the house. Ella is doing the best she can, bringing him good, reasonable offers and Jake has to keep rejecting them each time. I thought that Jake should’ve explained his situation to Ella a bit earlier than he did, this was her livelihood. She had a small retainer from her boss but real estate agents need to sell houses to make money. The effort Ella was expending was never going to be rewarded and I felt that was quite cruel of Jake, especially after they become friends (with obvious potential for more).

I really enjoyed Ella’s background in this – she was an Olympic level swimmer, who had done all the hard work and had big things ahead. One moment ripped it all away but it also gave her something precious. Her relationship with Erik was interesting and added a depth to the backstory. I understood why Ella had kept her secret all these years, even from Sam – how does someone confess something like that positively, talk about it? After what she had been through, it was easier to protect herself, to keep both of them safe from prying eyes, a hungry media, and who knows what else. Ella was very young and probably not the most mature emotionally, given the insular life of a swimmer attempting to make an Olympics.

I also really liked the small town of Chalk Hill and the residents we got to know through Ella. The three books in this series will be based around the Honeychurch brothers, and we met the brother who will take centre stage in the second book, in this one. His story was very interesting (not something you’d expect actually) and so I’m quite looking forward to reading the second book very soon! ...more

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