The House of Second Chances in Aussie Readers

Nov 27, 2018 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-read, arc, aussie-authors, sent-by-publisher, reviewing-by-request, 2019-release, contemporary-fiction

Even though Ellen O’Shea had returned to South Australia after her visit to her home in Ireland, she knew her brother Aidan who was a builder, would continue the renovation of their grandmother’s stone cottage in West Cork. Ellen had taken her good friend, interior designer Colette Barry on board, and knew she would do an excellent job with the cottage. But Aidan didn’t want the added cost that came with Colette’s grandiose ideas.

While good friend Gerry Clancy was trying to obtain the visa he ne ...more

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Feb 13, 2019 Helen rated it it was amazing

I read MS Campion’s debut book Leaving Ocean Road and was left gobsmacked by how good it was, and then I picked this one up and just felt so good, it was like being back with family and friends, Gerry and Ellen and now we get to see Aiden and Collette come together in a heart-warming and poignant story that had me turning the pages and feeling so close to all of the wonderful characters, sit back and enjoy this one as I did on a journey to love, that is helped along by a house.

Ellen and Aiden ha I read MS Campion’s debut book Leaving Ocean Road and was left gobsmacked by how good it was, and then I picked this one up and just felt so good, it was like being back with family and friends, Gerry and Ellen and now we get to see Aiden and Collette come together in a heart-warming and poignant story that had me turning the pages and feeling so close to all of the wonderful characters, sit back and enjoy this one as I did on a journey to love, that is helped along by a house.

Ellen and Aiden have decided to renovate their grandmother’s home in West Cork on the coast Ireland, a beautiful setting a lovely old house that needs a lot of work, Ellen has hopes of turning it into B&B or a place people can stay to get their lives back on track. Aiden is not so convinced in the beginning and is not happy when Ellen requests her best friend Collette to step in and help with the interior designing, but Aiden has memories from this house that have caused him heartaches over the years, is it time to open up and let them go.

Collette Barry a former teacher now one of Ireland’s top interior designers and divorced is living at home with her Mum, she works hard and is excited when her best friend Ellen asks her to help bring back to life her grandmother’s house, but she seems to meet a brick wall when she meets up with Ellen’s brother and the builder Aiden. Never one to give up after what she has been through she is drawn to Aiden and when there is heartbreak with a child this brings them closer together and working on the house starts to make her open up.

I loved this story in so many ways, there are beautiful emotions flowing on the pages, such awesome characters that add so much to Aiden and Collette’s touching journey. MS Campion is an amazing story teller who gets to the heart of people and brings them to life, for the thorough enjoyment of readers, I loved the settings as we do a bit of travelling from Australia to Ireland. This is a story that I highly recommend, there were tears and happy sighs because Aiden and Colette so deserved love and happiness they are beautiful people, thank you MS Campion for another keeper.
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Feb 17, 2019 Bree T rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, contemporary, blog-tour, aww2019

I didn’t actually realise that this book is connected to Esther Campion’s first book, Leaving Ocean Road. I haven’t read that and for the first little bit as I settled into this story, it was a bit confusing working out who was who and how everyone was connected. Once I had that sorted, it was easier to sink into the story and figure out what was happening.

Siblings Ellen and Aidan O’Shea are undertaking a renovation of a cottage left to them by their grandmother. As Ellen lives in Australia now, I didn’t actually realise that this book is connected to Esther Campion’s first book, Leaving Ocean Road. I haven’t read that and for the first little bit as I settled into this story, it was a bit confusing working out who was who and how everyone was connected. Once I had that sorted, it was easier to sink into the story and figure out what was happening.

Siblings Ellen and Aidan O’Shea are undertaking a renovation of a cottage left to them by their grandmother. As Ellen lives in Australia now, Aidan will be undertaking the bulk of the renovation, as he’s also a builder by trade. But Ellen has enlisted the help of her best friend, interior designer Colette to assist, much to Aidan’s chagrin. Although the two have known each other for a long time, given the friendship between Ellen and Colette, they’ve had little to do with each other since Ellen went to live in Australia. And when they are thrown back into close proximity to work on the house, it doesn’t exactly go smoothly. Aidan is skeptical of an interior designer’s role but he finds himself outnumbered and outvoted by Ellen and his father, which means that Colette’s role will be a prominent one.

Colette is six years out from a painful divorce and although she’s highly successful in her chosen career, moving from teaching into interior design, she hasn’t moved forward in her personal life in some time. She’s still living with her mother, where she went after her marriage ended and perhaps Aidan will provide an opportunity for something new…..if they can stop bickering.

I really like renovation stories – I watch quite a few renovation shows on television and I always enjoy their inclusion in books. However there wasn’t a huge amount of focus on the renovation, just enough to provide a bit of conflict between a skeptical Aidan and Colette, who didn’t understand Aidan’s somewhat hostile attitude. Aidan is not a particularly endearing character at first – he’s a bit rude, he makes no secret of the fact he thinks Colette’s inclusion is at best, a waste of time and at worst, something that will end up ripping them off. In fact there were a few instances where I may have put the book down and thought, “Aidan, what on earth is your problem mate?”

But he grew on me. It’s like he learned to swallow his pride, take a step back and stop being judgemental and actually look at what Colette was contributing and what her accomplishments were. Aidan also realises he needs to do something about his health – he’s pushing 40 or just over it, he’s getting a bit of that spread. So he changes his diet, takes up some exercise. This seems to help focus him as well, or mellow out his disposition somewhat! He becomes much more palatable and he and Colette actually find a way to have a conversation that doesn’t end in an argument which helps steadily build an attraction between them.

Meanwhile Ellen is in Australia, waiting for her partner’s visa to come through so that he can join her there permanently. She’s still dealing with some fallout that was addressed in the previous novel and learning to muddle through going from agreeing to be in a relationship with someone she was very involved with twenty years ago, to actually being in that relationship and learning the day to day sort of routine of it.

I enjoyed the snapshot of Irish life and also the snippets back in South Australia with Ellen as well. Aidan and Colette grew on me and I did find myself quite invested in them towards the end, even though there wasn’t really much in the way of actual romance in the story. The thing that did feel a bit left field for me was the case of a missing child, which comes up without warning and then dominates the plot in the latter parts of the book. It just felt like a bit of an abrupt change in tone and subject and I wasn’t expecting it to go in that direction at all, or have the effect that it did on numerous characters. One part that I did really think contributed to the story was that of Shane, the troubled nephew of Colette’s business partner who comes to work for them. He’s incredibly surly and reluctant at first but slowly he thaws and opens up and establishes a real bond with both Colette and his uncle. That was really great to read.

This was an appealing story that swept me away to Ireland and made me really want a little cottage in Cork. I’d happily revise this world.

***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*** ...more

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Dec 21, 2021 Catsalive rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021

A nice tale. I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters. Perhaps a bit of a moral about judging people without knowing them - go on, we all do it, whether we want to or not.

I haven't read the preceding book, Leaving Ocean Road, which has some of the same characters, & I didn't feel the lack, so this can definitely be read standalone.

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Apr 25, 2020 Kellie Schache marked it as to-read

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Sep 24, 2021 Gaynor marked it as to-read

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