A Winters Tale * Trisha Ashley

A Winters Tale by Trisha Ashley

Sophy Winter is not your typical Lady of the Manor...

Unexpectedly inheriting Winters End - a vast mansion in the beautiful Lancashire countryside - seems like the answer to Sophy's prayers. She eagerly swaps life as an impoverished house keeper for running her own team of staff.

But Sophy quickly realises the challenge in her hands - the house is decrepit and its eccentric inhabitants are a nightmare. And once it is discovered that Winter's End played host to young Shakespeare, the village of Sticklepond becomes curious about Sophey's plans, especially charming Jack Lewis. But is he really smitten with Sophy - or her newly acquired cash?

Meanwhile, Sophy's gorgeous head gardener Seth is the strong and silent type. But does his passion blood for anything else other than horticultural?

As Sophy gets to grips with squabbling relatives, collapsing buildings and the ghostly presence of one of her ancestors, she wonders if Winter's End is not so much a gift from the gods, as a mixed blessing.

When Sophy Winter is greeted upon her little cottage doorstep baby the ever so handsome Jack Lewis, she knows things are about to change. So when the nephew of her late employer kicks her out of her cottage, she has nowhere to to. Though she didn't realise how soon and the  shock that would come with it. 

When Jack tells her that she is now the proud owner of an old stately home that she used to grow up in when she was younger, Sophy can't quite believe it. Much to Jack's disappointment she decided to come back to Winter's End and see what's in store for her. Jumping into the brightly coloured but battered VW Camper, she drives to Stickle Pond, where she's greeted by her distant family and a very grumpy Gardener. Who tires to force her off the premises and to take her "travelling gypsy friends" with her if they show up.  

It soon turns out that the house is much more worse than Sophy imagined, with rotting walls, caving in buildings, covered in dust from waist upwards and cobwebs in every corner in the house. It's going to need a big clean and plenty of hands, so it's a good thing that Sophy loves to clean and has worked in old stately homes before!

Though there is a slight problem, there is the gardener, Seth Greenwood. Who only has eyes for the restoration of the Gardens which his father always dreamt of completing. And nothing will get in his way of completing it, not even the new head of the house Sophy. But all hell breaks loose when she asks to borrow his staff for a couple of hours to do the handy work around the house, soon Seth and Sophy are in constant battle and cannot stand each other, but will this change? 

With Sophy's only daughter away and working abroad in Japan, Sophy feels lost with not having her wing man to help her make decisions. Especially with her grumpy and vicious Aunt Hebe, who only had eyes for her precious Jack. But he's not so glamorous and charming as everyone seems, and Seth knows it. But it's difficult to try and get this into Sophy's head. 

With a broody but handsome gardener, a charming but arrogant man of the hour, a prude of an aunt and also an eccentric one too! The cooks, the cleaners, a  new dog and a cat and a rehearsal in good old fashioned clothing. All to be done and in time for the big annual Christmas party, Sophy has a lot on her plate and her mind. 

Will she end up with her own Mr. Darcy? Will her daughter come home from Japan? And will the annoying but bitter Mel Christopher ever leave her alone? 

Hi all, sorry long time and no update! But I'm here now! A Winters Tale by Trisha Ashley was a different read for me I think. I picked this up from work whilst on my lunch break and took a shine to it. Though at first it took me a little while to get into it. 

I liked the idea on how Sophy got to go back to Winters end and I liked how her Aunt's we're portrayed. I knew Jack would be a snake in the grass from the word go and thought there could of been a bit more secretiveness to it. I loved Seth's character and could just picture him, I think ever romance needs a bit of a rough, rouged man at some point in the books. You just know there going to be a keeper if there handsome but gloomy, well I think so. 

This is the first book I have read by Ashley and I have already got some of her books on my shelf, that are still waiting to be read. I will be reading more of her books, though I do hope there a little bit different to this one. As much as I enjoyed it, I found it hard to concentrate or find the lack of effort to finish the book. In some stages I wanted to carry on and in others I just couldn't be bothered and wanted to read another book. 

Though all in all, I would say the book was okay, the story line was great but did think at some point that some of the characters could of been a little different. 

I will give this book 4 out of 10