Thank you to the publisher Sapere Books who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

In the last year I have read two 5 star books in succession from this author. So, after reading "Dead Ernest" and "Cassandra's Secret", I came to expect great things from author Frances Garrood. However, her last two books that I have read, "Women Behaving Badly" and this one, have sadly disappointed me.

This story takes place in England (a delightful staple of Garrood's books) and centers upon the main character of Ruth Robinson. Ruth plays the violin and has had some mediocre success in this profession. With the benefit of a small financial legacy from a deceased grandmother, Ruth decides to treat herself to a belated "gap year" trip. To that end, she lets her home to a family of Norwegians while she's away. However, fate steps in to shelve her plans. Over the years she has been friends with a bearded trombonist named Amos, and they eventually have an intimate night together. Following this event, Amos sets out to the Bahamas on a cruise ship as part of a musical ensemble.

Ruth Robinson is pregnant! Initially, she decides to abort the pregnancy. But, following anesthesia and as she is being wheeled away, Ruth has a sudden revelation. She envisions a sort of seahorse/rabbit apparition representing the life growing inside her, it scrambling from the ceiling to the window and dissipating into a puddle of ectoplasm. Following this hallucination of sorts, Ruth finds the strength to voice her desire to stop the abortion.

Ruth's parents are strict Catholics, and unable to stop the letting of her small house to the Norwegians, Ruth hopes to find refuge with her family. Her father in particular is horrified at Ruth's condition, and very worried about the neighbors finding out. To that end, a solution is arrived at to send Ruth to stay with her twin uncles Silas and Eric who live a a rambling and cluttered Victorian home named Applegarth. Things only get weirder from here. We meet one eccentric character after another. There is Blossom, the Catholic woman who rides a bike each day to Applegarth to clean the house. She's not a very good cleaner, and is very abrupt and non-communicative. In fact, she often takes out the vacuum to put an end to conversations. She has a beautiful daughter Kaz who is a pole dancer and a bulky son (from an affair) named Lazzo who is on government assistance for questionable reasons. Uncles Silas and Eric are also very eccentric. They never worked at an actual job, but seem to be able to survive on a family legacy as well as from farming. Another eccentric quality one of the twins has is his penchant for taxidermy. With no actual formal training, he makes repeated attempts at this endeavor, often over-stuffing or not applying the correct fake eyes to the object. Also, dead animals can often be found wrapped up at the bottom of the regular family refrigerator for later taxidermy projects! Another eccentric quality of one of the twins is an obsession with potential health problems. He has a book of medical symptoms and is always self-diagnosing based on what he has gleaned from the book.

Coming out of left field (to add to this book's quirky nature) is the discovery by Blossom that the Virgin Mary seems to be etched into an area on the outside of the chicken coup. Blossom has big plans to publicize this discovery for those who wish to make pilgrimage to the miracle. However, the owners of the house, Silas and Eric, are not Catholic. In fact, one of the twins has had an elaborate and ongoing project to challenge the notion that Noah's Ark could have existed.

Ruth has decided to have the baby, but seems distracted by other things and not really focused on the imminent arrival of her baby. As time goes on she decides that she would like to locate Amos (who has no idea of the pregnancy) and perhaps give an enduring relationship with him a chance.

I keep using the word "eccentric" because this was a very odd cast of characters adding up to a very improbable story. With each of Garrood's books I delve into, they bend increasingly this way until I feel they have slipped off the deep end. This was kind of cute and mildly interesting, but I probably would have stopped reading if I wasn't provided an arc for review.

The idea of the book was really good - but it didn't work out too well. The characters in the book are lovely and I loved their character development but the stories seemed a bit half baked. I didn't understand the point of some of the story lines - like the chickens. I think it may have been better to take a few sideline stories and fully develip them rather than a lot of little ones that don't really mesh well. Having said that, I loved Kaz and Lazzo - they were my favorite characters in the entire book. I liked Ruth but I liked her better in context of her growth with the other characters. I loved Rosie and slowly even liked Brian (somewhat). It's definitely a cute read but I think the most I would give it is 3.5 stars.

Ruth suddenly finds herself unemployed, homeless and pregnant!
Now she has to figure out what to do, how to do it, how to tell her very religious parents... and the baby's father!
While she waits for her apartment to be empty again, she lives with her uncles (twins) and learns a lot about family and herself.

I got my Advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review.

Ruth was brought up by very old fashioned religious parents who were always disappointed in her life choices and so when age 36 she turns up homeless and pregnant her relationship with them hits rock bottom! Unable to cope with the shame of an unmarried pregnant daughter they arrange for her to go and stay with her uncles in their rambling old farmhouse. Eric and Silas are identical twins in their seventies and completely eccentric,.... Silas is obsessed with picking up dead animals from the side of the road and practising taxidermy and Eric is intent on proving that Noah' s Ark couldn't possibly have held all those animals! With all sorts of animals floating around, a mad cleaner and various other people turning up to stay at the farmhouse it is certainly not going to be a quiet pregnancy for Ruth!

A lovely book with great characters all totally eccentric and living in a madhouse but one you couldn't put down until you had finished it

I received this ebook from NetGalley, I like books with the word "Miracle" in the title and this one was true at its word.
A woman's story, raised in a strict Catholic environment ....where her violin is her best freind and life, and disappointing her parents ends up pregnant , searching on her future what to do...and finds family is an important role that year and the bonds that help her find herself as she is going through the process.
Her uncles,who are twins, play a main event in not only her life but all the visitors who come stay with them,their cottage farm is almost like a Bed and Breakfast house except they get to stay all year.
They wear their heart on their sleeve,accepting every family member with open arms no matter what their flaws are.
Being a twin myself, I can relate to the uncles (the twins) antics and roles,and Ruth,the main character becomes very fond of them and understands their twin bond.
AN eccentric woman,Blossom...who is a true beleiver of the Virgin Mary image that appears in the Hen House wall, fights every moment for it not to be removed. Deep down, I found myself understanding her bitterness for people but deep down she loves being in this environment of family all around.
The humor and eccentriness in some of the characters keeps the reader glued to the chapters. The ending have a surprise twist and will keep you wanting to read more about these families.
I recommend this book if you want a good happy romance story to read.

Wasn’t sure about this book before I started it but found it to be a very enjoyable summer read & would recommend it.