Country Girl

Cathryn Hein has written another superb story. This is a book that you won’t want to put down. It has everything in it, it will make you laugh and cry.
This rural romance follows the characters of Tash Ranger and Patrick Lawson. Tash is The Urban Ranger Food Blogger. Patrick is her best friend’s fiancé.
Tash has moved home to her family’s farm and has moved into her grandfathers old flat, she is renovating the flat and cooking up a storm for her blog using locally grown produce, she wrangles in her grandfather to help with her video blogs of growing your own produce. He is such a wonderful character that you will adore.
Patrick remains loyal to his fiancé and he is keeping his promise to be with her forever. When Maddie’s horse that injured her is given to Tash he does everything in his power to protect Tash from coming to the same fate as Maddie. Will Patrick see that there is more to life then sitting in a room with a fiancé that cannot communicate with him.
Tash needs to decide whether to stay in Emu Springs and follow her heart of leave and follow her dream.
Now one thing I have to say is where are al the recipes for all the wonderful meals that were cooked in this book, besides them making me salivate for them while reading I so wanted to try making them. I was praying there was some at the back of the book but no.
Tash Ranger needs to release her cookbook. I am sure I am not the only one who reads this and wants the recipes.
Cathryn Hein, you have pulled a rabbit out of the hat!!!

Published 18th December 2017 By Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Pty Ltd
Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin (Australia), TEEN/MIRA for a copy for my honest opinion and review.

I found this a bit hard to get into at the start but once I got a few chapters in I was hooked. An epic story full of emotion, love and heartbreak. The part I enjoyed most was the whole "foodie" side of it and the descriptions of the food and recipes had me watering at the mouth!

This is a beautifully written story but you will need some tissues at the ready, I loved the setting a small country town where the neighbours are all good friends and there to support, and of course I loved that friends that had gone to school together re connect and journey to a HEA that has a few matters that take a bit to overcome that will end in lots of smiles.

Tash Ranger grew up in Emu Springs and had lots of friends but always felt the frumpy one and she loves cooking and food, Tash moved away started a blog and has had huge success she now has a cookbook deal and has moved back home to take her show back to the country, but one thing she is worried about is visiting her best friend Maddie this is heartbreaking for Tash as Maddie was badly injured when riding her horse and life will never been the same for her.

Patrick Lawson lives with heartbreak he is Maddie’s fiancé and is true to his promise to love and care for her but Maddie lives with her parents Patrick is not coping well, when Tash moves back home and somehow she gives him the strength to make some decisions and move on start a new life and listen to his feelings for Tash.

Patrick and Tash have this pull between them both were so close to Maddie but now it is time for them, the journey isn’t easy but oh I do love Tash what a beautiful caring loving strong woman she is and Patrick so vulnerable but gorgeous and these two make the perfect couple. Of course Tash’s cooking is to die for as well I am sure I put on a couple of kilos just reading this book oh my goodness the fun and friendships along the journey are so beautiful woohoo MS Hein I loved Tash and Patrick’s story another one for the keeper shelf and one that I highly recommend.

Tash Ranger has made her career as a food vlogger, her good recipes and camera presence building her a steady following. In an attempt to keep her output fresh she’s moving back to her family farm – the Urban Ranger goes (back to the) country! It’s the place Tash grew up and she’s remodelling her grandfather’s old flat for cooking and filming. She has lots of ideas about fresh, local produce but it’s not supposed to be a permanent thing. Her mind is always ticking over, thinking of new ideas, keeping her output new and innovative.

Tash knows Patrick Lawson as first the boyfriend and then later the fiance of her childhood best friend Maddie. A shocking accident means that Maddie is no longer the person she was, but Patrick has remained loyal to her. He still visits her every day and he intends to keep his promises to her. This is severely complicated by Tash’s return and the reactions that Patrick has whilst around her. It starts off as overprotective as he seeks to stop Tash from doing the very thing that injured Maddie and he is very adamant about it. Tash however, is not really into being bossed around by Patrick, nor is she incapable of making her own judgements. Tash challenges Patrick and isn’t afraid to tell him off and despite their rocky start when Tash arrives back in town, they keep crossing paths.

I’m not going to lie – I had some reservations about this pairing before I started the story. Tash knows Patrick as her best friend’s boyfriend. It’s true that Maddie isn’t the same anymore and won’t ever be the same. But I was wary about the whole “best friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend’s best friend’ sort of thing. It’s not an entanglement I usually enjoy although the circumstances in this story were very different. And the way it was handled definitely won me over. Patrick is so obviously such a tortured soul. He’s still so young but he’s stuck by Maddie, even though they will never be able to have that life together that they’d planned anymore. He’s so determined to keep his promises, despite the fact that other people are concerned about him an want him to embrace his life. The way that the attraction between him and Tash unfolds felt really natural and that like Patrick was ready to move on, he just had to make that conscious decision to actually do so, which he was struggling with because he had made promises to Maddie. I have to admit, Patrick didn’t endear himself to me at first – there’s an incident towards the beginning of the story that’s a bit hard to take although I know the logistics of why Patrick wanted to do something but ultimately the fault doesn’t lie where he was trying to place it. He needs something to blame though, and that’s the easiest option. There’s also how bossy and arrogant he was with Tash, but she puts him in his place relatively quickly and once he kind of settled down a bit and realised no one had a death wish, he began to grow on me. I thought that his internal struggle was very well written and I could really feel his pain and indecision. The desire to do what he’d promised versus the possibility of a more fulfilling life with someone who was in a position to love him in return.

I absolutely loved Tash’s job as a food vlogger and the devotion to her creations in this story. There’s lots of amazing meals described – Cathryn Hein is a pretty enthusiastic cook so I wouldn’t be surprised if most are these are some of her favourite dishes! Tash spends quite a bit of time with her grandfather starting up the farm’s vegetable garden too and I loved their chats – her grandfather goes kind of “viral” which was cute. He was a fantastic character, a cheeky older man who in some ways reminded me of my own (sadly gone now) grandfather. Mine could be cheeky as well and enjoyed a story over a veggie garden. I think if I’d asked him to help me revive one he’d have been in on that before you could blink.

The Country Girl definitely won me over, which is no surprise really because Cathryn Hein is one of my favourite authors and her rurals are always sweet with a bit of a sassy twist. I went from my original slight skepticism to fully on board with Patrick and Tash because I think they were bringing out the best in each other as well as showing each other that they had options.

8/10

Another great rural romance by Cathryn Hein. Food plays an important roll in the story, and while not being a big foodie myself, I like how it was weaved into the story. The two main characters had a lot to work through, especially guilt, memories and future expectations. It also shows how important communication and honesty are in all relationships.