Review: Wish You Were Here by Victoria Connelly

Just got back from a fabulous week on the stunning island of Kethos. That’s what it feels like anyway and I feel like right away.

Alice Archer is a plain Jane in a dreary dead-end job with a dull and boring life.  Nobody in her life listens to her or notices her except for her father who is in a care home.  When her demanding sister Stella offers her a place on a week’s holiday to the Greek island of Kethos, it sounds like just what she needs just as long as she can put up with Stella and her difficult ways. 

When she arrives, she leaves Stella by the pool working on her tan and visits the gardens at Villa Argenti, where she meets handsome gardener Milo who tells her that people wish upon the statue of Aphrodite.  Though she doesn’t believe in this myth, she takes the opportunity to make a wish that men notice her.  When Milo offers to take her out for a day, she decides it’s about time she started to enjoy herself and accepts his offer.  Men suddenly start to notice her and wondering whether it is co-incidence or whether her wish has come true.  Is this just a holiday romance or is it true love? Is Milo what he seems to be or is he hiding a secret from Alice?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it on a particularly rainy afternoon which made the island of Kethos even more appealing for me.  I easily imagined the villa that Stella and Alice stayed in and wanted to stay there myself.  I could picture myself on the back of Milo’s bike, with the wind in my hair seeing the spectacular views and could definitely see myself wandering around and smelling the amazing aromas coming from the flowers in the gardens of Villa Argenti.

Victoria’s style of writing is so descriptive, expressive and colourful and it is these qualities which make her books so easy to read.  This story flows really well and you become very quickly deeply immersed in the world that she writes about.  This is a book that shuts you away from everything that is going on in your life and you are transported to the island of Kethos enjoying all the delights that Alice experiences. 

This morning, I'm still thinking about Kethos.  I feel like booking a holiday to this gorgeous island and exploring it myself.  I will definitely be looking out for Milo and Alice around every corner.  I think most of the ladies who read this book might just fall a little bit in love with Milo!

 

I always look forward to reading a Victoria Connelly novel, she is a wonderful author who totally and utterly brings her books to life! This is such a feel-good romance novel that I would definitely recommend to brighten up your life. 

Victoria Connelly grew up in Norfolk.  After graduating, she worked her way through a number of jobs before becoming a teacher in North Yorkshire.  In 2000, she got married in a medieval castle in the Yorkshire Dales and moved to London.  After writing articles and short stories, a bidding war between five publishers in Germany resulted in a book deal and the first of three novels published there was made into a film.

Her first novel to be published in the UK was Molly’s Millions (2009) and was a top ten ebook bestseller.  Victoria has also written a trilogy about Jane Austin addicts.  Victoria and her husband recently left London for a cottage in rural Suffolk, where she lives with a springer spaniel and a brood of rescued battery hens. 

 

To buy Wish You Were Here via Amazon UK, click here.

 

To find out more about Victoria, check out her website here

 

You can follow Victoria on Twitter or you can like her on Facebook.