Wednesday 18 December 2013

Review - The Restaurant @ The Mill by Linn B Halton


A beautifully warm and cosy book which was completely adorable.  

Six very different relationships come together with the common link being that they either dine or work at The Restaurant at the Mill.  This is owned by Hilary and Ben who became business partners after Ben approached Hilary when he saw a business opportunity for them to run a fabulous establishment combining his amazing skills as a chef with her front of house professionalism and experience.

We learn about these wonderful individuals and how their relationships develop and intertwine.  The people involved are Hilary and Ben, Charlotte, Grace and Lawrence, Isabel and David, Thomas and  Sadie who works at the restaurant. 

Linn threw in quite a few very unexpected surprises and links along the way which kept the plot fresh and kept your interest peaked. The characters are wonderfully created and I could picture both the exterior location and the interior look of the Mill and was quite tempted at one point to actually ring the restaurant and book myself a table as I could picture this beautiful setting, cosy atmosphere and wonderful people and I just wanted to dine in this place and be part of the cast. 

I started reading this lovely book on a Sunday morning and literally had to drag myself out of bed that morning as I had lots of important things to do even though I really wanted to cancel them all, tuck myself up on the sofa and continue to read. I was counting down the hours until Sunday evening so I could pick up where I left off and continue with the individual lives that weaved around this wonderful community of people who had become my friends.

Even a couple of days after I finished reading the book  (because I immediately picked up another book of Linn's - The Quintessential Gemini!) I was still thinking about the characters and how their lives will go on from here and what would become of them all. I could have continued to read about them forever.  I could easily have read about each of the characters in their own separate books - when you're ready Linn!

Linn is an author who makes it easy for a reader to create pictures of people and places in their minds, making you feel part of the story somehow or as if you are just sitting on the sidelines watching in.  I feel that this is such a clever skill because as a reader, there is nothing better than feeling the emotions of the characters and knowing what all the places you are reading look like and she does this particularly well. 

Linn B Halton lives in the small Gloucestershire village of Arlingham on the banks of the river severn with her adorable husband and cat with attitude Mr Tiggs! Linn and Lawrence have renovated many houses over the years and she writes romantic fiction with a psychic or astrological theme and many of the paranormal events that feature in her books are real life experiences.


She has written about some of these experiences in Being A Sceptic is Oh So Easy.  

Linn wrote Touched By The Light shortly after the death of her mother and is a big advocate of the saying "seeing is believing!" 
 
 
You can learn more about Linn at her website and also read more about loveahappyending.com
 
 

3 comments:

Linn B Halton and Lucy Coleman said...

Fab to be here again Kim and thank you for your lovely, lovely review! I so enjoyed writing The Restaurant and could easily write a sequel ... maybe one day!

Bonnie Trachtenberg said...

What a wonderful review, Kim! This sounds like a Maeve Binchy, something I'd really enjoy curling up with. Well done, Linn! Thanks for the review, Kim!

Sheerie said...

Sounds so good, just put it on my kindle wish list.....it's a must read for me!!!!