View source for Fragile Memories by Joan M Moules

{{infobox
|title=Fragile Memories
|author=Joan M Moules
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Maura inherits a manor house near Salisbury.  Will she be able to keep it and why can she not get her former boyfriend out of her mind? Easy reading.
|rating=3
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=224
|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd
|date=May 2010
|isbn=978-07371588
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090587</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0709090587</amazonus>
}}

Maura was surprised when she inherited the manor house at Picton near Salisbury.  She hadn't been close to her Uncle Tom for many years and he had a stepson, Jim, whom she thought would have inherited in preference to her.  It was five years since she's been back to Picton and when she returned to put the property on the market she was surprised by the extent of her longing to return there.  Money was going to be a problem though.  She worked as a model and couldn't really to this from the manor – and she didn't have the money for the property's upkeep.  Her boyfriend, Nick, had an answer.  He already had three successful restaurants and was looking to extend into the countryside – what better place could there be for his new restaurant?

There was another problem about Picton though – and one which she hadn't expected to encounter as soon as she did.  She'd left the village five years before after the split from her boyfriend.  Ross had then gone to Australia, but on her first morning back she finds her car parked next to his – and realises that her feelings for him are as strong as ever.  Can she make her relationship with Nick work and why is her cousin Jim pursuing her?

It's a very easy story to read: I finished it in one rather lazy afternoon in the garden.  You've got a pretty good idea how it's all going to turn out, but the pleasure of a book like this doesn't lie in the ending but rather in what the characters go through to get there.  I liked Maura: she's a level-headed, intelligent young woman not prone, as are so many romantic heroines, to making ridiculous decisions and expecting the reader to believe in them.  Mrs Duffy, the housekeeper at the manor, is a gem.  The men are rather more two-dimensional.  Ross is too good – and Jim just too creepy!

If you're looking for a lazy romantic read you might well enjoy this book and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If this book appeals then you might also enjoy the excellent [[Midsummer Madness by Stella Whitelaw]] and [[River Deep by Maxine Barry]].

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