Chances by Freya North

Chances by Freya North
Buy Chances by Freya North at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Mary Malone
Summary: Reading Chances is like delving into a delicious packet of chocolate biscuits – filled with promise, bite and ultimate satisfaction. A few pages in, the stage is set and Freya North has the reader enthralled and hooked right to the last page.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 400	Date: March 2011
Publisher: 0007326661
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0007326662
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Sharing a business with ex-lover, Tim, is a disaster for Vita. How can she possibly move on when he's popping into their souvenir shop every day? Though she shed the two-timing love rat from her bed over 12 months before, his presence casts dark shadows on her days. But ridding him from her life isn't a likely option and escaping into her precious classic fiction is sometimes the only way she can ignore her troubled thoughts. She cannot afford to buy his share of the business and she isn't prepared to risk losing 'That Shop' with its delightful trinkets and resident shoplifter!

As if coping with the daily stress of Tim isn't enough, Vita's back garden at Pear Tree Cottage has been invaded by a swarm of wasps! Covered in stings and terrified of the harmful creatures, she enlists the help of Oliver, a professional tree surgeon, to remove the cause of her problem – a giant pear tree.

Strong, muscular and intensely private, Oliver arrives to assess the scene. A young widower with a sensitive teenage son, Jonty, he's surprised at the feelings Vita reawakens in him, the first notion of romance he has experienced since his wife's death. But his first priority is to change her mind about chopping down the magnificent pear tree even if it is going to jeopardise any chance he may have of a date with her.

Chances is much more than a story of hurt and rebound love. It's about the meeting of like-minds, the mismatch of lovers and the pressure of past memories on new relationships. It's about the power of female friendships, the relationships between family members and their importance in any crisis, even if it is to point out a few necessary home truths to get Vita to open her eyes and recognise what's staring her in the face.

What's most admirable about Freya North's storytelling is her ability to get straight into the story. She avoids lengthy lead-ins, relying instead on her seamless narrative and lively, three-dimensional characters to maintain pace and keep the reader turning pages. And though Vita's quest for true love is at the heart of the story, the relationship between Oliver and Jonty is intriguing as is Vita's changing relationship with Suzi - Tim's latest squeeze!

I loved this book and read it in one day while on holiday. I can't wait to pick up more titles by the same author.

Further Reading Suggestion: The Kinsella Sisters by Kate Thompson and After The Party by Lisa Jewell

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