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Needing to escape her London life quickly, Eleanor throws her things into the back of her car, and heads to her erstwhile best friend Charlie’s family farm. But Charlie isn’t there. Instead she finds Charlie’s grieving brother Daniel, her eight-month old daughter Hope (a daughter Eleanor had known nothing about), and a crumbling and unloved Damson Farm. Damson Farm lies at the edge of the village of Ferrington, with the river Maddon flowing at its heart. But Ferrington is a village divided by more than just a river – it is split in two by an age-old feud – between the Old Side and the New Side. Eleanor has run from her problems, straight into a family and a world that has problems of its own. But Damson Farm has magic too, and as winter gives way to spring, the old farm starts to come to life under Eleanor’s love and care. The orchard starts to blossom with daffodils and bluebells, and the sound of bees busy in their hives fills the warming air. Can Eleanor bring Daniel and the feuding village of Ferrington back to life too, or will her secrets catch up with her first?
Well this is a very sweet read, at first I found it charming but to be honest it is a bit sickeningly sweet and I lost sense of reality a bit. Moran describes a wide range of emotions throughout this, and rightly so, however the descriptions are a bit much and, I repeat myself, sickeningly sweet. It began to feel a bit childlike, everything was very proper and idealistic and life just is not like that.
This aside, and I have to say I loved the premise of the read and I did thoroughly enjoy it, if I skipped over the detailed descriptions. As I say, the premise is a good one and one that covers a lot of topics, I was engaged in the plot, entertained and wanted to see it through. If the detail had been stripped back a bit then I think this would have been a highly enjoyable read.
I did like the character of Eleanor, she has a lot of different aspects of her personality which we gradually learn about and they all serve to build a developed idea of who she is. Eleanor goes through a lot during the course of this read as well which helped me warm to her and care about what happened to her. Moran’s other characters are good too, there are many different personalities and it was very entertaining seeing how they all interact with each other.
There are a lot of different aspects to ‘We Belong Together’ and if the lovey-dovey aspect had been stripped back a bit then I think this would have been an excellent read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advance copy.
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