The Tapestry Of Love

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Customer Reviews
Charming and lovely 2010-08-26 This book was a pleasant read. I think I am gonna go in for a description now. It was like sitting on the porch, drinking wine (well juice for me), seeing the sun set on a warm summer evening, perhaps reading a book. Everything very pleasant and relaxing. That is what this book is to me. It's the story about Catherine, a woman of 49 who leaves England. Her kids have grown up, she is divorced and she wants something else. So she buys a cottage in France, and wants to make a living there. But French bureaucracy is not that kind to her, but at least she makes some good friends among her neighbours. But then her sister shows up, and then there is this man... I liked Catherine, to just leave everything behind and start anew, I could not do it. All alone up on a mountain. But she makes it work. There neighbours are good secondary characters. The elderly woman whom Catherine drives to places, the couple further down the road, and then there is Patrick. The woodsman not far from her. There is this quite chemistry between them. They become good friends, but no one makes a move. I am not going to give anything away though. Some things needs time. You can't rush love. Sure, not much happen, but at the same time so much happen. There is her dealings with her children, the neighbour, getting to know Patrick, and quite drama when her pretty sister shows up. There is the dealings with wanting to set up a business in a protected area, and seeing a village living on the edge. Kids don't want to become farmers, and how can then rural areas prosper? It was a good story that kept me reading, there was a lightness to it, and humour between the lines. It's a book that make you smile. Final thoughts: I liked this book,it was yes pleasant, I honestly can't come up with something else to describe reading it.
One to savour 2010-08-10 A couple of years ago I read More Than Love Letters by this author, a light-hearted entertaining book that I really enjoyed so I was interested to read her latest novel and thought it would be a change from my usual crime/thriller type reading. Catherine Parkstone is a divorced, middle-aged woman who decides to uproot and move to the Cévennes Mountain region of France, an area she fondly remembers from childhood memories. Her new home is a granite built house on the edge of a small hamlet backing onto the mountain. Catherine is a lovely character, warm and indulgent, someone you can't help but like and although an outsider it's not long before she starts taking tentative steps to become part of the local community, building her relationships with her neighbours who are wonderfully described, realistic and interesting. Her tapestry and needlework business is starting to take off and you begin to wonder if it's all going just a little bit too well. Throw in a touch of French bureaucracy, family members visiting and things begin to change. Rosy Thornton's description of the granite built houses sprinkled in hamlets throughout the rough terrain of the Cévennes is wonderful; the mountain springs, the woodland, the animals and the weather are woven into a marvellously descriptive novel that takes you to the heart of the countryside, making you delight in the atmosphere and the tranquillity. I've never visited the region but having read this I almost feel as though I have. A lovely book and unlike the fast-paced thrillers I usually read, this is definitely one to savour.
SO glad I now know who Rosy Thornton is! 2010-08-09 Okay, firstly I have to say that I am usually of the `trashier the better' kind of attitude. If I am reading Chick Lit, I love the sleaze and glamour of it all. On the other side of the fence, I love a good crime thriller where we see the regular cop heroes turn up at every given opportunity. However, this book certainly doesn't fit into the Chick Lit genre and I would be at a loss as to where to place it. It is a `real' book, that's the best way I can describe it. There is no gush, no fairytale typical storylines, and certainly no murders! Rosy Thornton has managed to produce a book that doesn't just tell you a story; it parks your butt on a plane and actually takes you there. Her style of writing is unusual in comparison to what I am used to but it is brilliant all the same. I could almost imagine myself sitting in the corner of Catherin Parkstone's kitchen in the Cevennes Mountains and actually watching her life unfold. The characters are written really well and there is such an element of realism that you find yourself swept along with the tale. The scenery is so well described that it has left a vivid picture in my imagination of what everything and everybody should look like. The story itself was great too and we meet Catherine's local neighbours, who are at first very `French', making Catherine have to work a lot harder to become part of the community. Catherine's sister Bryony makes an appearance in Cevennes after making a radical decision to take a sabbatical from work. This complicates Catherine's life more than she cares to admit. She struggles to get her priorities in her head the right way round. Although both her children are grown up she finds herself constantly worrying about whether they will be okay and whether moving to this remote part of France was a good idea after all. The book is structured so that we see her time at her home progress over a number of months which makes it so much easier to imagine the different times of year in this area. It also gives the reader the element of how far she has come and what the future will hold. All in all this was a fantastic book. I will admit that I would never have chosen this from a bookstore as it doesn't look trashy enough for me, but boy am I glad I read this. A wonderful book with a real touch of realism that is perfect for curling up with. I would highly recommend this book and Rosy Thornton will definitely be added to my list of authors to pre-order from.
A Quiet and Pleasant Journey through the French Countryside 2010-08-08 Perhaps it was the beauty of the mountain and trees in a small town in France that pulled me in. Or maybe it was Catherine Parkstone, a divorced woman from England who decides to move to the small town that got me. And then there was also the feel of the needle that I felt in my hands as Catherine works on tapestries and divans and builds her little business in France. What an extremely nice and pleasant read I had, walking along through the world of Rosy Thornton's story,The Tapestry of Love. Catherine Parkstone has left her life in England and moved to France, to start anew and set herself up in a small business as a seamstress. Her children are fully grown, and Catherine knows that the time is now to find her place in life, her true place. You're not from here... Says the man on the road in the middle of the storm to Catherine...but she is valiantly taking one step after another. She encounters quite a bit in her new home and town, with her eccentric neighbors (oh, how I adored Monsier and Madame Bouschet!), and her attempts to understand the requirements of setting up a home based business in France are quite endearing. Her daughter is a free-spirited writer, her son is a quiet scientist, and her sister Bryony is a top-notch partner at a law firm, and each of them are part of her lives either by visiting or calling her (which even the phone system is one that Catherine has a bit of interest in trying to figure out in the quiet French country). And as Catherine attempts to live her life by a specific routine, her neighbor Patrick has entered and has placed a slight bit of anticipation and question in her life. When Bryony comes to visit, it certainly throws things for a bit of a loop. This story is about life, relationships, and finding your own place amongst it all, and being able to find it even a bit later in life. You are on your own, your children are grown -- there is no more obligation other than to yourself. Your identity is one to now make separate of everything else, without anyone else "taking care of things." It is now up to you, and in this story, it is now Catherine's choices all on her own. Catherine is a lovable character and there were moments when my heart broke for her as I felt for her quiet strength as she interacted with her family and especially as she dealt with her loving, yet goal-oriented sister. I enjoyed the images of the rolling countryside of the South of France that went through my mind and I eagerly hopped onto the Internet to Google Le Cevennes. This was my first Rosy Thornton novel, and I shan't expect it to be my last. Happy Reading! Coffee and a Book Chick
A French Idyll 2010-07-10 I have read all of Rosy Thornton's novels and I think this is the best yet. Catherine goes to live in France near the small hamlet of St Julien in the Cevennes. She can speak French and she very soon becomes a part of the community. The locals leave her gifts of food on the doorstep and she is quickly on visiting terms with most. She sets up her own business making soft furnishings and doing tapestry work - which presents its own problems with officialdom. Soon after moving she meets the fascinating Patrick Castagnol and her sister Bryony, a high powered lawyer, comes to visit. I loved the descriptions of the scenery and the everyday village life and people. Catherine herself is an interesting character and the rivalry between her and her sister is well done and believable. Catherine has her problems - a desire for independence and her own space which makes it difficult for her to accept help, a nagging feeling she hasn't visited her mother in England when perhaps she should have done. She worries about her daughter Lexie who seems to be flitting between jobs at an alarming rate and she worries about her ex-husband, Graeme though less so about her son, Tom. This is a book to sink into on a summer's afternoon with a glass of wine - French of course. It transports you to a different world though not one where everything is sunshine. There are heavy rainstorms and thunder and lightning which always knock out the electricity. In summer it is too hot during the day and work is best done at night. People die and others are born. But this is life lived in the slow lane and the emphasis is on everyday events. The writing is subtle and understated - and all the better for being so. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to anyone who likes such authors as Erica James or Mavis Cheek.