Evie Nicholson loves antiques and is working for a dealer when she gets the opportunity to value family heirlooms at Kettlesheer Castle in Scotland. A daydreamer and a romantic, Evie's imagination goes into hyper-drive when she learns that she will be at the castle at the same time as traditional ball hosted by the family (including the handsome heir). Caught up with visions of sweeping down staircases Gone With the Wind style and dressing for dinner, Evie pays little attention to the reality of life for the Nicholson family. Can she learn to take a step back from her fantasy life?The Vintage Girl was a lot of fun to read. Hester Browne is a good writer and the story just flows from chapter to chapter, never feeling too short or too long. The pacing is perfect and the romance, whilst being rather predictable, builds up slowly and avoids the pitfall of insta-love. Evie herself is easy to relate to as a main character, particularly for someone like me, who also likes to live with her head in the clouds sometimes! Equally her love interest, Robert, isn't too perfect, and is shown to have a few flaws of his own.The main tension in the narrative comes from the fact that Robert is expected to marry someone else, someone rich who can use their money to save Kettlesheer Castle from bankruptcy, and is already in a relationship with this person. But their relationship never felt believable enough to cause any real problems, and Browne made it too easy on Evie and Robert by making Catriona rather unlikeable, to the extent that it was hard to see why Robert was with her in the first place. Similarly, this problem was solved too easily later in the novel. I'm not expecting deep depression or anything like that in a novel like The Vintage Girl, but I would have liked the emotions of the situation explained a bit more.I would recommend The Vintage Girl if you are after a fun, easy read with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. It's not the best chick-lit novel I have ever read, but I certainly enjoyed it. This book was an unexpected delight! Evie is a likeable heroine - a normal girl with quirks!I felt like some of the background to her character was a little thin but I loved her nonetheless.The Scottish setting and Evie's love for the vintage were what really bought this story to life so romantic & evocative.This is the first book I've read by this author but I loved her style - perfect for a light easy read. I'll definitely be tracking more of her work down
What do You think about The Vintage Girl (2014)?
A good old vintage romance with a feisty heroine and a brooding leading man. What's not to like ?
—kateyflanagan
brilliant, I really enjoyed this book. Yet another author to look out for!
—Ksulli12
2.5 starsThis was...okay. Didn't really care about any of the characters.
—darren
Cute Valentine's Day book! I totally want to learn to reel now.
—Musa
