That Long Lost Summer by Minna Howard

That Long Lost Summer

Minna Howard

Rating: 4 stars

Amazon UK

A gorgeous and bittersweet romance set in the South of France, about an old passion rekindled and the choice between family loyalty and a great love.

Flora and Hugo are devoted to their children, but when their girls leave home for university, their lives seem empty. Hugo is cold and distant, leaving Flora unsure what their future holds. When they are invited to a friend's villa in the South of France, Flora hopes the summer sun and gorgeous setting may bring them closer together. In a crumbling, picturesque villa in the luscious French countryside, they are introduced to Susie, Matt and their friends. Flora is surprised to meet Xavier, her old flame, who she fell in love with one long lost summer when she was eighteen. They parted suddenly all those years ago, leaving Flora wondering, what if...

Handsome, passionate, sensitive Xavier is so different from her reliable, predictable Hugo. Both Flora and Xavier have moved on with their lives, but is there something that still lingers between them? Or will Flora's devotion to her children, and her loyalty to Hugo, show her where her true heart lies...

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I adore novels set in France, so when this one caught my eye, I was so eager to read it. It had been sitting on my Kindle for a while, and once I started it, I fell in love! The cover is so romantic, with beautiful buildings, rolling hills and the bright blue sky. It draws you in, makes you think of summer days - and I couldn't wait to get stuck in!

I feel like this novel starts fairly quickly, we were introduced to Flora and Hugo and their relationship 'issues' straight away, and I enjoyed that. It gave a quick overview of the whole novel. I also found that the flirting from Xavier started quickly too, and I was eager to see what Flora was going to do about it all. Especially with Hugo swanning off on a boat for a week with an old school friend, to give himself 'space to think'. I loved Flora's character and often felt so sorry for her, with what she was going through with husband Hugo. As well as the other characters, I enjoyed reading about the other secondary characters such as Susie, Matt and the others.

The setting for this novel sounded idyllic, and not for the first time it had me dreaming of spending weeks in the beautiful country of France, especially where this book was set, it all sounded so beautiful and ideal. I loved the mentioning of the food markets, the food overall just sounded mouth-wateringly delicious. It was a great summery read and I really found myself flying through the pages as it was just such an easy and enjoyable read.

One thing I will say, was that I was a little disappointed with the ending. Throughout this novel, we see Flora and Xavier growing closer and finding it harder to hold back against their passion for one another but when it got to the end, it was kind of left open and we wasn't given a full explanation as to what happened with them both which I thought was a shame. I really thought that we would be given a further explanation as to what was going through Flora's head and who she had 'chosen'. I really disliked Hugo throughout the novel, so to see him and Flora 'together' at the end of the novel confused me slightly - for me it just ended too abruptly. It would have been nice for it to go on for a few more pages to find out more.

Overall, it was a quick and easy summery read. If the ending had been slightly better I would have given it 5 stars. Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this novel to read, which I have reviewed honestly.