Guest Review: Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage by Milly Johnson

Viv arrives at Wildflower Cottage, a tumbledown animal sanctuary, for the summer. Her job is to help with the admin, but the truth is she is here for something much closer to her heart.

Geraldine runs the Wildflower Cottage sanctuary. She escaped from her past to find happiness here, but now her place of refuge is about to come under threat. Can she keep her history at bay and her future safe?

Two women join forces for one shared cause - with unexpected results ...

Review: As a great fan of Milly Johnson's books, I am almost ashamed to say that this one has been on my 'to be read' pile for ages. I even attended the wonderful launch event where Milly kindly signed a copy for me. However, it was definitely a case of better late than never, as this proved to be one of my favourite of her stories so far. Although containing the usual Milly Johnson humour, it is a little different, with a dark element creeping in, adding another layer to the story. 

The setting for the story is the Wildflower Cottage animal sanctuary in the intriguingly named village of Ironmist. It is a lovely little village with a slightly magical quality lent to it by the mistiness suggested by its name. Viv Blackbird has taken a job at the sanctuary to help with the book keeping, even though she has no liking for animals bigger than her beloved cat who she has had to leave at home. At the sanctuary, she meets Geraldine, who helps to run the place, and owner Heath Merlo, as well as a wide assortment of animals of all kinds who have seen better times and now need some TLC. The sanctuary is very run down and under threat from an unpleasant local landowner; the pressure he is under seems to be having an adverse effect on the ruggedly handsome, but unfortunately grumpy, Heath. Running in parallel with Viv's story is the story of her mother, Stel and her friends at home. A single mother, Stel is always on the lookout for Mr Right, and thinks she may have found him in work colleague Ian, but is he all that he seems? 

This is a lovely story, full of humour and an assortment of wonderful characters and highly amusing names and incidents. There is also a much more serious side to the tale, with an unfortunately all too common violent problem rearing its head, leading to some frightening situations. The group of animals at the sanctuary includes some that are really down on their luck, and it is lovely to think that they would be looked after in such a manner as they are at Wildflower Cottage. I really enjoyed watching as Viv overcame her fear of animals and developed a special relationship with one bird in particular. It transpired that Viv had an ulterior motive in going to Ironmist; that added another interesting dimension to the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, whether you are a Milly Johnson fan or new to her works; if this is your first book of hers, I'm sure it won't be the last. 

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