Gust Review: The Village of Lost and Found by Alison Sherlock

Scandal hit party girl Lucy Conway needs to leave London fast, so she packs her bags and escapes to the sleepy village of Cranbridge to take care of her beloved Uncle Frank.

But the country village isn’t quite as idyllic as she remembers. To make matters worse, her Uncle’s pride and joy, The Cranbridge Times, is close to going out of business.

Editor-at-Large Tom Addison is having a crisis of confidence and needs help if the newspaper is going to survive.

With time on her hands, can Lucy work some magic and together save the family newspaper?

Over a long, hot summer, friendships are made and hearts begin to heal.Nbr> And, with the help of a stray dog, perhaps Lucy and Tom can find their very own new beginning...

Review: This is book 2 in the Riverside Lane Series, following on from The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts by the same author. The series is set in the small, but sadly rundown, village of Cranbridge, with its little (or sometimes not so little) river running through the middle. I found the first book in the series quite captivating and looked forward to revisiting the village and its inhabitants in this sequel.

Lucy Conway has arrived in the village to escape the unwanted attention she is receiving from the press following the break up of a disastrous relationship in London. Her beloved uncle has suggested she should make a temporary move to Cranbridge, where he is sure that she can find work on the local paper, which he owns. Unfortunately, she finds both the Cranbridge Times and its editor Tom Addison in need of rescuing. Having not a great deal more to do with her time, Lucy decides to set about trying to reverse the fortunes of her uncle’s paper and at the same time help Tom regain his confidence. She quickly makes many friends in the village and begins to realise that it and its inhabitants have found a home in her heart.

I have very much enjoyed this story and would not hesitate to recommend it. It was easy to read but not so easy to put down. The characters are, in the main, ones that I have met before in the first book in the series, and it was good to learn a little more about some of them. They are all eminently likeable, and once again the reader feels a lovely warm sense of community in this little village that so deserves to be resurrected to its former glory. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the big stars of the story - a shaggy dog called Keith! What a great character he was; I know I would have taken him in if Lucy hadn’t. This is definitely a series I would like to read more of, if indeed there are any more in the pipeline.

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