Lachlan Wallace is stuck at home after a car accident stalled his army career. With months of physiotherapy still to endure and only his rescue dog and cat for company, he’s taken to gazing out of the window, watching the world spin on without him. And then he notices a vase of flowers on the windowsill of the apartment opposite his. Drawn to their hope and colour, he decides to reach out and sticks a message in his window…
Bethan Gwynne is a stranger in a new town. Bringing up her son Noah by herself, she is slowly rebuilding her life, but loneliness is one obstacle she has yet to overcome. She’s intrigued by a glimpse of her neighbour in the apartment across from hers – and then, one evening, she sees a message in his window just for her:
WHAT ARE THOSE FLOWERS CALLED?
And so begins a love story of two people reaching out, daring to trust a stranger…
This book is told from the perspective of Lachie and Bethan. I love a dual narrative, but I love it even more when there's the chance that those two narratives are going to cross paths and fall in love and you get the feeling that might just happen in this case right from the word go. This book is also the slowest possible burn. All the information we get about these two amazing people is just so slowly drip fed to us, they are so intriguing and so you just have to keep turning the pages!
Lachie is living in his flat with his cat and dog, we know he has been injured but we don't know how and we don't know what the fallout from that is going to be. Bethan has just moved into the flats across the street and we know that she has experienced some unhappiness but again we don't know what. It is almost infuriating waiting for details about these two and what impact that is going to have on the storyline. Of course being a dual narrative, as soon as we do get some key details, we switch back to the other side of the hedge-just so clever.
As mentioned above, this is full of the trademark Miranda Dickinson positivity. We know these two characters obviously have it tough but they are trying to make the most of it, trying to find the beauty in life and trying to work as hard as they can to ensure their own stamp on the world but they are also honest about how they're feeling, even if they don't always share that until the last minute. I love how we get to see Lachie open up at times. So often in this genre men don't share their emotions and don't talk about their insecurities, there's a stereotype for the male lead and being emotional isn't part of that so it was so refreshing that even though this book is full of hope, there are real human emotions shown from both our leading characters here. We see Bethan struggling with being a single mum and the pressure that society puts on mums and we see Lachie struggling with the grief of being separated from his usual personal and professional routine and the toll that that can take on a person.
I adored this story, the romance was so sweet and yet so intense and the storyline was unlike anything I've read before. I loved getting to know Bethan and Lachie. I loved the familiar North Yorkshire setting and I even loved learning a little bit about the inner workings of a garden centre. I highly recommend this book and I truly believe it is the book you need to read right now!
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