The Happy Home for Broken Hearts by Rowan Coleman

 

From Goodreads

A wise and warm-hearted novel about fresh starts, from the author of The Memory Book.

Ellie Woods spends her days immersed in the escapist pages of the romantic novels she lovingly edits. But her reality is somewhat less rose-tinted. Once upon a time, Ellie had her 'happily ever after' moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband's tragic death leaves her alone with their soon-to-become-a-teenager son, faced with a mountain of debt, and on the verge of losing the family home.

On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie finally succumbs to her sister's well-meant bullying and decides to rent out some rooms. And all too soon the indomitable Allegra with her love for all things lavender, Sabine on secondment from Berlin and estranged from her two-timing husband, and unreconstructed lads' mag aficionado Matt enter her ordered but fragile existence - each with their own messy life in tow. And Ellie finds herself forced to step out of the pages of the romantic novels she hides behind, and learn to live - and love - again.

Maybe a new chapter is about to begin for them all...

My thoughts

I have had a copy of this for some time.  Like many of my books they sit unread patiently waiting to be chosen by me to be read next.  Well fortunately for The Happy Home of Broken Hearts, it was chosen as the lucky one and I am glad that it did get chosen.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.  I enjoyed the story of Ellie Woods and her tenants.  When Ellie's husband Nick passes away, Ellie is left with trying to find a way of coping financially.  She decides that as she has some spare rooms in her house, that renting some of them out might be a way of finding the extra income she needs to help make ends meet for her and her son.  To find out what happens to Ellie and her her tenants, you need to grab a copy of the book from somewhere and immerse yourself in her world.

Rowan Coleman's books don't often fail to transport you out of your day to day life and into someone else's day to day life and this one is no different than that.