It seemed like a good idea. Selling everything we owned. Just Mark and me, swapping our tiny, little, terraced London home – and the heartbreak of not being able to start a family – for an entire chateau in the middle of France… It’s everyone’s dream. And now it’s coming true for us.

As I use the rusty key to open the big, creaking wooden door of the tumbledown fairytale chateau that’s officially our new home, I wonder: what could possibly go wrong?

Little do I know that the answer is going to be… ‘everything’. I don’t speak nearly as much French as I should yet, but I feel like there’s no mistaking the villagers’ hostility. Nor the look of shock on the builder’s face when he sees the roof.

Can our marriage survive this adventure? With all the tumbling masonry, will we?

As the French sun blazes overhead, one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be a year to remember…

A gorgeously escapist read from the bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse and A Month in Provence. Perfect for fans of Veronica Henry, Jo Thomas and Jennifer Bohnet.

Readers are loving Gillian Harvey!

‘A touching story about finding the strength you didn’t know you had. Warm, funny and downright wonderful. I loved it’ Nicola Gill

‘If you’re planning to buy a ramshackle chateau in France and you enjoy engaging, highly readable fiction, this is the book for you. And if you have no chateau plans, you can still live the adrenalin-filled experience on every page of Gillian Harvey''s latest novel!’ Sue Teddern

‘A heartwarming story of a couple restoring a French chateau with plenty of surprises along the way and some laugh out loud moments – loved it!’ Catherine Cooper

‘There’s nothing like a book where the main character gets to change her life dramatically to get my attention!… Warm and wonderful… Really relatable and lovely and made me want to jump right in… Definitely an uplifting, heartwarming, escapist novel to be read with a DO NOT DISTURB sign, because once you start that very first page, you are not going to want to put it down’ Kim Nash

''As delightful as it is moving – a true gem of a novel... enchanting, wise and wonderfully uplifting'' Isabelle Broom

''Uplifting, feel-good and hilarious... for anyone who has ever had their heart broken. This is escapism at its best. Every page felt like I was on holiday with my best friends. Gillian has done it again!'' Tim Ewins