Paradise Fields [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Katie Fforde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2005

It's not as if Nel Innes doesn't have enough on her plate already: keeping track of her unnervingly beautiful teenage daughter, sorting out a house full of animals, and organizing a farmers' market in the picturesque Paradise Fields. But when her old friend Sir Gerald dies and his son has no intention of preserving the Fields, Nel takes up arms - determined to fight for the meadow and the market she loves.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Romance blooms for a long-celibate widow in this cozy potboiler by British hen-lit veteran Fforde (Highland Fling; etc.). Nel Innes has kept busy in the 10 years since her beloved husband died, raising her three children (the youngest of whom, 18-year-old daughter Fleur, is growing up far too fast for Nel's taste), taking care of the family's many dogs and organizing a farmer's market in the town's Paradise Fields. But when local bigwig Sir Gerald dies, leaving his estate (and the connecting land that a hospice uses for recreation and fund-raising) to his developer son, Pierce, and Pierce's sexy American wife, Kerry Anne, Nel is furious—how dare these soulless big-city chumps take away the land the hospice so desperately needs? And how, fueled by righteous anger as she is, can she find herself falling so hard for the couple's dashing and equally big-city solicitor, Jake Demerand? Though Fforde's plots are often rather similar—smalltown woman fights the good fight and wins, falling in love with a man she initially deems an opponent—charming, lovable secondary characters carry the day, and funny scenes such as Nel going undercover to track Fleur to a trendy nightclub are by turns poignant and hilarious. This sweet literary equivalent of warm fuzzy slippers will help bring Fforde, who has a sizable following in Britain, further onto American radar.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Fforde's heroines are usually spunky, can-do types who spend their days cheerfully sorting out the dilemmas of others. Nel Innis fits the standard quite nicely but in her own way is quite different from previous incarnations. A widow for 10 years, she has raised her three nearly adult children on her own. They, along with the family dogs, vast numbers of friends, and multiple charitable interests, have filled her life quite well, if chastely, until now. In comes Jake Demerand, mysterious, fearfully attractive, and, unfortunately, working as the lawyer representing the opposition in a land battle that threatens her most valued causes. Paradise Fields is in the Cotswolds, the site of a hospice for seriously ill children and a seasonal farmer's market. The current owner wants to build houses. Development is inevitable; how it will be done is the issue that Nel takes on. Will she succeed? What happens with Jake? More passionately sexual than some of Fforde's previous novels, this is nevertheless diverting in its own very British way. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 559 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (April 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786275251
• ISBN-13: 978-0786275250
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fforde At Her Very Best, January 21, 2005

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradise Fields (Hardcover)

There is no such thing as a bad Katie Fforde book, but Paradise Fields, her latest, is simply quintessential Katie: charming, funny, witty, engaging and a joy to read.

Here is the story of just-over-40 widow Nel Innes, who thinks of herself as an over-the-hill dowdy "old thing," a perception not shared by anyone else in her life, from her gorgeous best friend Viv to her twentysomething daughter Fleur to her dull-as-nails boyfriend, estate agent Simon (yawn). Nel halfheartedly thinks she will probably settle down at some point with Simon so she has a man around to do DIY work, when she gets embroiled in a community effort to safe Paradise Fields, a strip of riverfront land upon which sits the sick-children's hospice, a charity dear to her heart.

Nel is used to running farmers' markets and other charity events on Paradise Fields, all of whose profits go to the hospice, but now she is up against a real threat as a heartless couple and their equally heartless land developer plan to turn it into a housing development. As Nel plots and plans desperately to save the land, the landowning couple's nefarious (maybe) attorney Jake comes to muddy the waters. Literally. Nel knows better than to consort with the enemy, but Jake's charm is lethal.

Does Nel find love and happiness in Jake's arms? Or is he the devil? Will the hospice be saved? I found myself zipping through the pages, trying hard not to skip to the end to find out. It's that kind of book, as only Katie Fforde could write it. Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Nice Read, January 30, 2005

By 

G. Greene - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradise Fields (Hardcover)

The first word that comes to mind after reading this novel is "pleasant" (a vastly underrated adjective IMHO). I haven't read this author before, and it was such a nice experience to read a book that was more about ordinary people, trying to live their lives as best they could, than about plot machinations and torrid sex scenes every other page (not that there's anything wrong with that). One comes to care about these characters and sympathize with their struggles of having to compromise about a real estate development, acknowledging that the children are really growing up and parents are really growing old.

So if you are looking for a well written book with strong character development, this book's the ticket. Nicely done!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you like european romances..., February 11, 2007

By 

A. Pennington (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradise Fields (Hardcover)

Nel has been a widow for ten years and is comfortable with life in her little village. Her two sons are at university and her daughter is almost finished high school. She is determined to remain unmarried until her children are independent so she has no complaints about her stuffy boyfriend, Simon, although her children do not like him and she never has lustful thoughts about him. She keeps busy with charity activities to support a local hospice. She is not bothered about the fact that she has not had sex since her husband died so Nel is surprised when a handsome younger man kisses her at the Christmas fair.

Nel is working hard to save Paradise Fields, the estate where she organizes a farmers market which supports the hospice. The new owners want to develop the land for cheap housing. Nel meets with the owners to oppose the development and discovers that their lawyer is Jake, the man who kissed her. Jake tries to date Nel, but she cannot believe a handsome London lawyer is interested in a plump, older woman and suspects he is just trying to get her to agree to the development plans.

When she ends up in Jake's bed one night, Nel puts it down to a mistake, but Jake keeps pursuing her and even seems to be trying to help her save Paradise Fields. Then Simon asks her to marry him and encourages her to agree to the development plan.