Review - The Chic Boutique on Baker Street by Rachel Dove

As regular readers of this blog will know I love nothing more than a good psychological thriller and seem to devour them extremely quickly. However, what you may not know is that I also love a feel-good, light-hearted read just as much and, for me, that's exactly what The Chic Boutique on Baker Street by Rachel Dove was. I adored this novel, it was everything I thought it would be and so much more and it's left me feeling very excited to read more by this author in the future. 

In The Chic Boutique on Baker Street we meet Amanda who, after finding her partner cheating on her with his secretary, has left the daily grind of London and her career in the law industry far behind and moved to the beautiful village of Westfield. It is here that she has purchased not just a new home for herself but a shop, an up-cycling boutique called A New Lease of Life. In a place where everyone seems to know everyone else's business it's not long before she becomes good friends with the local ladies and Ben, the gorgeous vet of the village, catches her eye. The question is, will Amanda and Ben ever be more than just friends? 

There wasn't a single thing that I didn't love about this gorgeous novel, which I didn't hesitate to award five stars to. Not long after starting the book, I quickly fell in love with Rachel Dove's delightful writing style which I found flowed beautifully from beginning to end and never lost pace. In fact, so good was it that I have no doubt that I could happily have read the book in one sitting had it not been for the small matter that is real life getting in the way. 

What I also liked about this book was the way the author managed to get me feeling every single emotion possible and the way in which I became so connected with Amanda, feeling her emotions as she experienced what was going on around her. More than that, I completely admired her strength of character as someone who had been through so much but was determined to not let it stop her but instead move on and be successful. Let's just say it definitely left me feeling hopeful!

The cast of characters that we meet throughout the novel all complement each other beautifully and it's clear that Rachel has really taken the time to get to know and think carefully about each of the individual characters that she introduces us to and as a result of this the readers really get to know them too. I loved the way the village of Westfield was portrayed as a close-knit community, where everyone was like one big happy family, doing whatever they could to help eachother. 

The Chic Boutique on Baker Street is a gorgeous novel about friendship, love, and making the most out of life that really picked me up and left me with a massive smile on my face. I definitely recommend it!