The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted

You know how you have some friends whose recommendations of books or movies are always spot-on for you?  You love what they love?  Well, I've found that some authors are like that for me -- and if they put a blurb on another author's book, chances are I'm going to like that book.  So when Joshilyn Jackson, whose novels I totally love, recommended "The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted" blog, I knew I'd want to read it.  I downloaded it to my beloved Kindle, and it was my Easter weekend reading.

In this lovely, gentle novel, narrator Heidi is mourning the loss of her husband Henry two years after his death, and floundering as she tries to run her bakery and care for their young son. Her mother sends her to check on a family house in Provence, which has just suffered a small fire -- so Heidi's mission, on the surface, is to get the house repaired, and give herself, her son, and her teen-aged niece a new setting for a few weeks. But things are not as easy as Heidi imagines they will be. Upon arrival, all of their possessions are stolen. The house needs more work and will take longer to fix than she anticipated. Her niece has complications in her life that Heidi hadn't guessed. But the magic of Provence, and her family's longtime friends there, start to heal Heidi.

It's hard to lay out the bones of the plot without the story sounding sappy. But truly, this is not a sappy book. It's written lyrically with much humor, and you can just feel the Provence air and smell the lavender and baking pastries. I loved being in this world as I read the book, and so enjoyed accompanying them as their lives unfolded.

It's a beautiful and well-written book.