Blog Tour – A Secret at Tansy Falls

A Secret at Tansy Falls

By Cate Woods

What it’s about?

The old farmhouse at Tansy Falls. A little patch of paradise in the hills of Vermont. Home to happy couple Connie and Nate. And a long-buried secret that will ignite a devastating spark…

As the summer sun sets over the sleepy Vermont town of Tansy Falls, Connie is reminded of how lucky she is. Every day, when she leaves the job she loves, managing the Covered Bridge Inn with her best friend Piper, she looks forward to returning to the farmhouse she shares with her husband Nate. At home, her flowerbeds overflow with day lilies and the weathered brick walls of her beautiful house glow in the evening light. The air is filled with the scent of the puffed apple pancakes she prepared that morning.

But one night, when Nate returns home, he is distant. He and Connie have been married for a long time, and while the laughter and lingering kisses have dwindled, Connie believed they would be together forever. So when a stranger arrives on their doorstep with a shocking secret about Nate, Connie’s life changes beyond all recognition.

Connie never thought she’d need to start over and live a life without Nate by her side. But as her heart breaks, Piper and the team at the inn are ready to help stitch it back together, with thoughtful advice washed down with warm spiced cider. As Connie begins to feel whole again, distraction arrives in the form of olive-skinned, broad-shouldered newcomer James. Nate has taught Connie that she doesn’t need a man, but James’s arrival helps her discover that she can follow her own dreams too. But as more secrets come to the surface, Connie wonders if she’ll ever truly be able to leave behind her past for good…

What I think:

I absolutely loved Nell’s story in the first Tansy Falls book. And although I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much, it was so lovely to revisit such a lovely small town.

The second book in the series focuses on Connie. Approaching 50, Connie’s life is at a crossroads. Her marriage to Nate has lost it’s spark, his redundancy means they have had to rent out their basement to makes ends meet, her son is at college and the Inn is facing tough competition as the new hotel complex is nearing completion. and then her father starts dating a much younger woman and Connie and her sister are concerned about their relationship too.

I really like Connie. She is friendly and resilient. Her friendships with some of the other characters are really nicely drawn. Her story definitely had a soap opera element to it as there were so many different strands going on in her life pulling her in different directions. I didn’t really warm to Nate at the beginning, but the distance with the character reflects

The pace of this novel was quite slow in places although it sped up towards the end. With so much going on in Connie’s life there was a lot at the beginning establishing the different characters and introducing some of the new Tansy Falls residents.

The descriptions of Tansy Falls definitely make you want to pack your bags and head to Vermont. The landscape sounds beautiful and I would absolutely love to stay at the Inn.

It was nice to see some of the familiar characters from book one pop up as their lives cross over with Connie’s

If you like Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias then you will definitely enjoy Tansy Falls. I will definitely be back again for the next instalment.

About the author:

Cate Woods made the most of her university degree in Anglo-Saxon Literature by embarking on a career making tea on programmes including The Big Breakfast, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and French & Saunders. After narrowly missing out on the chance to become a Channel 5 weather girl, she moved into the world of magazine journalism, then ghostwriting and now writes novels under her own name. She has written two best-selling romantic comedies – Just Haven’t Met You Yet and More Than a Feeling – and a festive novel, The Christmas Guest, under the name Daisy Bell. Cate lives in London with her husband and two children.

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