5* Review - The Perfectly Imperfect Woman by Milly Johnson

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Marnie Salt has made so many mistakes in her life that she fears she will never get on the right track. But when she ‘meets’ an old lady on a baking chatroom and begins confiding in her, little does she know how her life will change.

Arranging to see each other for lunch, Marnie finds discovers that Lilian is every bit as mad and delightful as she’d hoped – and that she owns a whole village in the Yorkshire Dales, which has been passed down through generations. And when Marnie needs a refuge after a crisis, she ups sticks and heads for Wychwell – a temporary measure, so she thinks.

But soon Marnie finds that Wychwell has claimed her as its own and she is duty bound not to leave. Even if what she has to do makes her as unpopular as a force 12 gale in a confetti factory! But everyone has imperfections, as Marnie comes to realise, and that is not such a bad thing – after all, your flaws are perfect for the heart that is meant to love you.

Marnie Salt, a character I wasn't sure I could take to right at the beginning of the book. She is very flawed, she made a mistake I thought was awful and in my opinion she should have known better, but very soon into the book I ate my words and then some.

Marnie is a wonderful, flawed, utterly perfectly imperfect woman. She travels a beautiful journey in this book. It's tough, filled with the lowest of lows but I hope and sincerely believe in the end she's happy, and each layer of her character is revealed in the most heart wrenching of ways.

In my opinion Milly Johnson has crafted her finest tale yet, and this is undoubtedly the best book I've read this year, maybe last year too?

When Marnie meets Lilian and eventually moves to the delightful village of Wychwell I was absolutely hooked. The characters are all so rich and well woven, and the villages true magic is spellbinding.

And the cheesecake, oh the cheesecake. Did I mention Marnie makes cheesecakes? It actually left me torn between putting the book down for an hour and making one. The book won but I did make a list of all the ones I wanted to make. Then I wanted to open a cheesecake shop.

The story is so beautifully written, the characters take you on a wonderful journey and the villagers have such rich and captivating stories of their own. The ending is just perfect and when I'd finished the book I just wanted to open it and start again, it truly is the most uplifting tale and the perfect feelgood story.

I can not rave on enough about this book and I have not hesitated to recommend it to all my friends, I even bought a copy for one and sent it to her. She loved it just as much as I did!