Jessie Martin believes that when it comes to love there are three types of people: the skimmers, the bottom dwellers and the ones who dive for pearls. Jessie is a pearl diver. She had thought her husband William was a pearl diver too. But when William leaves her for a much younger woman, it’s not just Jessie’s heart that is broken, her ability to trust is shattered too. All Jessie wanted was a love she could believe in. Was that so much to ask? Loyalty it seems has gone out of fashion.
Refusing to retire from the battlefield of life, Jessie resolves to put her heartache behind her. She doesn’t want to be that woman who was too scared to love again. There has to be another pearl diver out there; all she has to do is find him.
Urged on by her sassy best friend, Anne and her daughter Hannah, Jessie makes three New Year’s resolutions: get a divorce, get a promotion, get a life. Enthusiastically embracing her new start, Jessie sets about making all her resolutions come true.
When fate brings handsome flower seller Owen Phillips into her life, will Jessie have the courage of her convictions? Can she take her heart in her hands and give it away again? Hope springs eternal they say but a bruised heart needs to time to heal. Will Owen have the patience to understand? Will Jessie be brave enough to take that leap of faith?
By the time summer holds her firmly in it’s warm embrace, Jessie’s monochrome world of heartache has been transformed into one full of colour, romance and love.
Jessie can hardly believe her luck. Can Owen really be the one?
All things seem possible and even husband William’s attempts to bully Jessie into a less than fair divorce settlement don’t have the power to upset her as they once might have. Supported by Owen, Jessie stands her ground. Putting William’s deceit and betrayal firmly in the rear view mirror of her life, Jessie is full of hope for the future. Perhaps loyalty and true love haven’t gone out of fashion after all.
When autumn’s burnished hues colour the world around her, Jessie looks forward to cosy nights by log fires with her handsome flower seller. But is Owen really the pearl diver Jessie had hoped for? Or is Jessie’s fragile trust about to be shattered all over again?
As a second winter approaches and her world is once more turned upside down, will Jessie ever find a love she can believe in with a man she can trust?
Jessie Martin sits alone in a burger bar, far from her comfort zone, waiting for a man she met through a dating advertisement, again, something alien to her - as she had been married to William for most of her life, until he cheated on her and left her for a younger woman.
She is trying to follow through her New Year's resolutions and rebuild her life, as their grown up daughter, Hannah, is now at university and she realises that her life is passing her by.
The man in question, Barry Sturridge, arrives, and is very far from what Jessie was expecting, but she gives it a go.
From a later date with Barry, unsuccessful as it was, Jessie meets Owen, a local flower seller and is swept off her feet by this man who seems to be on a journey to heal from a bad relationship himself - and sees a kindred spirit within him.
She tries to take things slowly, but is carried along by the passion and romance that she has not been treated to for a long time, and along with trying to build her career to become a partner in the law firm that works at along with William, she sees her life beginning to come together.
Things seem to be really looking up for Jessie and she feels better in herself than she has felt for many years, discovering new levels of self confidence and fun that Owen has injected into her life and a far stronger work persona that she wants to build herself and not with William's help, the only thing that seems to be holding her back is her divorce which seems to be getting messier by the minute - something they both promised would not happen but with William having to fund new partner Chelsea's greedy ways, he tries to be as ruthless as possible with Jessie who is determined she will not be taken advantage of again.
Things take a much worse turn for Jessie as her new life is thrown into turmoil - and she is left to face the most difficult dilemma she has ever faced and is left wondering who she can really trust.
I thoroughly enjoyed this debut from Ellie Holmes. It is written beautifully, has vivid description and deep, well written characters who really come to life in front of you. There are many twists and turns throughout the book that surprised me and left me guessing how Jessie was going to decide the next chapter of her life.
Highly recommended read!
Thanks so much for taking the time and trouble to read and review The Flower Seller. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. Ellie x
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