(4 / 5)
FINALLY!!! Its taken quite a lot of books to get there, but here we are, The Saddler Boys… A romance worthy of 4 stars!! Absolutely delightful!
So city girl Nat is from an affluent Perth family and has just finished training to be a teacher. She excitedly moves out to a small town in the middle of Western Australia called Lake Biddy (A real place, I checked!) to become the new school teacher. She has a few reasons for going. She is pretty much scarily obsessed with teaching, and she wants to show her parents that she can do it, as well as her city boyfriend. She also wants to be by herself for a while before she has to deal with the pressures of her life, marriage, children etc etc… She starts teaching at the local school and starts to develop a friendship with Drew, one of her students fathers. Oh and he just happens to be drop dead gorgeous and available… Attempting to ignore the ever growing sparks and tension between them, she deals with the split between her city life and her “perfect” boyfriend, and the new home she has found at Lake Biddy. Meanwhile Drew’s ex is back and wants to be involved in their sons life even though she has never met him, and thinks take a dramatic turn.
I thought this was a lovely book. Considering I am an Australian, I don’t read many Australian authors… Especially those books set in outback Australia. For some reason I avoid them. I find that it usually doesn’t interest me. However this book has made me think again and has perhaps made me a bit more open to trying more Australian authors and books set in Australia.
Palmer’s writing is so easy to read and flowed almost flawlessly. She actually had me enthralled from the first few chapters which I wasn’t expecting. I am already looking into reading some of her earlier work.
I enjoyed that although it was a romance, it had other aspects of it. It had quite a lot of drama. The relationship between Nat and her boyfriend Gary took a turn I was not expecting and I found I was glued to the book and finished the whole thing in one sitting! Drew’s ex coming into the picture was a pivotal part of the story and also had me captivated, especially towards the end.
The characters were great. I was expecting Nat to be prissy and more annoying, but she was well written and I found myself liking her a lot. Drews little boy Billy I thought was adorable. And Drew… What a dreamboat!!! When I first read that he was dashingly handsome with a great body and a winning personality I admit I did roll my eyes a little bit, but his character had a great depth that I really enjoyed.
Ok, sure it was predictable… Its a romance, they are meant to be. Ultimately you know what’s going to happen at the end, but the ride was extremely enjoyable and a lot of unexpected things did happen to make up for it!
The ending I found to be a tiny little bit of an anti-climax. A little bit of a let down. But I did love the budding tension between Nat and Drew throughout the book. At times I felt it dragged on slightly, and that along with the disappointing ending was probably the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
Would I recommend it?
Absolutely, it was great!
Many thanks to Penguin via NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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