This is a cute little British romance that is evidently a series about members of a small village. This one involves a young widow who is left with a very small inheritance. She is forced to make herself and her life over despite rough financial times and virtually no resources.

I liked this one. It was short, sweet and fun to read.

Kate Hewitt’s Willoughby Close series is more women’s fiction than romance and yet, even though Miss Bates is no fan of women’s fiction, she embraced Hewitt’s little English-village-life novels. They’re written with a poignant, gentle touch. Their protagonists are often people with difficult pasts. They’re squarely focussed on the heroine’s growth and POV, but contain heroes no less likeable, sexy, and burdened with their own compelling baggage.

Kiss Me At Willoughby Close opens with the will-reading of Ava Mitchell’s older, moneyed husband and the news that David left Ava only 10 000 pounds, his vast fortune going to his grown, rapacious children by his first wife. Ava is genuinely grief-stricken over her husband. She may not have been in love with him. Five years ago, she was urged by poverty and lack of opportunity and education to marry him for the creature comforts and ease he could provide; nevertheless, she cared for and about him and been content in his company. Now, Emma and Simon are staring her down coldly and informing her she must leave the only home she’s ever known in a week’s time, with only her clothes and David’s “generous” gift of a mini Austin only. As Ava quips, “For being a trophy wife, she didn’t possess that many trophies.” She moves into Willoughby Close, following the heroines of Hewitt’s previous novels in the series, who become neighbours and, eventually, friends.

Awaiting Ava’s arrival at Willoughby Close is groundskeeper and general handyman, Jace Tucker. When Ava realizes she doesn’t have any furniture, Jace offers her what they have on hand in the estate barns. While Ava and Jace’s initial meetings are less than amicable, Ava recognizes in Jace ” … the laughing eyes of a man who clearly knew just how good-looking he was. Ava could tell because she knew how good-looking she was.” Miss Bates liked how Hewitt made her protagonists good looks a point of mutual understanding; more importantly, however, a jumping-off point for Ava to realize some truths. Ava exploited her looks, she certainly did to marry David, and yet, Hewitt, and the reader to follow, can’t condemn her. Looks may have helped Ava live a life of what she calls “deliberate decadence,” but also handicapped her, making them her fall-back position and left her, when they’re no longer how she wants to live her life, without resources.

While the first half of Hewitt’s novel moves at a good clip of Ava getting to know her neighbours, realizing what “dead-end” jobs are open to her, and having a few delicious Jace encounters, Hewitt does a great job of showing Ava’s loss, grief, and sense of root- and purposelessness. Ava is depressed; she may not mourn David’s loss as the love of her life, she does miss someone she cared for and comes to the difficult realization that, for him, she was, at best, ornamental: “She’d enjoyed all the luxury, believed David was spoiling her. But now that he was dead she couldn’t keep doubts from creeping in. Fears that she had been chained, even if the bonds had been gilded.” Hewitt elicits sympathy for her “trophy-wife” heroine. Ava is smart, but her life has been narrowed by her choices: “She was trapped in the endless circling of her own thoughts, the narrowness of her life, and she had no idea how to break out of either.” With this realization, and while Ava’s grey despair dogs her, Hewitt also shows Ava’s slow awakening to different choices, healthier possibilities.

First, Ava realizes that her gilded-David-cage left her friendless. Hewitt seems to stand not for confident striking-out-on-one’s-own independence, but community and conviviality. First, her heroine opens herself up to friends: “Long ago she’d told herself friends were overrated. They turned on her, they left her down, or they were too much work. She operated better as an independent agent. Solitary. Strong.” Ava’s default, as Ava realizes, has left her lonely and sad. But Hewitt poignantly shows us how difficult it is for someone grown defensive by life’s blows, its petty betrayals and emotional privations, to be open to friends. Miss Bates loved Harriet and Ellie’s appearance at Ava’s door, offering fellowship: ” ‘Harriet and I could help.’ ‘Well … ‘ Ava hesitated. she was so unused to this, the camaraderie, the kindness. She felt suspicious, the urge in her to back away still strong, but she’d been backing away her whole life. Maybe it was time to do something different.” Hewitt is so good at these small moments of revelation and change. They make the reader care so deeply about Ava.

Miss Bates loved that Hewitt didn’t sugarcoat and cover in fairy dust how difficult life is without money. While David’s gilded cage was shallow, it was comfortable. Ava’s life’s financial precariousness, pre-David, and post-David, is hard. At her lowest points, the relentless omnipresence of poverty is Ava’s lot: “It was tiring to think of money all the time, to worry about it, to wonder if she’d be able to get a job.” Simple and true. But hope comes in the form of “soldiering on” as best one can, in community with others: living modestly, working hard, and giving and requesting help. (It’s so interesting that Hewitt starts all her heroines’ stories at a financially difficult point in their lives.)

What of love? What about that smoulder-producing man-machine, Jace Tucker? Hewitt gives us banter, mediated by affection and truth-telling, especially on Ava’s part: ” ‘Every time I see you you’re giving me your school teacher impression or you’re trying to get away as fast as you can. Makes me wonder.’ ‘Then you can keep wondering,’ Ava snapped. ‘Doesn’t all that indignation get tiresome, after a while?’ Ava let out a long, weary breath. ‘What am I scared of, is that what you asked?’ Everything,’ she said quietly.” Miss Bates thought this a wonderful, heart-wrenching exchange and the moment when our heroine lets her mask fall (as she does earlier to forge female friendships) to jump-start her heart, to feel and long for someone. But there be compelling complications: Ava is not the only one with a past. Jace’s past is shocking and his telling of it, in Ava’s reaction, moving. But Hewitt is a writer who is very good at developping characters who, step by incremental step, can be better than their past, no matter how difficult, overwhelming, or crippling: “She had some hard history and so did Jace. That didn’t have to make a difference to anything.”

Miss Bates hopes she hasn’t make Hewitt’s novel sound plodding because it’s not. There’s laughter, fun, maybe yes, a lot of tears, but necessary, healing tears. Though love-scene-lite, the entire story culminating in a more-meaningful-than-many-a-love-scene KISS, there’s also this glorious moment of connection: “It was nothing, and yet it felt like everything, because she had never been touched like this before. She, the woman who gave her body too many times because she’d had nothing else to give, who used sex and beauty as bargaining chips, who had been tossed or discarded too many times to count … felt like a fresh-eyed innocent, discovering the wondrous joys of desire and love.” Miss Bates couldn’t help but think of the Biblical woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, the repentant sinner who anoints. What makes this particular moment significant and beautiful is that Jace is no less and maybe a great sinner than Ava, a repentant like Ava. The “harlot” and the … redeemed and given an HEA. Miss Bates, with Miss Austen’s hovering presence, loved Kiss Me At Willoughby Close and says of it, “there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” Emma.

Kate Hewitt’s Kiss Me At Willoughby Close is published by Tule Publishing. It was released on May 25, 2017 and may be procured from your preferred vendor. Miss Bates received an e-ARC from Tule Publishing, via Netgalley.

Wiloughby Close has become a place for second chances and, if anyone needed one it's Ava. She though she had, if not perfect, a secure life with her much older husband. When he dies, leaving her to fend for herself, she has to finds herself at Willoughby Close surrounded for the first time by people who are interested in her as a person. She starts to find that she is more than her past or her looks.
Jace Tucker knows what it's like to have a past that you aren't proud of. He also knows what it's like to need a friend, someone who can be there without asking for anything in return.
When Ava finds she is pregnant, she refuses to subject herself to her step-children's anger and scrutiny, determined to make a life for her child without relying on anyone else.
I love the way Willoughby Close has offered a second chance to all of its residents, and Ava finds herself becoming a part of friendships and a community. Hewitt does a wonderful job of creating characters that are flawed but are people you can root for.
This was another great read that I could not put down. I highly recommend it. If you haven't read the first books in the series, you won't be lost but you will miss out on some engaging stories and characters.

Get lost in Willoughby Close. Secrets threaten our main characters can they move forward and find happiness. I enjoyed this read.

It was a sweet and charming story about a widow looking for a clean slate but afraid to trust people. And finally, the handyman/groundskeeper of Willoughby Close, Jace Tucker, had snagged himself quite a catch; if only she’d look her way.

I love the slow and burning romance between Ava Mitchell and Jace, it was a bit consuming on Ava’s end because she wasn’t that trusting and believing in other people after she’d been tagged as a gold digger by her stepchildren and had been ranked same with his late husband’s housekeeper. Yeah, her insecurities almost sucked out her life so I couldn’t blame the other tenants when they touted her as arrogant and quite full of herself. Eventually though, an olive branch was extended and Ava slowly picked up her life. Jace Tucker was definitely the man for him.

I am enjoying the Willoughby Close series and I can’t wait to read the next one! Kate Hewitt spins tales that are highly dramatic but also sweet and hot and fun to read! The kiss at the end is definitely worth it!

Oh goodness how I love Kate Hewitt's Willoughby Close stories! I've just finished this one and it has left me feeling all mushy inside. I got to know Ellie in the first book, then Harriet and now Ava. Jace and Lady Stokely have been hovering in the background up until this story in which both took on important roles. All of them seem so real to me. I loved watching Ava find herself as Kiss Me At Willoughby Close progressed. Along the way this beautifully written and perfectly paced story kept me hanging on to see how it would all turn out. I can't wait to start reading Marry Me At Willoughby Close, the next book in the series. If it's half as good as this one I'll be well satisfied!

Another wonderful book by Kate Hewitt. I've really enjoyed the Willoughby Close series. So many surprises for me in this book. Shows you should never judge a character by your first interaction.
A quick fun read.

I really enjoyed the book, it has everything I love in a novel from start to finish. I can’t wait to read what the author has planned next!

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. This is the fourth in the series and really wished I had read the earlier books so I could relate more to the characters

I love these quick and fun Willoughby Close novels. Trying circumstances send a person to Willoughby Close to rent a cottage on manor property. The person grows in various ways, gets a hand up if necessary, chooses a direction, and makes their life the best they can. Kiss Me is Ava’s story… and boy howdy does she need a cottage to live in after her rich husband dies and leaves her with next to nothing, not even one of their several homes.

At Willoughby Close, Ava learns how to interact with people on a friendly and neighborly level, reach out when someone needs help, and show her true colors instead of putting on a façade. Ava finds more than just her strength at Willoughby… she also finds the handsome and sensitive alpha groundskeeper, throwing a wrench into all her plans to be independent.

While Ava is surrounded by good people who want to help her, she does plenty of helping herself — and even taking the time for a young woman who could use a break.

I love that Hewitt focuses on second chances, and it’s uplifting to see good people making something positive out of those chances.

https://randombookmuses.com/2017/06/18/review-kiss-me-at-willoughby-close-by-kate-hewitt/

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2033249333

I've read a Kate Hewitt book before and I really enjoyed it, the only thing I found about it was that it was quite short! However, this one I really enjoyed as well. The characters are really thought out and flowed together nicely, and their relationships are built up slowly instead of them being forced or their relationship happening too quickly.

Again, like the last novel I read, I find the cover so beautiful and really inviting. The swirly writing and colours all blending together with a huge manor house on the cover just looks so pretty and it really draws the attention of the eye. None of the books I've read by Kate Hewitt have disappointed so far and this one was not different!

I find the writing style to be so elegant and interesting, it's unlike other chick-lit books that I usually read but I don't think that this is a bad thing. I find that it's quite refreshing to read a romance novel after reading several chick-lits.

This novel was refreshing and really enjoyable to read. I loved reading about the characters and their relationships with each other, I loved the other characters in the book too and how they weren't bought too much into it (sometimes too many characters can be confusing!). The setting was divine and the storyline was really interesting.

Overall, a good read. Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for a chance to read this novel in return of an honest review.

When life doesn’t turn out as you planned, you learn to make the best of it.

Ava Mitchell gets the shock of a lifetime when her millionaire husband of five years suddenly passes away and all he left Ava was a small inheritance. Her husband’s two snobby grown children got the rest. Now Ava has to face the reality of starting her life over again. Having struggled all of her life, she knows how to survive. The first step is finding a place to live.

Ava chose Willoughby Close, the old stables of Willoughby Manor which have been converted into apartments as her new home. But Ava doesn’t realize at the time her life is about to change dramatically. Ava is not used to having close friends or socializing, but the women who live in the other apartments want to be friends. Soon, Ava realizes she will need them more than she realized when she finds out she is pregnant.

Jace Tucker started working at Willoughby Close as a groundskeeper when he got out of prison. He enjoys his work and helping out any way he can. He is also more than happy to help the new tenant when he finds out she doesn’t own anything other than what she was able to fit into her car. Jace and Ava hit it off good and become good friends and eventually develop feelings for each other.

I enjoyed this story as much as the rest of the series. I really liked Jace and Ava and catching up with the characters from the previous books was fun. I love the quirky Lady Stokeley of Willoughby Manor. She is a fun old lady who is battling cancer but has been trying to hide it from most people. If you read this series, I would recommend starting at the beginning because her story runs throughout the series.

Full of warmth and heart-felt emotion, Kate Hewitt has penned a beautiful story that really drew me in from the first moment. Such a delightful book by a hugely talented author!

This is book 4 on the lovely Willoughby close series and yet again I must say it is a wonderful installment.

In this one we meet Ava who is recently widowed and has moved to Willoughby close for a new beginning. She is also unexpectedly pregnant with her late husbands baby...

We also get to know Jace who is the caretaker of Willoughby manor. The very good looking bad boy who shows a bit of kindness to Ava!

This is such a lovely romantic story with a bit of depth, It was also nice to revisit some of the past characters from the other books.

A very enjoyable book which has left me wanting more!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ava had been married for 5 years to a man quite a lot older and with loads of money and she was definitely a trophy wife. This is obviously his view as well as on his death he only leaves her £10000, the same as the cleaner, and the rest of his fortune goes to his two children by a previous marriage.

Homeless Ava has to try and find somewhere to live and the only place available is a cottage in Willoughby Close. Ava has never really had any friends having had a difficult childhood and so is unsure how to treat her new neighbours who seem to be making overtures of friendship and then there is Jace, the extremely hunky caretaker who seems to be very keen to help her out, but is he hiding as many secrets as she is herself? Can Willoughby Close weave its magic on another unhappy resident?

Lovely to be back with all the old characters - these books have a great feel good factor and are perfect light summer reading

This is the fourth in a series. We have a woman who had a life which caused her to think being a Trophy Wife to a much older man was a step up. Unfortunately, she learned the hard way what she meant to him and his grown children when he passed. Her impact was made clear with an inheritance of the same amount as the home cleaner.

Our gal is left with very little funds, very little understanding of what to do and moves to a small community to figure it all out. She is lucky enough to nab a small cottage and the caretaker helps with some extra furniture. She ends up assisting a woman who is undergoing Cancer treatments. This way she has a position of sorts and making a kind of friend.

Then she is surprised by Mother Nature, a baby from her diseased husband.

Our gal is making sure she is strong... making everything good for the baby to come and also connects with the Caretaker. Both have secrets and pain. Both come together and help each other.

Although my reaction to this series has sometimes been a little lukewarm, I couldn’t pass up the chance to find out more about the mysterious caretaker, Jace. Which is a good thing, because this book is definitely my favourite of the series so far, even if it did leave several loose ends hanging to be hopefully tied up in the final book.

Ava made a brief appearance in the last book (Find Me At Willoughby Close) as the glamorous, but slightly stand-offish new neighbour at the Close. Now we find out why exactly she wasn’t so keen to meet the neighbours – and I don’t blame her. Her situation at the start is such a slap in the face that I was instantly on her side, even if she does come across as prickly and a bit abrasive at first.

Because Ava is a survivor. She’s been through some rough patches in life and weathered them in whatever way she could. Constantly judged on her looks alone, she’s created a front against the world, which means she’s not easy to get to know. But as the book progresses and she forms proper friendships for the first time, the real Ava is finally allowed to emerge and reveals herself to be a pretty decent, caring woman who was easy to like.

Her relationships with Jace and Dorothy brought out the best in her. Both are similar to Ava in different ways and neither allow her to get away with any masks. I loved how Ava came to care for Dorothy and the strange friendship they formed.

However, it’s her relationship with Jace that forms the core of the book. Sometimes flirty, sometimes just friends, but always with a bubbling of more going on beneath the surface. It was great to finally learn Jace’s story and see what made him tick. I also loved how he saw Ava and how supportive he was of pretty much everything she tried to do. For a shadowy figure touched with arrogance over his good looks, Jace turned out to be pretty wonderful.

In all, I really enjoyed this one. Ava has a lot of growing to do, but thanks to her new friends and Jace, her journey is a positive one. I did, however, feel like the ending was a little rushed. There is so much that needs to be tied up in the last chapter that it, unsurprisingly, doesn’t all get done. Despite how far both Ava and Jace have come, some things are left in a fairly precarious state at the end, creating a definite sense of HFN rather than HEA. However, with one more book to go, it looks like we’ll be getting all the answers soon. I can’t wait to read Henry’s story.

Looking at the cover, you might think that this book would be a relatively light read. However, the author gives the two main characters rather tragic pasts, and I think that darkness actually made me appreciate the romance and its happy ending much more than if the book had been the fluffy read promised by the cover.

As the book begins, Ava learns that her recently deceased much older multimillionaire husband has left her just 10,000 pounds, the same amount he gave their housekeeper. Her husband’s cavalier dismissal of their five years of marriage leaves Ava stunned and questioning the choices she’s made. Then life throws her another curveball when she finds out that she’s pregnant. Ultimately, Ava has to decide whether to live as she’s always done or if it’s time to make some changes in how she approaches the world and the people around her.

Ava is a bit difficult to like at first, in her determination to look after herself first and her rudeness toward other people who might want to befriend her. She clearly made the choice to be a trophy wife, which makes her seem selfish and self-serving. As her sad background is revealed, though, it becomes apparent that Ava is a damaged person with reasons for the way she acts. The author does a great job of stripping away Ava’s layers and allowing her to grow and develop as a person throughout the course of the book.

I also liked that the author doesn’t make Ava’s love interest a typical knight in shining armor. Jace is a caring person who supports Ava, but he also has a very dark past that would cause many women to shy away from him. He and Ava are both struggling to overcome their separate tragedies, and they provide each other the emotional support both of them need to move forward.

When I started reading, I didn’t realize that this book is part of a series. Based on how much I enjoyed this book, I’m definitely going to be checking out the next in the series, and I may go back and pick up some of the previous ones, too.

An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jace's story! I really liked this installment in the Willoughby Close series. Ava and Jace are both flawed characters, but that makes them that much more loveable. We get to watch Ava face up to her past and grow into her new future. Loved it!

I'm so looking forward to our next visit at Willoughby Close, but, at the same time, I don't want the series to end!

A great enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend as a relaxing summer read. I will definitely be on the look out for the release in the next in the series.