I am a big fan of Shelia Norton since reading The Vets at Hope Green. I found reading stories which have cute animals in them just add to the likeability of the book. This book is no different and I have already bought the rest of the book to continue to read about Primrose cottage. Straightaway I liked Emma and the whole little town of Crickleford, not to mention the cats! Already excited to read more about Emma and find out how a certain reporter maybe interested in more than a story.

Thank you to Ebury Digital for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I've read a few of Shelia's books in the past and they always put a smile on my face.

There's a lot of mystery around Emma's old life and ex-boyfriend. Emma seems like she has had quite the past but very little is given away in this part. I love that Emma unintentionally becomes a pet sitter. I'm a dog person so the two dogs she looks after in this book were my favourite. They were both so different in their personalities and care needs.

This book is a great little teaser of what is to come in the next 3 parts. Crinkleford is a lovely little village in Devon. The town has spotty phone signal and is probably as cut off as you could get in the UK. Shelia has me intrigued about Emma's past and longing for more of Crinkleford.

After reading the Vets at Hope Green by Sheila Norton a few years I was excited to see this new book. Every now and then I get in the mood for those quaint, slice of life, contempories, focused on nature and animals and after loving the previous book from the author, I made a note to follow her online to see when she released more books.

Obviously I was very much looking forward to this serialization, however, I did find myself finding a lot of things that mildly irritated me, which I shall discuss.

"...her poor demented father" is a very poor choice of words, I have to say. I'm shocked at this dated description in regards to the decline of the mind. I feel like it should have been mentioned in a more sensitive way or not at all, becausefrom the sway of conversation it was obvious what was being discussed.

One of my least favourite tropes was used for the whole plot. A misunderstanding. This one was a little different and was an intentional lie that sky rocketed the whole pet sitting business. It's just one of those situations that irritate me. It caused me to have an off realtionship with our protagonist, Emma. Everytime I warmed to her, she'd do or say something rather dumb and then I'd be sitting there again, tutting at the ludicrosity of it all.
There was no reason to lie but it created the foundations of a good book.

I have got to say the storyline of this one wasn't very believable, personally. I don't think it's very likely that somebody would allow you to rent a room with no income, no references and no secure way of certainty that you'd be able to pay your bills. It sounded a little airy fairy, but at the same time, Norton has this way of gently drifting you away to places that make you not care about the technicalities of the situation and to be honest, at this moment at time, just like when her previous book, that was exactly the feeling I was after.

I remember mentioning in previous reviews that the Vets serialisation wasn't diverse enough and if I remember correctly that was a point she mentioned in our Twitter conversations so I appreciated her attempting to add more diversity. It did feel a little like ticking all the boxes and not as natural, but the effort was there and much appreciated!!

I like the family that Emma lodges with... well from who we getbto spend time with at least! I did find it odd that there wasn't much interaction with Lauren's husband... I mean okay, not a need to talk to everyone but he lives there too, so would have expected the typical pleasantries.

I would say I definitely preferred the Vets at Hope Green, but despite my nitt picking, this was a delightful, read that made me long for a chilled life like what Emma is trying to achieve.

I love how we leave off each part. In shops, the book is bundled together, but I recall Norton saying that she likes to split it into fours for the e-arcs, which I personally enjoy! It creates a level of excitement, and once again, despite my pickyness for part one, I'm hoping this will die down and I can really sink my teeth into it. I'm really looking forward to reading more about Emma and to see the growth of this pet sitting business, her relationships and history and hopefully an amendment to all these silly lies she's been telling.

Emma needs somewhere to stay where she is anonymous, where she can live a quiet life away from the prying eyes of reporters. Completely by accident, she finds herself the resident pet sitter.

I really enjoyed the first part of this book. All of the characters are likeable and you really root for them all to do amazing things, especially Emma. I love reading about the different pets she looks after and their personalities, Pongo especially!

I am looking forward to reading the next part of this book!

I am so happy to be able to read a new series from Sheila Norton! Last year I enjoyed a lot "The vets at Hope Green" and so I was excited to start a new series, "The pets at Primrose Cottage" and the part one is really good already! It's full of mysteries and suspense, I love that a lot! I really like the main character. It looks like she came to this little village to escape her previous life. We don't know exactly what happened, and I love that as it makes us want to read the part 2! I also love the way she has to make up lies after lies so that people don't discover who she is. It's so funny. Really I can't wait to read the part 2 of this new series! I really recommend the books from Sheila Norton, it's really good, entertaining and well written. And if you are looking for a short and quick read this one is the perfect one!

I read this serialised book all in one go in the end and I really enjoyed this light hearted read. Is great for fans of Cathy Woodman and Cathy Bramley. I liked following Emma's story and seeing all of the revaluations around her past and how she overcame them in the end.

This is another story by Sheila Norton that is being released in four parts before the book is finally released and this is the first of those parts.

After splitting with her famous ex, Emma Nightingale is looking for some peace and quiet, away from the paparazzi and pressure that entails. She’s gone to Crickleford, a quiet Dartmoor town where she hopes to lay low till to let the infamy die. She’s broke and her parents have given her enough funds to enable her to stay there as a lodger at Lauren Atkinson’s home. As she’s wanting to hide her past, Emma accidentally tells some lies and this ends up with her becoming the town’s much sought after pet sitter. . . . . It is in this role that her adventures begin - resulting in more danger of being in the news!

The background to just what happened between Emma and her ex isn’t told in this part but may be revealed in the future parts. The story has a range of great characters and packs quite a lot into a relatively short novella. It is a warm, cosy read with a cliff hanger ending which means I really look forward to seeing what happens in future books in this series.

I requested and received a copy of this novel, via NetGalley. This is my honest review after choosing to read it.

Happy New Year, guys!

Last night, I finished Pets At Primrose Cottage by Sheila Norton: Part 1. It was good. I don’t think I quite enjoyed it as much as her other serialised novel, The Vets At Hope Green because the lead female character came across as younger and more childish/immature in this part of Pets At Primrose Cottage. I have hope that she’ll grow up in the other parts.

3 Stars!

We follow Emma who used to live in America but after a scandal, she moves back home, to England. We, as the readers don’t know what happened, yet. I think this will be revealed in part 2 or 3 of this novel. She starts a pet sitting business to hide her lies to everyone, where she now lives in England.

Spoilers Below...

“Actually, I was sure it was worse for me, since I was the cause of all this fuss and attention”

This is Emma comparing her life to that of her twin sister, Kate. Emma thinks she’s the worse off in her family because of this thing that happened. She’s not living with her family because they, apparently, can’t deal with the stress of what happened to her. I’m sure this is overly dramatic, but then she seems to be one for being over dramatic so this isn’t a surprise.

“They said they were sorry I wasn’t staying, but their faces told me otherwise. They were relieved. I wasn’t the kind of daughter a family would want living with them. I was a liability"

tells us that Emma is being dramatic by saying her family doesn’t want her with them. She’d prefer to be on her own, is what she means, I think. She comes across to me as a selfish character here, because her parents didn’t tell her to go. She left because she wanted to or thought it was best. It’s like Emma wants someone to blame. I don’t like these sorts of characters. At the moment, she doesn’t have any redeeming qualities.

Emma wants to stay under the radar after what happened to her. That means that even in England she just wants to be in a quiet, little town, where nobody speaks to her. She chose the wrong town, when she chose Crickleford, in Dorset. People chat to her and want to know her business a lot. All we know is this “scandal” is something to do with her ex, who is still in America.

The pet sitting happens by accident. Emma is asked to look after the family she’s staying with cats’ while their on holiday. That’s where the title, Pets At Primrose Cottage comes from.

We don’t get any romantic twists in this part. This was kind of disappointing but I’m still interested in Emma’s story.

What did I like about Pets At Primrose Cottage, part 1?

I liked how the book is told in first person. We might get a look into why Emma is the way she is in future parts, I hope, and maybe see some redeeming qualities.

I liked the settings. I thought they were described well. I could easily picture where the characters were.

I thought the book (this part at least) was well written. I just didn’t like the main character.

What didn’t I like about Pets At Primrose Cottage, part 1?

As I said above, I didn’t like Emma’s character but I hope as we learn more about her in the other parts of the story, I’ll start to see why she’s like she is.

I didn’t like that there was no love interest. In Sheila Norton’s other novel the main love interest is introduced in the first part. I don’t think Pets At Primrose Cottage is focused so much on romance but I hope we get some, somewhere.

I technically read this in the last couple of days in December so it counts as part of my 2017 reading goal, although I’ll add it to my 2018 reading goal as I’m writing this review on January 1st, 2018.

I’ll be reading another arc next so stand by for that review in a few days...

First of all would like to thank netgalley for letting me review this book.

I really enjoyed this book, enjoyed the storyline lots of mystery from the beginning of the book I had to keep on reading to see if the mystery was revealed.

The book is well written with description could picture places in the book can't wait to read part two.

I enjoyed this story very much, but it is quite short, being Part 1 of a longer story. I am not a great fan of books divided this way as you have to wait to continue with the story, which is frustrating.

Emma returned home when her life in America imploded. Her parents were decidedly unimpressed with the publicity that followed her, with the press knocking on their door for statements,so Emma has decamped to a small village on Dartmoor where nobody knows her. She has found lodgings with a young couple with a young daughter, at Primrose Cottage. She tries to keep a low profile, and to retain her anonymity she tells some pretty outrageous lies to people who ask her questions, including her landlord, and she is beginning to panic that she will forget which lie she has told to which person.

There is a sad string running through the story regarding her life in America, but the book generally is quite amusing. Sheila Norton has a good style of writing, the story flows well. The situations that Emma finds herself in are quite believable, and the characters are well-rounded, you can visualise the people and the interactions. Well worth reading on a lazy afternoon.

What an exciting start to a series! I loved the start of this and have sat and chuckled my way through these two parts. I don’t usually like books that are split into four parts, but as I had the first two parts to read together it doesn’t feel as bad. I am disappointed though that I shall have to wait for parts three and four as I was really getting into the story!

Emma’s character is fantastic! I love the way that lies just trip of the tongue so easily for her! She’s telling so many different things to so many different people that she feels that she will need to write down what she’s been telling people! The village sounds a beautiful place to live, up on Dartmoor, although there are no secrets in this village which I’m sure Emma will shortly find out. Emma obviously has a background which hasn’t been gone into fully during these first two parts but I’m sure that all will be revealed by the end of the four parts!

This is definitely a book full of love, laughs and pets! I have really enjoyed these first two parts, and cannot wait until the next two parts are available!!

I’m not generally a big fan of serialised novels, but I will make exceptions for those that sound interesting. Seeing that this one was set on Dartmoor and featured cute pets, I couldn’t resist.

Sadly, this didn’t really work for me, and it wasn’t because it was only the first part of a longer book. I do wish more details of quite why Emma has absolutely nothing were made clearer (because at first I thought she was guilty of fraud or something serious), but enough clues are dropped that I could mostly work out what was going on, even if I think it was a bit extreme. I also find it hard to believe that her pet-sitting exploits were so easy, considering she had no experience with dogs. But those are minor things that I could definitely get over.

If only I liked Emma. Without knowing more about her situation I couldn’t find much sympathy for her – and when she started lying repeatedly for no real reason at all, I couldn’t even like her. She’s just… not my kind of character, I guess.

Which is a shame, because this seems otherwise kind of cute and fun, if not quite as full of Dartmoor or cute pets as I’d like. There’s a nice gossipy village (that seems to support a huge array of businesses for being supposedly off the main tourist track), some interesting characters and plenty of scope for both romance and a perfect home. But, sadly, thanks to Emma it wasn’t enough for me to want to read any more.

I've read a few of the author's books now and enjoy reading them. The stories are gentle and the characters are brought to life. A great read on a Sunday afternoon.

Normally I wouldn't dream of reading the first part of a series unless I knew I could read the remainder of the book immediately after. I find it difficult waiting until full length publication but I always manage to hold out and would be glad I have done so. So what made me read the first in a new series from Sheila Norton, an author who I had never read before? I think it was both the beautiful cover and the catchy sounding title that drew my attention to this book.

The Pets of Primrose Cottage: Part One A Place to Hide was a very quick read and in fact turned out to be just what I was looking for when I had an hour or two to spare and didn't want to become bogged down in a full length book. This opening to the new series provided just enough intrigue to keep the readers hooked whilst introducing a cast of new characters. There were numerous storylines put in place, some of which the outcomes already seem obvious whereas others I'm not quite sure what direction they will go in even though tantalising clues have been dropped. I realise there has to be a balance between what is revealed, and what is kept hidden for the moment, given this is only the first of four parts but the impatient side of me wanted all the answers now but I will have quite a while before the final outcome is revealed.

Crickleford in Devon on the edges of Dartmoor is the setting for this book. Like many other books I have read in this genre there is the distinct small town feel, where at times the town can feel very small in terms of the fact everyone knows everyone else's business and any news can spread like wildfire. So the arrival of a new resident, Emma Nightingale taking up a room as a lodger with Lauren Atkinson and her family allows for plenty of gossip and questions.

The reader will have similar questions regarding Emma just like the residents do. But Emma is not revealing much and in fact what she does reveal is innumerable lies which really made me frustrated with her. I wouldn't use the word hate regarding the character of Emma but she really wasn't someone I could easily warm too as she told lie upon lie when clearly there was no need for it. Yes she wanted to keep her recent past hidden, and the reasons for coming to such a small village, but her lies were too far fetched and only got her in to a tangled web that would become increasingly difficult to get out of. Quite why she felt the need to go to such lengths is beyond me. It really was a case of once she started she couldn't stop and she was more than reluctant to admit the truth for fear people would laugh at her or even criticise.

There are brief glimpses into the reasons as to why Emma has returned from America and even why she can't stay with her parents. I have my own suspicions as to the exact reasons for Emma running away from everything and I am interested to see will they be proven correct in the end. Clearly Emma is escaping from something that caused her great hurt but also humiliation. She lived a totally different life in contrast to the situation she finds herself in now and to some extent probably wishes nothing had changed and that she didn't find herself living in someone else's house and with very little money. Emma is seeking anonymity,to be uncontactable, to hide her true identity and lifestyle but she hasn't bargained on the inquisitiveness of the residents of Crickleford.

It was enjoyable to read of Emma's exploits as again her lies see her end up working as a cat and dog sitter. Any book which features animals is always a winner for me and I enjoyed this part of the story immensely. There are numerous characters introduced but all very fleeting in particular Matt Sorrento, the local newspaper reporter. I'd love to see more of these people featured more in the future parts of the story.

Overall A Place to Hide was a nice introduction to the series although way too fleeting for me. Emma is an enigma of a character who really does need to grow on me as her actions in this part didn't make me see her true character which is surely lurking there under the surface. I'll definitely be back to see what happens next in part two New Beginnings, a sample chapter of which was included here.

The pets at primrose cottage part one is the start of a promising set. Emma is the lead character in this book and this part of the book tells you nothing of her past only that she is/was a celebrity living in America and has had a public split from her boyfriend. Emma has gone back to Crickleford in the Devonshire countryside where she used to spend her early family holidays as a young child, Emma has gone there hoping to keep away from the press.
Whilst looking for a job she manages to find herself being the local cat and dog sitter and there are a lot of laughs and question marks on this part of her life. Emma seems to not be able to stop telling white lies to keep people off the track of her being a celebrity and I think in the next instalments this is going to trip her up!!
I read Sheila Nortons last book and that ws good but I feel this is going to be even better!!
I would like to thank netgalley and Ebury Press, Penguin random house fir this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

new series set in a small town in Dartmoor called Crickleford. Emma is escaping her past life and renting a room here. She needs to find a new job- but there is more about her past life to be released in future books. She finds herself lying about her personal life and work and then having to remember what she has told everyone.
I loved the characters and the wider community and the animals that she finds herself looking after. I look forward to more pet sitting adventures and finding more out about Emma's previous life and why she's escaped.
There is definately a lot more fun to come in this series.

There is obviously a bit of a mystery attached to Emma Nightingale and, very cleverly, the author hasn’t revealed it right at the beginning of this story!

We first meet Emma upon her arrival in Crickleford, her chosen place to escape from all the unwanted attention which is so upsetting to her family. She has arranged lodgings at Primrose Cottage which turns out to be every bit as idyllic as it sounds. As she begins to settle in and find a way of earning some cash – more by accident than by design – Emma is very wary of making friends and tends to shy away from publicity. Unfortunately, uncovering a burglar interferes with that plan ..

Sheila Norton writes easy to read, well flowing books with a fine cast of characters and intertwining storylines. This is a perfect read at the end of a stressful day and I’m already looking forward to the rest of the series. Very definitely recommended!

My thanks to publisher Ebury Digital for granting me an arc via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

Lovely start to a book series. Countryside villages, and idyllic pets crossed with paparazzi and celebrity. What more could you ask for. I can't wait to read the next instalment

I got to know Sheila Norton after reading her previous serialized novel "The Vets at Hope Green" and when I spotted "The Pets at Primrose Cottage" available for request on NetGalley, I didn't hesitate long and requested the story.

I think I can guess what has happened in Emma's past, why did she move back from New York to Devon - there were enough hints for my liking but nevertheless, I am of course curious if my assumptions are right, so I am already looking forward to the next parts, especially as I really liked this novella. It was sweet and charming, optimistic and very promising. And even if I had a huge problem with Emma, to be honest, she made me feel almost desperate. I couldn't understand why she feels the need to tell so much lies. Yes, there was a reason, she was hiding (we don't know why, but I am sure more details will be revealed in the next parts) but really, no matter what situation, no matter what person, no matter what about, she has never told the truth. And it started to annoy, and bother me, and I didn't like to see her digging a hole for herself with her lies - she seemed as she was not capable of telling the truth.
However, there was something in Emma that made me like her and fell for her. She is full of life and light.

Sheila Norton's writing style in this novella is warm and chatty and she brings the setting, the situations and the characters to life. It was cosy, I liked the atmosphere of the sleepy town and adored the great number of the four - legged characters. I can't help it but I'm comparing "The Vets at Hope Green" and "The Pets at Primrose Cottage" all the time, and "The Pets" feel much better and much more promising, and I can only hope that it's going to continue in this lovely way.

Emma has a big secret in her past that she needs to escape from and where better than a little village in the middle of Dartmoor. Only problem is village locals like to know everything about everybody and that means Emma having to tell lie after lie! One of these lies however starts her of with a new job of pet sitting!

Only a short novella but one that left you wanting more, as always with this author's books lots of lovely characters and settings and I am definitely looking forward to the next part!