Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did enjoy the story. I liked the descriptions of Spain and how Juliana rediscovers her roots and adjusts to life in Spain. The romance was sweet, the story overall was engaging.

"The Spanish House*: 4⭐

(Unpaid Review: thank you to @netgalley, @cherryradford and @ariapublishing for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review.)

Family. Family is key. That's what this book is about; love, sacrifice, secrets and family. A beautiful, heartwarming story about womanhood and how the mc goes to the past to try and find that missing piece of herself to reconstruct herself again.

Stunning, stunning, stunning piece of literature! Absolutely recommend!

This was my first Cherry Radford book and I finished this in one sitting! The love of Spain that comes over so passionately in the description of the area and the way of life that adopts Juliana in her move to Spain to fulfill her uncle's conditions, made me feel as if I was walking alongside her in the moment.
A warm romantic story about embracing life's challenges and changes. I loved it, thank you so much for allowing me to read it.

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

My first book from this author and I enjoyed reading it.

When Julianna visits Spain to house sit for her uncle but whilst she is there is given the task of completing work on the house. Whilst carrying out the work she begins to discover secrets about her mother and her past.

A book about hidden family secrets.

A nice story about a woman travelling to Spain to find out about her Spanish past.

Julianna works in London as a TV and movie extra . She travels to Spain when she gets a letter from Uncle Arturo, asking her to housesit and do some work on his house. She gets the work underway but what she is really doing is finding out about her past and her mother in particular.

A nice journey in many ways and the scenery is very nicely done indeed! Very clear to see the images in your mind as you read.

A beautifully gentle read. Not too much sudden drama, more of a meandering walk through Juliana's life and her adventures in Spain. I enjoyed watching her establishing relationships with the local residents and following the conditions set out for her my uncle Arturo.
Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC to review.
Opinions are my own.

A heartwarming and entertaining book about rediscovering your roots, family secrets and life changes.
It's well written, the plot flows, and the characters are likeable and fleshed out.
I loved the descriptions of the house and of Andalucia.
It's the first book i read by this author and won't surely be the lasta.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I wanted to love this book but the characters and the storyline just didn’t draw me in. I didn’t hate it but it was not a book than I ran to to read and I could easily put it down.

Ideal reading for present times. Everyone is in lockdown and you really do not want to have more doom and gloom.
Maybe escapist reading but it is entertaining and quite descriptive.

Juliana is offered a gorgeous opportunity for change. In Spain house sitting with a list of repairs and conditions to be
done to the house and elsewhere to gain ownership of a coveted property. Will anyone bypass this opportunity. It seems too
good to be true and in the process of painting, repairing and generally following Uncle Arturo's list Juliana comes up with
obstacles from neighbours, romance and finding out lost or rather hidden family skeletons which were firmly buried till now.

The book was a good read, warm and entertaining.

Loved this book - engaging characters and an interesting story. Descriptions of Andalusia are great and the romance running through the story was nice.

Fans of Lucy Coleman and Sue Moorcroft will thoroughly enjoy Cherry Radford’s delectable, warm-hearted and absorbing tale, The Spanish House.

Juliana might make her living – and a very modest one at that – as an ‘ethnic’ film extra, but with her elementary grasp of the Spanish language, her cacti and hazy memories of a mother she hasn’t seen since she was seven years old, she doesn’t exactly feel any connection to Spain. But that looks set to change when her Uncle Arturo offers her the possibility to spend a couple of months in his coastal home in a quiet part of Andalusia! Juliana cannot accept her uncle’s offer quickly enough – even if her Spanish holiday comes with a couple of conditions which she needs to fulfill within ninety days.

Juliana isn’t bothered about these caveats which her uncle has imposed upon her. After all, redecorating his house and visiting the old film studios her mother worked at as a seamstress seem easy enough. However, Juliana quickly finds herself untangling family secrets and trying to resolve inherited rivalries stretching back generations. It soon becomes apparent to Juliana that life in Spain is not going to be a walk in the park – especially as she has to get on with her neighbours. While most of them are kind and friendly, there is a moody artist among them who isn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet. If only he wasn’t so maddeningly attractive and deliciously handsome!

Is Juliana about to find everything she has always wanted in Spain? Has she found a place she can call home? Or will the discoveries she makes about her family’s past end up leaving her with no other choice but to head back home?

Cherry Radford writes with great charm, warmth and wit and The Spanish House is an uplifting story about finding your own voice, taking a leap of faith and coming home full of delightful characters, laugh out loud humour, emotional intensity and plenty of drama and mischief to keep readers turning the pages.

A glorious romantic escape that enchants and entertains from start to finish, Cherry Radford’s The Spanish House is the literary equivalent of a glass of something sparkling on a warm summer’s day.

⭐⭐ -- It was okay

I started this one a few days ago, but kept putting it down in favor of other books. I finally finished it today. It was okay. I didn't find the writing to be that great. There was a lot going, and the plot felt disjointed. Because of that, I never really connected with any of the characters. I enjoyed that setting though, so you know...mixed bag. 🤷🏻‍♀️

**ARC Via NetGalley**

This book is AMAZING and in this, we can all thank COVID for creating the opportunity of the gift of this book! Cherry Radford caught me right from page one, with the conflict of dealing with both racism and substance use/abuse with the attack on the tube, is how I think the English call it?

I was so glad for Hoolie to find her get away AND her Love. I bawled my eyes out about Arturo!

I appreciated the historical contexts for the location of San Rafael and Almeria. I now want to go see that part of Spain desperately.

There were only a few spelling errors, which I am sure have been corrected and other than that, this book was perfection. Cherry Radford now has a new fan!

Thank you for sharing your gift with all of us readers.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I absolutely adore Spain, and it holds a very special place in my heart, so I am always drawn to books that take place there. This book felt like Spain, and I loved that. It was so easy to picture all of the scenes and really fall into the book that way.

I liked Juliana. It was great to see how she learned about her family, and also figuring out what she wanted to do in life instead of always feeling like she was a background character. I enjoyed that she made friends both in and out of the expat community, and that she was so open to explore new places and try new things.

The plot, though, was....a lot. There were just too many things going on. It's not just about Juliana trying to fulfill the requirements to inherit this Spanish house. It's also about BIG family secrets that just keep coming out of the woodwork, deciding on a total career and life change, having a mess with an ex-boyfriend, and also trying to start a new relationship. I felt like there were so many conflicts that came up that it made the plot seem thin and most of the characters and their relationships fell flat.

I wish there would have been more to Josemi. He just never seemed fully formed to me. I never felt a real connection between him and Juliana.

While I enjoyed the escapism the location of this book offered, the overall story was pulled in too many directions and fell short.

Not a bad book . Easy reading where you do not have to think about the plot too much. The descriptions of the countryside were mostly good giving a good impression of the village and area but the characters could do with more depth. Lots of misunderstandings and people jumping to conclusions too quickly which make this book seem too naive. The prologue was totally unrelated to the rest of the book .
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review .

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4162944465

Actual rating 2.5⭐️

Half Spanish half British Juliana (Hooli) is living in London and working as a tv and film extra when a welcome opportunity to explore her Spanish heritage comes knocking at the door, in the form of her Uncle Arturo’s unusual invitation. He’s inviting Hooli to live in his holiday house in San Rafael in the Almeria region of the country for ninety days during which time if she successfully completes various conditions attached to his generous offer the house will be hers! Having never set foot on Spanish soil since her mother passed away when Hooli was a child this sounds like an ideal way in which to reconnect with her Spanish roots and discover more about the mother she never properly had the chance to know. However, her arrival in San Rafael may just rattle a few skeletons in the family closet, exposing long buried secrets that will almost certainly shock and surprise this young woman. Sound intriguing? Then read on!

It was on a very rainy typical British August summer weekend that I began reading The Spanish House. From the lovely cover alone I was expecting to be transported away from the miserable downpours to a sunnier, warmer climate, the author guiding me through a virtual tour of the area taking in the breathtaking scenery, allowing me to imagine my feet sinking into the sand on any one of the beautiful beaches, and my taste buds to tingle over descriptions of the local cuisine. I wanted my journey to this Spanish house and the surrounding area to be an all round immersive sensory experience evoking memories of a time when travelling abroad was “normal”, the greatest worry being what to pack in your suitcase. Having only visited the white village of Frigiliana, an idyllic spot for a vacation I was keen to “sample” more of what Spain has to offer. Did Cherry Radford fulfill my wishes? Not quite!

The prologue is strange, meaning my first impression of this novel wasn’t great but I certainly wasn’t going to give up at the first hurdle! I was willing to forgive the fact that some of the conditions attached to Uncle Arturo’s proposition are hardly noteworthy. Buying a few soft furnishings and eating a certain type of tomato (unless you’re allergic) isn’t exactly a hardship nor difficult to achieve! Nor is contemplating eating a fresh sardine (much later on) either! Other conditions are less ridiculous and play an important part in the developing plot, however the stipulations Hooli is obliged to adhere to are just the beginnings of a plot that jumps all over the place. This in itself wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the protagonist and the supporting cast of characters were charming enough to win me over to their side and encourage me to suspend disbelief in light of the more unrealistic scenarios. Personally, good characterisation is vital for me to fully engage with a storyline, particularly in this genre of fiction where the plots are normally fairly predictable. Characters you can resonate with, sympathise with, like or best of all take to your heart can make all the difference between earning a mediocre rating or a fabulous one. I can’t pinpoint why I failed to connect with Juliana or the rest of this hotchpotch bunch which comprise, amongst others, a trespassing goat, neighbours who are wary of the new girl in town, an ex flame and a worthy candidate in the romantic stakes, someone who can capture Hooli’s heart. Kindly Uncle Arturo was my favourite but whereas I might ordinarily class these characters as endearingly quirky I decided they were simply odd. I think the main reason I couldn’t form a connection with them has something to do with the dialogue which is at times terrible!! It doesn’t flow well at all. This in my opinion is the novel’s greatest downfall.

Acting is a big theme in this novel so if you like musicals and/or anything of a theatrical nature this novel may appeal. Like I say the plot line is predictable as Hooli begins to fully embrace the Spanish way of life whilst coming to terms with a huge revelation concerning her mother. You can expect the usual highs and lows that come with any journey of personal growth and enlightenment with the added bonus of romance on the horizon. This particular aspect would have benefited from an extra injection of fiery passion to set hearts a flutter and temperatures soaring. Instead it’s just nice, cute and like everything else about this novel a bit strange!! Unfortunately strange is a word that predominantly sprang to mind throughout reading of Juliana and her newly discovered past.

This quirky storyline together with characters whom I didn’t dislike but never really warmed to combine to produce what I can only describe as an overall disappointing read which is a shame because I think the premise has bags of potential. There is a sweet, heartwarming tale languishing somewhere beneath all the clunky, unconvincing dialogue so others may have better luck sifting out the more positive aspects of this storyline from the not so good ones than I did. Frankly, I found it a struggle to get through and I limped my way to the end. Sadly in this occasion, despite my best efforts to enjoy Juliana’s journey as she endeavours to find a place she can truly call home, it’s a massive thumbs down from me.

My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Half Spanish and half English, Julianna is invited by her uncle Arturo to spend the summer in his house. Over time it becomes clear that not only are there some conditions attached, but fulfilling them will take her on a journey of discovery. Over the course of the book we see Julianna discover who she really is - and who she wants to be.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this lovely book.

I loved The Spanish House by Cherry Radford for its captivating characters and the vivid descriptions of this beautiful part of Spain. The plot involves an uplifting romance with a little pulling at the heart strings thrown in. Juliana is an immensely likable character, and the story develops beautifully around the conditions her uncle Arturo puts on her before he will give her his house in Spain. The About the Author section notes that this is the first of three stories by the author set in this part of Spain. I will definitely be reading the next two! Thanks to Aria and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC of The Spanish House by Cherry Radford. This is the story of Juliana, a half Spanish, half English 30 something lady who is struggling in London and wants more from life. She is not particularly happy with her job; she does not feel like she really fits with her dad’s new family and does not like living in her shared flat. Luckily for her, the perfect opportunity arrives from her uncle in Spain, Arturo. Arturo is a quirky, eccentric, and likable character who proposes that Juliana moves to Spain for 90 days and completes a series of tasks in order to inherit his beautiful house. The tasks are not haphazard, and they are designed to help Juliana discover the truth about her mother and find her true roots.
I have loved the descriptions in this book and at times I felt transported to Spain. I also liked the plot and Julia’s journey of discovery and acceptance.
What I did not like too much was the love story between Hoolia and Josemi - her neighbour, the artist. Their love story didn’t feel to me like it evolved well, it just seems to happen. I would have loved more angst and building to the big kiss. It felt a little forced. I did like Josemi and the way he supported Juliana in her journey.
Overall a very enjoyable book. Perfect read for summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Aria Team for an ARC of The Spanish House by Cherry Radford. Julia is living in London when her uncle proposes that she live in his summer house in Spain for 90 days in exchange for ten items on a list which includes painting rooms to visiting nearby beaches. Her Uncle Arturo would like her to learn more about her mother who was Spanish and her inheritance. At the end of the 90 days, the summer house may be hers if she completes the items on her list. Julia has not seen her mother since she was seven and always wondered what had happened. Once Julia arrives at the summer house, she meets the handsome next door neighbor but the fact that she is not fluent in Spanish hinders their communication somewhat. Julia plays her flute in the community theater, not wishing to act or sing. She grows to love Spain and learns more about her mom and her life in Spain. Julia had an eleven year relationship with a handsome actor that suddenly wants to move to Spain just as Julia is confident on her own to not be trapped in a dead end relationship with him. The ninety days seem to go by quickly as Julia decides to either return to London or find a way to stay in Spain.
The descriptions of Spain including the houses, the beaches, and the food make one feel like they are on holiday in Spain. This is a wonderful story with many surprises and twists and colorful characters that come alive. I really enjoyed The Spanish House and look forward to reading more books by Cherry Radford. I also enjoyed the spotify playlist that Cherry Radford put together with songs referenced in the book.