Good But Not Great
Sarah works for a huge tech giant company who moved her to a small Scottish island to secretly work on a controversial possibly world saving project. Her mother is an eco-terrorist busy body who would and could destroy her work so she tells a little lie. She says she moved to the village for love. Her new home needs major help but luckily for her, help is available. Pippa is a widowed, semi-retired structural engineer who is done with love and the rat race. After moving to the island, she still helps her former firm with projects but mostly works as a handy woman now. When Sarah calls Pippa for help with really simple projects, Pippa can’t help but wonder how someone could be so helpless but offers her services never the less. When Sarah’s mother decides to visit, she begs Pippa to pretend to be her partner, she refuses, but after meeting the dismissive and sole destroying woman, she finds herself introducing herself as Sarah’s lover. The more time they spend pretending, the more it seems real but Pippa isn’t willing to risk her heart again…or is she?

I liked this book a lot. I laughed at Sarah’s inability to do simple household things but is so brilliant at her very technical job. I loved watching Sarah and Pippa form a friendship and become something more but not just love, not yet anyway. Watching Sarah fall in love with the island was also sweet. I wanted so much for her and Pippa to get together. They had great chemistry. I HATED Sarah’s mom, as I’m sure was intended. She was cruel and dismissive and ever so difficult. She was also very hypocritical and self-serving. She was a necessary evil for the story but I really wished Sarah would have told her mother off and kicked her out of her life after everything went to hell in a hand basket. I was so invested in Sarah and hated that she was so hurt and never lashed out. It was the only part of the book that I really hated even though I really enjoyed the rest of the book. The ending sort of made up for the betrayal of her mom and I was so happy that things worked out. This wasn’t Ms Radley’s best work but I am glad to have read it anyway.

𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁.

This one is nice, which comes as a surprise to me because I generally don't see the appeal of women with toolbelts like some other lesbians do. But this story is pleasant enough. The chemistry between the characters isn't earth-shattering but it's there and I can understand why Sarah and Pippa would be interested in each other even though they are vastly different people because loneliness is something both share.

To be honest, I was a little half-hearted at the start. Pippa, the handywoman, was condescending and there was just too much conversation about house repairs. But I warmed up to Pippa eventually, especially after she stepped in to help Sarah out with a fauxmance to deceive Sarah's mother. The story got better for me and interesting too, especially with the contention between Sarah and her secret tech work project and her crazy environmental fanatic mother.

This book made me smile because it’s full of gentle humour and island characters. The setting is imaginatively beautiful. The butch is suitably tool-belted and the nerd explains some stuff I’d never known or thought about before. So the book is educational as well as entertaining. A win! The plot is intriguing and even when you know from the start that the mother is going to turn up eventually, when she does it’s still lots of fun. Feels like a summer holiday read.

With Radley’s writing you know what to expect and I am happy the author delivers again. With the last view releases I didn’t always feel the connection and chemistry between the MCs, this one is back on true Radley form.

Sarah moves to a tiny Scottish island for work, a top secret work project. She meets Pippa, the local handyperson. From the blurb I’d say I would instantly like Pippa, but in the first few chapters she is super condescending and not a nice person at all. Luckily she redeems herself later in the book and I grew rather fond of her. This book is an age gap fauxmance, they embark on this fauxmance because of Sraah’s mom. And let me tell you, what a character, she isn’t nice or motherly in the least.
I understand the struggles these characters face to decide if this thing between them is worth pursuing or not. There are a ton of difference and there is the tiny white lie about Sarah’s work…

I liked this book, Radley’s writing is always comfortable. Some fade to black intimacy and a nice connection, all very comforting and easy to read

Sarah went to a remote Scottish island for research. Her company bought her a cottage but it needed work. Pippa is a handywoman. who helps fix up the cottage. The plot revolves around Sarah's secret research and lies to her ecowarrior mother Angela. The characters are well written and make for a good story. Both Sarah and Pippa find honesty is best in relationships both with family and love.
I recommend this book for romance readers.

Such a lovely story!

Sarah’s secretive work leaves her in a difficult position, but having moved for her work to a remote Scottish Island, she finds herself needing some help to do up the rundown cottage her company have put her up in. Pippa is one of two handypeople on the island and ends up helping Sarah with everything the cottage needs, and then also by pretending to be her partner when her mother arrives.

As usual, Amanda has delivered a story in a style I love so much. It’s a simple but sweet romance, where two wonderful women have a connection that they try to fight due to their own vulnerabilities but they are just perfect for one another. It is not a conventional romance with the fake element when Sarah’s mother arrives, but hers and Pippa’s connection was definitely real. They were just meant to be and I am so glad fate intervened to bring them together.

They had a touching connection, one of care and compassion, more so on Pippa’s part, but when you learn everything they have both been through, their actions are more than explainable. Sarah’s mother arriving was the little push they both needed to progress things, and although the woman was a nightmare, I was so pleased she turned up or these two perhaps would have missed the chance to be happy together. Pippa’s been through some heartbreak, but I admire how quickly she came became protective of Sarah and how she really wanted to help and hoped her and her mother could find a mutual understanding and bond again.

A great story, also full of fascinating facts that made it really exciting to learn all Sarah knew about her work and the dedication she had. I really enjoyed every moment of it, can’t recommend it enough, and as usual, can’t wait to read Amanda’s next story.

Moving to a remote Scottish island for a secretive work project has Sarah Campbell scrambling to adapt to the slow pace of her new home. She is definitely not in London anymore and Sarah’s home is far from new. It requires a massive list of repairs to be habitable.
Pippa Kent moved to the island after her wife passed away six years ago. She works part time as a remote structural engineer and the rest of her time as a handywoman. Pippa is called on to do the repairs for Sarah.
There is a whole subterfuge of Pippa pretending to be Sarah’s girlfriend for the sake of her mother. This is the most logical and realistic fake romance that I have ever read. Radley has outdone herself.
The story fluctuates between Sarah and Pippa’s points of view. Although Pippa is the most sympathetic character, I am intrigued by Sarah, her intelligence, her work and her broken relationship with her mother.
Reclaiming Love is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read. Radley takes her time in telling this story and we are all the lucky beneficiaries.

I received an advanced review copy from Bold Stroke Books through NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Reclaiming Love
by Amanda Radley
MC Pippa Kent & Sarah Campbell


Review

This age-gap romance finds Sarah moving to a small Scottish island to focus on a work project. She left behind a little white lie. That is sure to bring about problems in the future. She rents a run down old cottage in desperate need of repairs, which is not Sarah’s bag. She hires Pippa, a handywoman to make the repairs and this is where the fun begins

Now Pippa is going through the motions of life since her wife passed away. So she is dealing with her own issues.

Now enter Sarah’s mother, very much evil queen vibes. She doesn’t have a close relationship with Sarah and loves to nit pick. Sarah finds herself in fake relationship with Pippa to cover up the little lie that she told. But feelings start to grow…….

I always love Amanda Radley. Her books are super sweet.

Pippa stole the show for me. She’s kind and you can’t help but fall in love with her character.

I highly recommend book. It’s very sweet and charming. 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

I'm not going to publish this review elsewhere, since it's fairly negative.

This book feels like it still needs a lot of work. The characters are flat and lacking in depth. Sarah's only real characteristics are that they likes her work and loathes her mother; which is understandable, giving how one-dimensionally awful mom is. Pippa, meanwhile, is good with her hands and mourning her wife. We don't get to know them outside of this.
The pacing and plotting is also in need of attention. Sarah's mom does her thing, and Sarah worries that her career is over as a result ... and then a couple of pages later Sarah is heading up a new project. There's no development from one to the other, and that's the kind of place you need some.
The ending also feels very rushed, like the author just wanted the two characters to get over themselves and get together and so they did.

I actually really loved this book. Reclaiming Love just had 'something' about it which had me hooked from the moment I started reading. I'm not 100% sure what that something was exactly - there were a few common tropes thrown together; age gap, fake romance, forced proximity. For me, it seemed to have the perfect blend of romance, humour, angst, conflict and chemistry.

The concept is pretty simple - Sarah moves to a small Scottish island for a work project, where she inevitably meets, due to requiring her assistance, the only other available lesbian, Pippa, and sparks fly. Pippa is pretty much the perfect woman, however has a complicated past and has sworn off love. Sarah has baggage of her own, mainly in the form of her mother who comes to visit, bringing most of the angst and conflict with her.

Amanda Radley did a really great job in creating two characters who are authentic, and charismatic. She added in just enough angst to not over power the sweetness of the romance. And how lovely that both Pippa and Sarah could actually communicate with each other so we don't have to spend a huge chunk of the book groaning at conflict caused by miscommunication.

Reclaiming love was original, refreshing and really funny. If your looking for a book to lose yourself in for a few hours, I recommend giving it a read.

3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading this book, it touches upon some serious and emotional topics, but it does so without becoming very dramatic or angsty.

This is an age-gap romance and both main characters have their emotional baggage to deal with. Pippa, the local handywoman, has retreated to the island she grew up on to deal with her grief after losing her wife. I liked both MCs, but Pippa is hands down my favorite.
Sarah comes to the island to work on a secret project, one that especially her mother (an eco-activist) should not know about. Her relationship with her mother is troublesome and that’s easy to see why when her mother arrives on the island. What an awful human being, but she does stir up the situation on the island nicely.

The story is set on a Scottish Island and the location was one of the things that made me want to read this. I was hoping for a small town with its quaint inhabitants and customs,
but unfortunately, the local interactions and flavor were largely missing.

At some point in the story there is a fauxmance situation which breaks through their emotional protection and forces them together, and I enjoyed their interactions and the slow burn romance. One of the things that I noticed immediately was the good communication, of course there are things unsaid that are used for the plotline, but in general they were very frank and open with each other. I liked them together, but their chemistry was not bubbling of the page, more a comfortable kind of feeling, and like most of Radley’s books there were no explicit sex scenes.

A few things were left untouched, like what happens between Sarah and her mother in the end, and not all of the science vs nature preservation conflict was explored, it felt a little bit superficial and repetitive at times, but I’m likely being too demanding there.

A charming romance that is well-paced and had a plotline that kept me interested.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah comes to a remote Scottish island to monitor a data center that her company is secretly testing off shore. It is more better ecologically for the environment and is fish friendly too. She is to live in a run down ocean view home her company owns. Her boss gives her permission to repair and renovate which has her contacting Pippa an all around handy-woman. She is an architect by training and still consults for her old work but she lives in her grandfathers house and came to the island six years before. She enjoys the quiet simple life and finds satisfaction is doing her handy work. After bumpy start Pippa is a fixture at Sarah’s home working on the renovating. When Sarah’s environmental activist mother comes to visit Pippa poses as Sarah’s fake girlfriend to explain why she is living in a remote area. Her mother does not approve of the Sarah’s work.

I gave Radley’s last book five stars but this one didn’t work as well for me. The characters are good but Radley falls back on telling you what Sarah and Pippa are thinking but not showing it. Radley likes age-gap romances. They are 34 and 48 respectively and they do communicate honestly as friends. But there is no flirting or banter. I just didn’t see the connection growing other than knowing Pippa was Sarah’s type which is mentioned more than once. Radley leaves intimacy off the page except for kissing, which she often does. But in a gentle romance like this I felt the sparks are missing. I would have enjoyed more interaction with the locals like another encounter with the male handy-man or gossiping neighbors.

I’m enjoyed the story and especially the Scottish location. But I can’t think of a scene or parts of a book that I want to immediately re-read. For me that is a sign of an average story. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah moves to a remote Scottish isle to supervise a very secret IT project. A secret she must keep as far away as possible from her environmental activist mother. So she makes up a girlfriend.
On the little island she is met by a barely fir to live in cottage and so she meets the isle handyperson. Pippa and Sarah end up spending a lot of time together as the cabin is being renovated. And then mummy dearest comes for a surprise visit.
It’s a cliche to say this is a classic Radley but it’ got an interesting topic, it’s charming, has a couple of kisses here and there, it’s well structured and written.

Reclaiming Love was a quick read for me with interesting characters, an age gap romance, and a fake girlfriend storyline. Throw in an old home remodel, a meddling mother, a remote Scottish island, and one character recovering from her wife's death six years before and you have an interesting storyline combination.

Pippa is a forty-eight-year-old retired structural engineer who removed to the remote Scottish island to try to grieve her wife's death. She hasn't dated in the six years since her wife's death and isn't interested in meeting anyone new. She just wants to perform her handywoman job to help the island's residents and return to her home each evening by herself. Sarah is on the island for six months implementing her company's technology-based secretive project with a data center called Billy. They meet when Sarah finds out the house that her company put her up in is in serious need of repairs. There is an immediate attraction between the two women.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the Scottish island setting. 4 stars

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books, Inc. for the ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Overall fell short of 3.5 by a bit.

I like the settings and the characters of this book. This is my first book by Radley and certainly not the last. The plot involves the characters' occupations more than a typical love story. I think the love story in this book is only a minor plot, even though everything else ties to it. This book deals with a mother-daughter relationship, grief, environmental consciousness, and technology.
I like the details about Sarah's and Pippa's jobs - being clueless in both, I had to look up some stuff to distinguish between the real world and fiction and I find the idea of a submerged data center fascinating.
The relationship between Sarah and Pippa fell short for me, maybe because it seemed forced (besides the nature of fake dating), but even at the beginning - "not being able to focus/work around each other because the other is hot."
At the end of the book, I'm more curious about the future for Billy than the romance.
I also want to see more of Sarah and her mom, although her mom makes me want to burn all the newspapers that she read just to cause chaos. Their ending wasn't satisfactory for me, but maybe it's best and realistic that the ending is like that.
The writing was ok. A few things were repetitive - why Pippa is the way she is, how Sarah knows her mom is a lost cause but still trying, etc. I think it would've been better if those were shown than simply stating them.

Reclaiming Love was my first novel by Amanda Radley. Pippa and Sarah resort to fake dating when Sarah's mum visits after Sarah told a white lie about being in a relationship.

I enjoyed reading about two characters who were older than my usual reading (in thirties and fifties) while still being able to understand their trauma and motivations. My particular favourite in the story was Sarah's technology background, the way it was woven into the story.

Unfortunately the romance wasn't developed for me - I found that Pippa and Sarah didn't really have much chemistry and it really lacked in some scenes, almost as though the forced proximity was being written to fill the pages rather than further the plot.

I loved the location of a rural Scottish isle and wished we could have had more interaction with the town and its locals as I feel it could have really fleshed out the novel and given us some side characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a combination of slow burn, age gap and fauxmance all rolled into one delightful read. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

We have Sarah a tech nerd who is responsible for a data center that is being tested for a new and more echo friendly process. Sarah moves to a remote Scottish island to test her research. Her corporation sets her up in an old rundown house on a cliff above the ocean. The house is badly in need of repairs.. Sarah hires Pippa (love that name) a handywoman to make the repairs and renovate the house. Meanwhile Sarah’s mother is an environmental activist who is constantly fighting her daughter over environmental issues. Sarah’s mom is also very mean and treats her daughter badly

I also enjoyed the setting on the island and the laid back country lifestyle.

ARC received for a voluntary and honest review.

Reclaiming Love is follows the story of Pippa and Sarah who are thrown together after a white lie forces them to pretend to be girlfriends when Sarah’s mom drops in for an unexpected visit. They couldn’t be more different, Sarah works for a tech company, and Pippa is a retired structural engineer acting as her small community handy person, but they find themselves getting along just fine in their ploy.
Like most of Amanda Radley’s books this is a sweet romance. They are both recovering from past traumas and have each given up on love in different ways. Sarah’s mother is not a typical mom and has added her own brand of drama to Sarah’s life. I enjoyed the backdrop of this remote Scottish island as well but I do wish we had some more interactions with the other townspeople. Robin was a comedy of errors and I’m sure an imaginary quaint town like this should have more than one quirky side character. I liked the two characters separately but I felt like they lacked chemistry in some of the scenes. I did highly enjoy the whole tech backstory though and it prompted a few google searches to find out that it is in fact reality. I do work in tech myself and it’s always nice to find characters that i can connect with on a more personal level. Overall great book that would be perfect for anyone looking for a sweet romance.