This was a lovely read and I really enjoyed it. Set in France about a book club, this one really grabbed my Interest. I read this extremely quickly. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

A new Author for me, who kindly allowed me a kindle book via NetGalley to read and review, and it was my absolute pleasure to do so.

Gillian managed to encapsulate the ex-pat community of Bordeaux beautifully and all the characters were my favourite at differing times. I laughed, I cried, I sympathised and was ready to hug them all. Such wonderful descriptions of the villages, architecture, lifestyle and food too, and I could picture myself there (I have secretly copied the reading list and will now read the books they picked and imagine I am attending the book club too).

I have recommended the book to my friends, and I was lucky enough to be having a long weekend in Nice when I read it, so that was a bonus, but for anyone it is a lovely holiday summer time gem.

Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey was Brilliant from the very first few pages I was hooked, I found it hard to carrying on with my house cleaning!!! and I could not put this book down. It was a beautiful read and takes you to the picturesque countryside of France.

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.

So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.

But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…........

I highly recommend The Bordeaux Book Club especially as this book bought back great memories for me.........this was just a dream at first when I used to joke about it with my Hubby and when I was at my local book club with my friends.........."let's-buy-a-farmhouse-in-France.!".............."What am I saying!" Which I did and it's a beautiful place to live in."

Big Thank you to Boldwood Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. x

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book got off to a slow start, but it got really good from there. I enjoyed it a lot!

The book is set in beautiful Bordeaux - the centre of the wine growing region in France.
I particularly loved how the characters developed and you got to know them with every new page. I felt sadness and sorrow for them in many different ways. I didn't want the book to end.
Thai was my first novel by Gillian Harvey and I recommend.

I found it took a couple of chapters to get into this book but once I did, I loved it!! a totally eclectic bunch of people meeting at a regular bookclub all with their own little back stories. And characters you never thought would have anything in common with each other somehow did! I loved the way the books chosen for the group to read had a description of each one so perhaps encourage the reader to read them if they hadnt already. I would definitely recommend this book and I think I'd read it again!!

An engaging and wonderful story of intersecting lives. A group of people who would most likely walk past each other on the street without even noticing each other become friends that are like family when they form a hodgepodge book group. Each is going through emotional turmoil quietly on their own, but as they delve into books and discuss the characters, they start to see parallels to their own lives and start to open up to each other thus helping to lighten the emotional load they are carrying. The author absolutely drew me in and kept me on the edge of my seat as I joined the characters as the dumped their dirty laundry for the others to see and help them to clean up and carry the load. An absolutely engaging story that had you both in love with the characters as well as frustrated with them at times just as the author means for you to be! There is a happily ever after for each member of the book club, but it isn't always what you think it will be. I am absolutely in love with this author's writing and can't wait to read more!!!

It is a lovely story full of humour and poignant moments about diverse individuals who meet and bond through books in the Bordeaux region of France. Each has a life story that we learn as the book progresses. Through its complex and relatable characters and the books they read and discuss, it explores the concepts of community, loneliness and secrets. The lyrically described setting adds depth, making this an engaging read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

This book fully captures the isolating feeling of living in a foreign country, the struggles one can face to assimilate, and the importance of finding community. The writing is neither too flowery nor too flat, and the author communicates the themes of the book well through the narration and dialogue. Having the characters be so different from each other made for an interesting touch, as the analysis they all had for the books they read and the situations they were in, was quite fun and well-crafted.

Though the story is fairly basic, I thought the characters were definitely strong enough to carry the book. If you can stick it out for the first 20% or so, which in my opinion was a little hard to get invested in, this is a rewarding and emotional read with excellent character growth and a touching story. Content warnings for miscarriage and death of a parent. Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

4/5 Classic books and modern problems.

Leah and her husband Nathan moved to rural France for a piece of the 'Good Life', but recreating themselves as Tom and Barbara Good from the 1970s sitcom has proved to be anything but the self-sufficient idyll they thought it would be. Afraid to tell Nathan that she hates this constant uphill struggle to coax their allotment into plenty, fearing it would shatter his dreams, Leah is feeling dissatisfied with her lot. It does not help that Nathan suddenly seems to be acting strangely and spending more time away from the garden that working it, or that their once delightful daughter Scarlett has hit the tempestuous teenage years.

Feeling the need for some time away from her own life, Leah reluctantly joins the new book club her friend Grace has formed, even though she is not sure she really likes Grace's propensity to involve herself in everyone's lives while revealing very little of herself in return. But it cannot hurt to lose herself in some good books for a while, can it?

Leah finds herself discussing literature with an eclectic mix of fellow book clubbers, who seem to have very little in common, other than the ability to speak English. Alongside bossy Grace, there is handsome, rough-and-ready builder George, who has not picked up a book in years; new mum Monica, whose husband is away a lot, leaving her alone in their beautiful apartment with just a tiny baby for company; and painfully shy student Alfie, years younger than the others., but with a lot on his shoulders.. Their ideas about the characters in the books they read differ wildly, but somehow as they come together to talk about them they begin to reveal parts of themselves, and their troubles, to each other. As real friendship blooms over books and wine, the members of the Bordeaux Book Club discover ways to get to grips with changes in their own lives too - and Leah realises that the happily-ever-after she was hoping for might actually look rather different to the one she pictured.

I love settling down with a Gillian Harvey as she has such a talent for combining escapist storylines with emotional themes around love, marriage, family, and rediscovering yourself, by examining the trials and tribulations of characters taking on the expat lifestyle in France - and this brand new gem does that in style.

Having read all of Harvey's lovely books published by Boldwood, which address different aspects of the hopes and dreams people aim to achieve by packing up their lives and heading for the French countryside, The Bordeaux Book Club brings with it a cast of characters who all need support with many different challenges right across the age spectrum, which makes this book widely relatable. Beyond the usual ex-pat bumps in the road thrown up by language problems and culture-shock, which Harvey's own expat experiences make so real, these characters also need help with recovering from heart-ache, loneliness, loss, and in making themselves heard in less tangible ways.

I found Nathan a bit of trial, but the interweaving storylines of the characters gradually drew me in, and before long I was completely tied to the fates of Leah, Grace, George, Monica, and Alfie, and their loved ones - and entertained by their discussions about some very well-known classics. As expected, Harvey packs this with emotion fit to make your heart burst, as the barriers between the group are broken down, opening them up to new possibilities. There are a gentle romantic threads for the 'ahh' factor; and a few humorous moments which are tied up so much with the poignancy of the characters' stories that this is definitely more of a weeper than a chuckler, so keep the tissues handy - I definitely needed them at several points along the way, and at the lovely ending.

This really is a book that works its way into your heart, and in many ways I think it might be Harvey's most complex, and emotionally charged story to date - and that is saying a lot! I loved it, and became very fond of those Bordeaux Book Clubbers... I know you will too.

Harvey writes a story about a group of book readers who all are looking for each other.
I liked the intersections of the stories.
I thought Scarlett needed to be dealt with more harshly and Leah should have followed her husband much earlier than she did. I know I would have.
The books chosen to be read were typical book club selections, the classics, but I had to laugh because of those were the books chosen in any book club I was in I would have been homelike George and asking the wine was.
The book emphasizes the bonds a book club can create and the interesting parameters of friendship. Ti read a book in Bordeaux would be enough.

This was my second venture into one of Harvey's novels and my favourite so far - I love a book about books and book clubs, don't you?

The scene is set against the backdrop of the stunning Bordeaux - the wine growing region of France.

What could possibly go wrong with a group of expats getting together to share their love of books and spilling the tea on their personal lives? They were such a brilliant mix of credible characters and I enjoyed their stories and felt every one of their emotions with them.

Highly enjoyable and a delight to read.

This was my first Gillian Harvey novel and I really enjoyed this book about book club! The group of unexpected strangers of this book club are all individuals who are trying to deal with their own life problems but yet all connected through books.

This was a really heartwarming story about friendship!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This is the first book I've read by Gillian Harvey and it certainly won't be my last. I loved how the characters gradually developed and you got to know them and empathize with them all in different ways. It was one of those books I didn't want to end.

I very much enjoyed The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey. A lovely set of characters each with their own storyline which was good and the descriptions of the settings were enticing and set the scenes well. It was interesting to read view points from all different ages and backgrounds.

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.

So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.

But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…

As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…

My Opinion

A book about a book club - what is there not to love?

Gillian Harvey has set her latest book in France but Grace is determined to set up her book club in English. Responding to her advert are a real mix of characters, each one is a great addition. Whilst following the meetings of the book club we also learn more about each of the members of the group and how they are all united by the love of books.

This was a book that I expected to take me a lot longer to read, but I enjoyed it so much I just kept on reading. Within this book there is someone that everyone can connect with. An absolute joy to read.

Rating 4/5

I have been a fan of Gillian and her work for a while now. By no means have I read everything that she has written but that is something that I hope to rectify in the not too distant future. I read the synopsis of 'The Bordeaux Book Club' and it certainly sounded like just my kind of read. I couldn't wait to dive in and so without further ado, I grabbed my Kindle, grabbed a cup of tea and settled down for an interesting afternoon of reading. I really enjoyed reading 'The Bordeaux Book Club' but more about that in a bit.

The synopsis of this book was enough to grab my attention and draw me in. As soon as I started reading the story itself, I knew that I was in for a treat and that it would prove rather difficult to put the book down for any great length of time. I was spot on too. I loved where the story was set and I loved the fact that a book club formed part of the story. This was especially relevant to me as I set up and run a book club in my village. The story seemed to have cast a spell over me and it was a spell that I wasn't willing to break. My Kindle wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I couldn't bear to miss a single second of the story. I was so wrapped up in the story and in the lives of the different characters that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the book. All too quickly I reached the end of 'The Bordeaux Book Club'. I found 'The Bordeaux Book Club' to be an enchanting and heart warming read, which certainly kept me guessing.

'The Bordeaux Book Club' is superbly written but then I have come to expect nothing less from Gillian Harvey. Gillian has an easy going writing style that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. Gillian certainly knows how to grab the reader's attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a story and then some. Gillian clearly cares about her characters and this shines through in the very vivid and realistic way in which she describes them. She makes her characters seem just as real as you and I. In fact I ended up feeling as though certain characters were friends of mine and not strangers in a story. I also felt as though I was part of the story and at the heart of the action, which is all thanks to Gillian's very vivid and realistic storytelling.

In short, I really enjoyed reading 'The Bordeaux Book Club' and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Gillian's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

The Bordeaux Book Club has everything you'd want from a cosy read - aspirational setting, books, wine and just the right seasoning of drama throughout. A group of unlikely friends forms, thrown together through their expat life in Bordeaux and almost immediately. become a great support to each other through life's ups and downs. Thanks NetGalley!

Leah has uprooted her life and moved to the Idyllic French countryside with her daughter and her husband. Hoping to get farming there own vegetables, she is hoping for a fresh start. Leah joins a newly formed book club and meets a bunch of misfits who soon become invaluable friends. The beautiful French setting is perfect for a book and a wine. I came to look forward to the book club meetings as if I myself was attending. The discussions are witty and I formed my own opinions on the books read. Getting to know the characters on a more detailed situation was eye opening. I appreciated that they were a unique bunch with different quirks that I came to love.

Firstly thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Ive never been to France but after reading this book I felt like I was actually in Bordeaux and part of the book club.