Finding Verity by Jenny Louden

 
 
I don't normally read romance novels, and Finding Verity seems at first glance to be purely a romance novel, but when Jenny Louden asked me to review this book she emphasised the connection that the main character Verity has with nature and thus persuaded me to read the book! And I'm glad I did as it's engagingly written and I felt immediately drawn to Verity as a character, her creativity and her relationship to nature. She's a character who notices things, whether it's the leaves on a plane tree or the decor of a house she's visiting. It's also refreshing to have a romantic novel featuring a female protagonist who for most of the book is 'around 50'.

Verity marries Matt and they live in London, with Verity hoping that eventually they will move to the countryside, while Matt sees this as too much of a risk. He wants Verity to continue running her interior design business and paint in her spare time, while she wants to paint full time and live a rural life:

'if there was anything these past years of trying to paint had taught her, it was that she worked best outdoors, and she needed a proper large and well lit place in which to complete her work......The paintings which had been chosen forexhibitions over the years had all been landscapes she had done while on holiday in Italy or France. It was hopeless trying to do anything in this confined space where her elbow hit the wall and her canvases were, of necessity, small......She could not put off her dream any more.'

A holiday weekend in the south of France unexpectedly brings Verity back into contact with Edward an old friend and pushes her into reassessing her life.

 It's a very readable novel about finding the courage to live your dreams and explore your creativity  and has plenty of drama to make you keep turning the page.