A cliché book with a cliché story and stereotypical characters. You'll be able to predict every plottwist from miles away. I guess this is your average chicklit. ( )

Another easy read from Fforde, with characters that you instantly warm to, even if they live a different life than your own! With the exception of the use of the word 'jolly' (instantly makes me think of a different , monied circle of people when this word is used!) this was a good read. The addition of a lovely greyhound helped, but the idyllic setting of the Cotswolds (although I doubt the commutability of this location to London based on the current public transport availability and reliability!) and the typical Fforde heroine who is capable, talented, pretty and with friends one can only dream of having made it a well rounded novel. Award winning it isn't, but entertaining it certainly is! ( )

Anna, a newly qualified interior designer, has decided it's time to put her money and her expertise where her mouth is. She’s risked everything on buying a tiny but adorable cottage so she can renovate it, sell it on, and prove to her family that she can earn her own living.

Outside, the chocolate-box cottage is perfect, but inside all is chaos: with a ladder for a staircase, no downstairs flooring, candles the only form of lighting and a sleeping bag and camping mat for a bed, Anna's soon wondering whether she's bitten off more than she can chew.

Her neighbour Chloe comes to the rescue, providing tea, wine and sympathy – and a recently rescued greyhound, Caroline. But just as Anna's starting to believe she's found the perfect idyll, the good-looking yet impossible Rob Hunter arrives on the scene, putting up more obstacles than the Grand National. Can Anna get over all of life's hurdles?

Practically Perfect is a contemporary romance set in a Cotswolds village. Anna is an interior designer (like an architect, but with less education) and has bought a cottage to renovate and flip. She soon befriends her next door neighbor and finds herself the guardian of Caroline, an ex-racing greyhound. This leads to several award meetings with Rob, another local who cannot seem to avoid making bad impressions. Toss in the sudden appearance of "the one who got away" years ago, and we have a plot. Or at least as much of a plot as one expects from romance novels.

A fun, escapist read. Perfect for dog-lovers and romance-lovers alike. ( )