Posted on  20/08/2024 16:47:24

My rating: 5 bright 'follow your heart' stars!

Copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Janet Doolaege! This was an absolutely enchanting read!!

A charming romance and much more!

Jaki's life seems to be laid out before her...like a map with a road running through it.
Recently graduated, she is set to be married to a handsome guy, with a wealthy, generous family and brilliant career prospects. Hugh is a true golden lad... handsome, charming, fair haired and rich in search for a trophy wife, to look pretty and smile at gatherings and shine at her husband's side, complementing him at every turn with her beauty. In short, every young girl's dream come true! Or so they say! It certainly seems like every mother's dream come true, Jaki's mother included.

Jaki herself is simply following the road, according to everyone else's advice. And yet, she cannot stop the doubts from creeping into her perfectly set life and restless mind. She is looking for a proper career job and can't find it, her student debts loom at her back like a mountain that might one day collapse and crush her and even her relationship with her perfect fiancé is starting to become stifling. Everybody tells her she is very lucky. But Jaki can't stop feeling cast adrift in an existence with no true purpose.

Until the day everything changes. The day Jaki meets Lily Green, the old woman who lives by herself at the old Oldwood Court, or the 'Rajah's house' as everyone in Oakfield calls it. Little does Jaki know, how much change the shy gifted woman would bring into her life!

You see; Oldwood Court is settled in one of the few remaining pockets of English woodland. And now the ancient Oldwood forest is in danger of being cut down, with Lily losing her home in the process.

This is the turning point of Jaki's story. Because she finally finds something worth fighting for! The ancient trees of Oldwood forest and Lily's home.

Wouldn't you also like to prevent a beauty like this from being cut down?!

Or a lady you have grown to love from being thrown out of her home, that could look a little bit like this?

Especially when the grounds themselves seem to call to you, the trees seem to welcome you, and the mansion feels like home?!

Strange things happen around Lily. And the wood itself seems to have a mind of its own. If you aren't welcome, you may get lost in the shadows. And if welcome is granted, your life may never be the same while threading on its ancient paths.

In her struggle to help Lily and the trees, Jaki finds herself thrust on a new unmapped path where she needs to find the courage to step out of the shadows under which she had been living her whole life and try to achieve the impossible. Because after all, anything is possible! You only need to use your imagination and keep trying!!

Lily needs all the help she can get to keep her home and the trees alive. And people with special gifts like her can be very fragile. Vulnerable. So Jaki throws herself into the fray with a vengeance, not only for Lily and the trees, but also for herself. For a purpose and a meaning in an otherwise dreary existence. And perhaps, even love!
If she succeeds and how far she'll dare to go... you're going to have to read this to find out. :D
One thing is certain though: her life will never be the same.

In a stunning prose, elegant, masterful and alluring, Janet Doolaege gives us here a tale of the heart. She talks about dreams coming true, about the courage to follow your heart when everyone around you tells you that you're wrong, as well as about the beauty of nature and the human soul alike. Her descriptions of Oldwood Court made me fall in love! But they also intrigued me, because of that unexpected supernatural touch.

Unbelievable, is it just a coincidence?
This is probably the reaction you'll be having to quite a few scenes in this book.
When certain things happen, some people call them coincidences :)

A beautiful love story with a mysterious supernatural touch, on the background of a struggle to preserve nature in the face of ruthless technological progress, this remarkable novel offers something for everyone. It reads like a charm and will have you hooked till the very last page.
I highly recommend it to all those in search of a good smart romance.

May you enjoy it just as much as I did! And always remember to follow your heart!!
Happy reading. :)

Check out this book and more of Janet Doolaege on janetdoolaege.wordpress.com