Publisher:
Faber and
Faber
Release
Date: 5th
June 2014
Edition:
e-proof,
review copy
The
second heartfelt instalment in this beautifully crafted, sassy new series that
will make you laugh and cry.
Just
when Bluebell thought her crazy family were behaving normally, her parents make
an announcement that could turn everything upside down.
If
only Zoran, their au pair, would come back to live with them. Unfortunately
he’s too busy teaching guitar to his new protégée, Zachary Smith.
Blue
is jealous at first, until Zach starts helping her little sister with a project
and becomes a regular visitor at the Gadsby house.
Then
Zach goes missing. Blue needs her family to pull together if they’re going to
find him...
I read all of Flora in Love in one greedy gulp and I loved
every second of it. This series is sweet, funny, heart-warming and just plain
wonderful; I’d be happy to read instalments of this series for a long time to
come.
The whole of the Gadsby family is
mad, and completely lovable. Each character is so unique, distinct and
well-rounded and I connected with each of them. The chaos and life in that
house is infectious and I would kill to have grown up in a house like that. In the
first book, the Gadsby’s took Zoran under their wing, and in Flora in Love it’s the turn of Zach –
one of Zoran’s music students. I love the way that they take someone lonely and
fragile and immerse them in their fierce, chaotic love until they’re a little
more whole. It gives me the warm fuzzies to see the arc of the character that
Blue and the gang take in.
As well as the Gadsby children,
there are the Gadsby parents. It’s still quite refreshing to get fully alive
and present parents in teen and children’s fiction and I really appreciated
having them there. As well as the role they play as parents, they’re brilliant
characters in their own right with quirks and funny lines, outbursts and
dramatic bomb-dropping. And boy did they drop a bomb on the kids! That announcement
is going to add a really interesting dynamic to the next book and I can’t wait
to see how Blue, Flora, Jas and Twig deal with their lives turned upside down.
I adore this series, and if you
haven’t read After Iris and Flora in Love you’re seriously missing
out. Get on it!
Thanks to Faber and NetGalley
for the review copy.
Sophie
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