Kiss and Tell

Tash French #3

by Fiona Walker

The cross-country course of true love never runs smoothly in this sexy, fun romp full of tight breeches and loose morals  The horse trials circuit is a hell-for-leather chase across the magnificent parkland of England's finest country estates. Flirtation is compulsory sport, but love is a professional hazard. Silver-tongued charmer Rory Midwinter is quite at home in this hedge-jumping, bed-hopping world. Having been born into the saddle, and with a rock star owner as patron, he has no intention of settling down—but his long-term groom Faith has other ideas. Tash and Hugo Beauchamp are the undisputed golden couple of British three-day eventing, but their mettle is put to the test by the arrival of The Devil on Horseback, brooding Kiwi rider, Lough Strachan. Lough holds the key to Hugo's darkest secret, and he intends to use it to access his greatest rival's beautiful wife.

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Book Club, Horses, Contemporary Romance

890 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2011

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I totally adored Tash and Hugo in French Relations and Well Groomed, and couldn't resist seeing how one of my fave couples have been faring after several years of marriage. I was very wary though, as not only can going back often be a mistake, but Walker's last few books have been awful. Still, the lure of Tash and Hugo was too strong, and I so wanted to enjoy it.

Sadly, I should have listened much more closely to my head and not my heart. All that Tash and Hugo were in their two fabulous books has been sullied. I'm going to blank their parts of this book out of my mind and re-read French Relations and Well Groomed to get them back to how they were, how they should be.

Hugely disappointing, although given the author's last few books, not at all unexpected.

[Rhian · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm sooo disapointed in this. i'm a big fiona walker fan (although the last few books have been a bit of a let down) but this one had such potential and falls flat.
the big problem with this book is the sheer scale and size of the story and cast. there's at least 5-10 storys going on at any one time, and where her previous books have managed to tie differant storys and perspectives together ( although i must admit i've always skimmed past any matty/sally, sophia/ben chapters in the past) this has way too many charecters to actually give a stuff about them all or to develop a decent story line.
basically this is the story hugo gets a bit big headed after winning gold on the olympics and whilst trying to persuade a new zeland rider Lough to come to the uk gets caught up in a bet where Lough (who is not so secretly in love with tash even though he's never even spoken to her) who claim's he can steal tash away from hugo. the main story is basically tash and hugo each thinking the other is having an affair but not speaking about it for an entire year and sulking.
meanwhile you have the side storys of rory and faith and becky (tash's step sister) and lough, sylva and dillon.
i've been waiting for the rory/faith book for sometime and although there are some touching moments most of the time they seem to be shagging other people in their words to get experience for when they shag each other...can you just feel the romance radiating from that.there's no feeling of romance or any conection between the two until the very end where despite the fact they've not even dated and have been shagging other people like rabbits decide to get married.
the becky/lough story is actually the most dissapointing of the book as it could have been fab, becky who is a bit of a spoilt resentfull little maddam wants to split tash/hugo as she thinks she should be with hugo.
as part of her plan she text lough pretending to be tash, but being a bit of a wet banket thinks she's in love with lough as he says some romantic thing to her thinking she tash. when lough arrives in the uk he of course thinks the text were from tash and goes after her great guns to steal her away from hugo. becky basically pouts, stomps her feet and accuses hugo of sexual assult and basically show's off for the rest of the book until lough who has had minimal contact with becky since the initial text decides it's her he loves not tash.
i'm not even gonna comment on the dillon/sylva/nell/pete/fawn story as it's all a bit pointless to the book to be honest (although i did like the whole dillon/faith interlude as was rather funny.
as i said at the start way too much going on and where i like to have a glimps at charecters from previous books to see how they were doing this was way way too much. don't get me wrong it's a semi enjoyable book but not one i'd wanna re-read which to me is the ultimate in good reads.

[Roshio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review (before reading):
Woot Tash and Hugo are back!!! I love them. I was really hoping Fiona Walker would leave Oddlode and now she has!! can't wait!

Review (After reading):
Okay this book was such a disappointment that I had to create new shelves, 'disappointments' and 'regrets'. Turns out she didn't leave Oddlode, Oddlode is very much present throughout this book!! argh! I think one problem Fiona Walker has is cramming too many of her characters in one book. I get the fact that all the characters in all her books are in the same world etc. etc. but they don't all have to show up in EVERY book (or at least if they are, she should also have Felix and Phoebe, but they're never present!). what was the point having Spurs there for example?? If she had instead focused on Tash and Hugo even at the expense of cutting the book down to half its size, it would have been so much better.

As you can see above, I was hoping for some real Tash and Hugo fun, but sadly this was lacking. Hugo was a douche throughout the book and Tash was a bit of a mess, I didn't enjoy reading their story at all. Instead I'm going to pretend this book never existed and keep memories of the Tash and Hugo I love in tact. Supporting characters weren't much better, Becca was an annoying cow, Faith was kinda cool but again a mess. There was no one I was rooting for, which defeats the whole purpose of a chicklit.

One thing however...I er... didn't actually get to the end of the book. It was too much, I stopped caring half way through, I really did. This has never happened to me with Fiona Walker, she has written some of my favourite books (Kiss Chase), but this is one of the worst sequels I've ever read.

[Bev Sharpe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first Walker books because of a Jilly Cooper (my guilty pleasure) drought. What surprises me most is why Jilly Cooper is not suing for blatant copying ?? This is the exact style / story and characters from the Riders books . Even the way she puts a little description at the start and her writing style. Tash and Hugo are a poor mans Rupert and Taggie (even down to Tash's sudden ability to cook in this book, when she could not even manage to defrost a chicken in the last one). I will drag myself to the end of this but i honestly feel a bit ashamed of myself for reading such a rip off .

[Nicola Hession-Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love this book. It is second only to Tongue in Cheek for me. Familiar characters come back and you cant help but feel so desperately sorry for Faith at times. I wanted to shake Rory too as I did in previous books. This is certainly a book that I will read over and over.

[Devan Wiebe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this. I made a pledge to abandon books that I wasn't enjoying, but I make an exception for Book Club books (even if it's the third book in a series and I haven't read the first two) so I powered through.

This book is way too long and has way too many characters. It was an "easy" summer read but I probably should have just let it go and read something else. I don't love reading on the Kindle, but that was the only way I could get a copy so maybe that detracted from my reading experience...

Not a book I would recommend, even to my most horsie friends.

[Meegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

10 years have passed but 1 thing hasn’t changed: Tash is still a wet lettuce, if not even more cowardly because now she’s too scared to ride a horse. What is the opposite of character development?
Honestly I only picked this up to close off Tash and Hugo’s story. I skimmed through the rest of the characters’ stories because I just couldn’t care less.
Tash’s plot: I think he’s cheating. But I’m too scared to know so I won’t say or do anything. Also, he thinks I’m cheating. But rather than talk about, I’m just going to pretend everything’s fine and he’ll just know I’m not cheating. 🙄🙄 Her version of “fighting for her marriage” is to literally hope for the best. That’s it. I’m not even being facetious.
And then there’s Hugo. Apparently a different person from the character of the first 2 books?
Hugo was so thoroughly awful in this that I was rooting for Tash to leave him for Lough. He was insensitive, mean, bordering on abusive, and a terrible husband and father. But all that is ignored at the end because he wasn’t cheating so it’s ok that he’s awful to Tash?
Honestly, this book reads like Fiona Walker was going through a nasty divorce while writing. It’s depressing, not funny at all, and pretty awful.

[Ally · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a £1 charity shop holiday read - essentially a poor imitation of a Jilly Cooper so felt familiar, not in the least bit taxing with a predictable plot line.

It certainly won't win any literary prizes - it could have been 300 pages shorter, plot lines dragged on, the characters were all paper-thin and generally unlikeable.

I think what disappointed me the most was that Walker had the opportunity to rewrite some of JC's now outdated sexist and female-limiting writing from her 'Riders' days, but it didn't. The reader just got a rehashed serving of moody beligerant men treating desperate damaged women very badly. But all the women needed to feel happy and validated was (badly written) sex and a happy ever after style ending.

[salma zaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it

Any fan of well groomed will go crazy for this book. And anyone who doesn't know about it will buy it guaranteed 😀I want more I wanna hear all about them can't ever get tired of reading about them best book best author ever

[Claire Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of characters are introduced in a short space of time, which was rather baffling, especially as I didn’t realise it was a sequel. Hugo and Tash need to get a grip and talk to each other about their issues, instead Hugo acted like a prick and Tash was a wet lettuce.

[Tushar Mangl · Rating 1 out of 5]

What works against this 883 page tome is its length. A routine love story around the horse racing world has been stretched beyond limits. A good one for #romancenovels afficianados

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugo 😭😭

[Chloe Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Rory & Faith, I’d absolutely love another book featuring those two!

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could not get into this at all. Too many characters and very confusing. It was like a pale imitation of Jilly Cooper's 'Riders'. DNF @ 20%

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

With tight breeches and loose morals, the horse trials circuit is a hell-for-leather chase across the magnificent parkland of England's finest country estates. Flirtation is compulsory sport; love is a professional hazard. Silver-tongued charmer Rory Midwinter is quite at home in this hedge-jumping, bed-hopping world of competitive weekend house parties. Having been born into the saddle, and with a rock star owner as patron, he has no intention of settling down. Only his long-term groom Faith has other ideas. Tash and Hugo Beauchamp are the undisputed golden couple of British three-day eventing, but their mettle is put to the test by the arrival of The Devil on Horseback, brooding Kiwi rider, Lough Strachan. Lough holds the key to Hugo's darkest secret, and he intends to use it to access his greatest rival's beautiful wife.

I have to say, I've been an ardent fan of Fiona Walker since picking up French Relations - although I found that her more recent outings had lost a little of their sparkle for me in comparison to her earlier work. Of all her characters Tash and Hugo are by far my favourite (after the novels French Relations and Well Groomed) and I was rather nervous to see how Walker continued their story.

At first I was a little disappointed. The first twenty pages or so were a flurry of names from both her Lodes Valley novels and the previous Tash and Hugo novels. I've read all of Walker's novels and even I was hard-pressed to follow who was who. The 'cast list' at the start went some way to helping, but it took me a while to find my feet.

However, once I had everything straightened out in my head and the main meat of the story began, I was completely drawn into the world of three day eventing again, and the immense rivalry between awesomely drawn male characters Hugo and Lough. These two swaggered their way through the pages of the novel, and I found myself drawn to both of them (which is strange, considering I've wanted my own Hugo since encountering him in French Relations!)

Walker has updated her writing to reflect the current climate - economically, technologically and sociologically. Times are tough on the event riders circuit, with owners selling horses; people communicate with iPads, mobiles and via email; and Walker has included a storyline concerning a woman famous for being famous (someone who bears more than a passing resemblance to Katie Price). I love that Walker is embracing all these factors - it makes Kiss and Tell incredibly relatable.

For me, Walker's biggest success is twofold - one is that I experienced emotions alongside the characters and the other that I stayed up WAY too late gulping down the last few hundred pages. I simply could not put it down! When I say I experienced emotions, I mean that I was positively furious, unbelievably frustrated and overwhelmed with happiness at various points while reading Kiss and Tell - Walker has a real talent for making you feel everything that the characters are feeling.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sparkling wit in the dialogue - Walker has always been clever with her word choice and sharp puns, and it made for some thoroughly entertaining exchanges.

This is pure escapism, pages and pages of thrilling relationships, turmoil and love all set against the exciting backdrop of three-day-eventing (the rules for which Walker covers at the start of the book, which might be worth reading for those not familiar with the sport, although Walker does manage to insert details and information into the course of the story without it feeling tacked on or information-heavy).

I adored catching up with Tash and Hugo, and loved the addition of characters such as Rory, Faith and Lough. With Kiss and Tell Fiona Walker has returned to her sparkling best, producing a novel of real heart. Highly recommended.

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

3. Knocking it down to 2 in retrospect

Well that was a ride, pun fully intended. They're all very annoying, but a reasonably engaging plot. Shocking number of typos in the kindle version and one full horse mixup.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

My mom bought this for me in England as it was about eventing and that the back said "Jilly Cooper watch out!!" She knows me well having bought me several Jilly Cooper books in England that you can't easily buy in Canada and that I will read anything with a horse in it. I can safely say that Jilly Cooper has NOTHING to look out for. This book was awful.

For the first 700 pages absolutely nothing happens. The gazillion characters she has go around either lusting after one particular character or believing the worst about another character or thinking they are the ugliest person on the planet which is why they can't get the person they are lusting over. The main character Tash has absolutely no backbone and instead of standing up for herself to her douche of a husband she lets him make her feel bad when it appears through the entire book that he is having the affair not her. And the husband is really an ass. The only interesting character in the book is Faith but she disappears for large portions of time plus and when anything of interest does happen to her it is glossed over. It was infuriating. By the end they never did really sort anything out but just made up with it still being all Tash's fault when clearly Hugo was the main culprit. I spent much of the book wanting to throw it at the wall.

Despite this I did like Fioan Walkers writing style and I did finish the book but it is never good when you read a book and keep going "150 pages until I never have to read about these people again." Part of the reason I did keep reading was because I thought something would happen, Walker writes in a way that convinces you finally we will have movement in the plot but nope, you are wrong. Everyone and everything stays stuck in the same situation for 90% of the book.

My understanding is that this is the 3rd book involving Tash and Hugo, with the first 2 being very popular. Walker clearly is a skilled writer but she needed a better outline and an editor to tell her to cut out characters not needed (I can think of 3 off the top of my head) and to have some action before the last 3 chapters. I'm not sure I would be willing to give the first 2 books a try as this one was just so very very bad.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kiss and Tell is set in the world of three day eventing and follows the fortunes of a number of riders, grooms and sundry family members. It's very much set in the present with mentions of people emailing from the Blackberries, a fame hungry wannabe who rates her success by how many pages she is in front of Jordan, Posh and Kerry Katona, and people tracking events abroad by streaming them online alongside Twitter. The plot itself also feels very modern with scandal, infidelity and unrequited feelings strewn throughout it.

There are a lot of characters in Kiss and Tell, the book contains a three page cast list. I'm normally not a fan of cast lists but this one was essential, I found that I still needed to check who people were when I was more than three-quarters of the way through the book. There were ex-partners, infrequently mention siblings and offspring all over the place, I did find it hard to keep track of who meant what to who. I liked a lot of the main characters, I particularly found Lough intriguing and would have happily read a book all about him.

I enjoyed reading Kiss and Tell but it didn't completely captivate me. When I saw how big it was I looked forward to getting completely lost in it, the reality was that at times I found it a little hard to keep going with. I never once thought about giving up on it, as I say I did enjoy it, I just didn't love it.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book,it contained some of my favourite characters from Walkers other books,such as Faith brakespear and Rory Midwinter so I found it interesting from the start, but I do despair at Walkers way of writing as if everyone who ever has a conversation is a genius at word play and witty banter! Seriously, do her characters sit about all day thinking of possible puns for future conversation?I find it funny, but limit it to a few quick witted characters rather than having every conversation taking the same tone no matter who is talking.
I found Tash and Hugo frustrating, and their story at times a bit ridiculous, but i liked Tash so i was happy to follow her,not Hugo though, i thought he was a bit of a D**k really!!
I had an intense dislike of becks from the very start, to the point where i would happily have skipped any chapter dealing with her!
Asides from the fact that this book dragged on too long, and the problems listed above i did enjoy this book, Walkers writing is always funny and interesting and i'll happily read her next offering!

[Laura Jerwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book, well maybe third of it wad a huge struggle to get through. I actually didn't like how bad things were and was too depressed to read on. Finally picked it back up, and was really glad I did. Aside from a continuity error that had me re read a section (faiths name appeared instead of becky's) was happy to see the stories across so many of Fiona walkers books come together as you had brief updates on them all, such as Spurs and Ellen who I'd nearly forgotten about. Glad I finished this book as I would have missed out on such wonderful endings. Especially finding out about "making Woopie" ;)

[Pollypoptart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fiona Walker's first four books were absolutely amazing; but I've been pretty disappointed in her books since in comparison, although I've read them all. I really wanted to read "Kiss and Tell" due to the return of Tash and Hugo from "French Relations" and "Well Groomed".... but it took me over a year to read it. Okay, i read other books in between, because I just didn't get into this book at all. However, for most of November and December I persevered in my spare moments and the last third of the book was worth it. However, based on the first two thirds being not really that engaging, i can't give it any more than two stars.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the horsey side of it, and the eventing - especially the definition of eventing at the beginning! Fantastic!

This is my first Fiona Walker book so didn't know the characters back stories, but that worked fine I was never confused who was who or what their relationship was.

It was very long though, and got a bit dreary at points where I just wanted some action and for things to be answered/resolved.
Some characters didn't really contribute to the story at all and were kind of just page fillers - in an already long book!

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I've ever read, which is a shame because I loved the Lodes Chronicles, the first two anyway.

However, this was far too long, too many [unlikeable] characters and boring story lines, went into way too much horsey detail and had a very dissatisfying conclusion with no sense of "will they/won't they" - maybe due to the fact that I didn't care if they did or not.

Sorry to leave such a negative review but if you're thinking of humping this brick of a book on holiday with you, think again - it's definitely not worth it.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Fiona Walker - I'm not a fan of most chick lit, but Walker's Brit chick lit is witty, racy, and altogether fun. And in this novel, she outdoes herself! I had to keep reminding myself that no, I was NOT reading Jilly Cooper, and from me, that's high praise indeed - Cooper's blend of sexy lust and the horsey world does it for me, and Walker manages to be just as good as Jilly herself. Loved this book.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought the Ebook about 18 months ago and tried starting it and lost interest. The characters are stuck still. It's ages since I read any of the other stories so can't remember them. But I loved Tash and (to some extent) Hugo's story in French Relations and Well Groomed. I just wish Hugo was a bit less of a jerk and Tash had more spine.
I'm determined to finish this book but if I put it down again, that's it! I'll never go back

[Sammy Dawes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am still in 2 minds about this book. At first I was about to give up and put it down but for some reason I kept going and going and going till I ended up finishing the whole book. I think the author writes well but the book could have been condensed and the story would have still made sense. Just seemed to keep going and going in the same direction for chapters until something different happened. I would be interested to read her other books as I definitely enjoyed chapters of this book

[Annie West · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intresting view into the world of dressage.....
Very long story with bumps along the way but not enough to keep the reader wanting to read on, many times through out the 2,500 odd pages i felt like removing my book mark and moving onto something else.
All in all a borning story with a nice ending, but not worth the effort as the book is quite long.

[Jenny Meehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book, and was immediately engrossed in the goings on of all the characters. However it was, in my opinion, too long for the storyline. After about 500 pages I found myself skipping to the end to find out who 'V' was and what would happen. Yet it still didn't stop me enjoying on the whole, whether I would read it again is another thing.

[Tracy Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic already. Devouring it slowly. But it is brilliant so far. Not overly horsey so people that aren't horse-minded will enjoy it as well. One of the best I have read this year. Read at least 6 a week, so that is quite a compliment.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Back to Her 'Kiss Chase' best. Love the Tash and Hugo stories. This one is brilliant and I read it far too quickly. I would advise any chick lit lover to read all of the Tash and Hugo - from French Relations to this.

This is the formula that Fiona Walker does best.