An Eligible Bachelor

by Veronica Henry

Welcome to Eversleigh—a small English village being invaded by celebrity, sex, and scandal!

Guy Portias, heir to Eversleigh Manor, has woken up with two he has a wicked hangover, and he seems to have gotten himself engaged. His new fiancée, Richenda Fox, is the gorgeous star of the hottest new TV series in England, but is the enigmatic beauty the right woman for him? To complicate matters, Eversleigh is badly in need of repairs, and the family fortune has run a bit dry. When Guy reluctantly agrees to let his mother run “Country House Weekends” at the manor, they hire Honor McLean, a bewitching single mother, to cater and help them deal with the chaos.

Warm and down to earth, Honor is nothing like Guy’s cool, career-obsessed fiancée. If Honor’s wit and charm have the same effect on others that they seem to have on Guy, she could end up saving Eversleigh on her own—and stealing Guy’s heart in the process.

With a cast of characters you’ll love (and a few you’ll love to hate), An Eligible Bachelor is a charming, sexy, and compulsively readable romp through the English countryside.



Also available as an eBook

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Contemporary Romance

448 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2005

About the author

Veronica Henry was a television script writer before turning her hand to fiction. She has published sixteen novels which she describes as realistic escapism - her setting are gorgeous, but her characters have problems and dilemmas everyone can identify with.

Reviews

[Bren · Rating 3 out of 5]

La autora nos va contando la vida y obra de cada personaje y no solo los protagonistas, si no también de los secundarios, hasta el punto que me parece a mí que la vida de los personajes secundarios es mas interesante que la de los protagonistas.
Y avancé y avancé en la historia, no voy a decir que no, entretenido, pero pues no pasaba nada romántico en ella, así que fuera del último párrafo del libro, no vi ninguna historia romántica y si la forma en que 6 personajes van manejando su vida, sus frustaciones, sus complejos, sus traumas infantiles y como han salido adelante con toda la complejidad que da vivir y tener problemas, ya sea en la forma de crecer, el matrimonio, la amistad, la adversidad de condiciones, en fin, que el libro no es malo, pero no es lo que esperaba.
Entretenido, fácil de leer, pero no romántico y por cierto eso de que la historia la cierren en el último párrafo es lo último que puedo perdonar, así que solo por eso tache grande a la autora.

[Caroline Southgate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Veronica Henry books so easy to read and fun

[Beatrizpt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido, fácil de leer , enganchas desde el principio unos personajes entrañables . Una historia que te hace olvidar y pasar un buen rato

[Helena Wildsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautifully cosy read. I love the way Veronica Henry gives each character a back story so I felt like I really knew them and was sad to part with them at the end.

[Jane Woodcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great chic lit read. Fun, charming, and a lot of scandal! An easy read that will keep you entertained.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is your classic British chick lit but I really liked the story. One of my favorites in this category.

[Julie Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a massive fan of Veronica’s books, I thought I had read them all but – joy! – I discovered one I had overlooked and, feeling a bit down in the early, grey days of January, with post-Christmas blues and another lockdown taking force, I knew listening to it would be the perfect pick me up as I did my new year clean up. (Is that the longest sentence I’ve ever written? Possibly.)

This book takes us back to the Cotswold countryside, location of Veronica’s earliest books, to the village of Eversleigh, where the young, handsome heir to the local manor house wakes up with a hangover and a fiancee he doesn’t really remember proposing too. Meanwhile, Honor is juggling life as a single mum down the road, pulled between spending time with her young son and trying to put food on the table. Their lives could not be more different, so we know that the author is going to find some way of bringing them together, and I settled back to enjoy seeing how Veronica was going to do it.

If you are thinking that this sounds a little ‘Jilly Cooper’ you’d be correct, and in absolutely the best way possible. This book would be absolutely perfect for anyone who loves Jilly’s books (as I do) but hasn’t got the time to listen to one of the massive Rutshire novels on audio (I listened to Riders and Rivals during the first lockdown on audio and they are 28 hours 17 minutes and 27 hours 41 minutes long respectively! Great value for an Audible credit if you have any going spare). This has the same light-hearted, romantic vibe, whilst still tackling some issues that will resonate with listeners; single parenthood, unhappy childhoods, being torn between personal desire and family duty. Plus, chuck in some fabulous descriptions of beautiful Gloucestershire countryside and you are on to a winner as far as I am concerned.

The thing I particularly loved about this book was that Veronica gives us a love triangle that is a real dilemma because there is a lot to admire about both the women involved. I love reading books featuring strong women who know their own minds and don’t need a man to solve their problems, these are the type of characters I relate to, not wilting flowers with no self-determination. There was no obvious right or wrong answer for Guy in his romantic conundrum and I had huge amounts of sympathy and affection for both Honor and Richenda. For most of the book I could not decide who I wanted him to end up with and I was going to be sad for whichever one of them was left in the cold. Within the main characters, they were all likeable and worthy of happiness, there was no obvious villain (although this is not true of the minor characters. We always need some baddies to direct our ire at, don’t we?) This is not always the case in romance novels, very often it is too easy to guess what the ending to be, and I found this book very refreshing and appealing in this approach.

This book is the perfect piece of escapism, full of warmth and humour and plenty of tension to keep the reader enthralled. The narration was excellent and complemented the book perfectly, really bringing the story to life, and the whole experience of listening to this book was a delight. I don’t often listen to romance novels on audio, I prefer thrillers in that format because the narrative is usually more pacy which works better for audio, which takes much longer to listen to than it would take me to read the book in text format. However, there are some romance authors that buck this trend, and Veronica is one of them. This book made my mucking out chores a lot more pleasurable than they normally are in a cold, wet January and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking to lift their spirits in these trying times.

[Alison Hilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was going to give this book a terrible review, it is cliched, bored housewife nonsense, the characters have no depth and the plot is painfully predictable. All the characters are thoroughly unpleasant and whiney. (Appears I did give a terrible review) The only thing is, this is one of the author's earlier books, and miles away from the genius of a night on the orient express (5 stars). Her later books are much more subtle and the best people watching books I read. I might just stick to reading her later ones 😆

[Sarah Goodfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fab book by Veronica!
Guy wakes up one morning with a bad hangover, he soon discovered that he proposed to the girl he'd been dating and now richenda is his fiancé! She is beautiful successful and famous but also has a horrid past he doesn't yet know about!
Then he meets honor, a single mum with her own issues- her ex shows up unexpectedly and unwelcome but he is the father of her son she struggled to bring up on her own. Guy soon starts to realise that maybe Richenda isn't the one...
A lovely book that won't disappoint!

[Rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my normal thing but it was ok as background (I listened on audio book).

The stories were ok. Nothing special. Nothing gripping. Just nice casual background.

Good thing that it did not end exactly as predicted in chapter 1 (as 99% of this style of books do) but the ending was obvious very early of course.

[Lyn Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honour and Richenda are two very different ladies, with differing backgrounds, yet their parallel stories show us how different decisions can change your life in a heartbeat.

A great chick lit romance and light hearted read.

Well written and very engaging

[Bex Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it. I am not the reader I used to be, but I picked it up and finished it in 2 days.

I enjoyed all the characters. It was easy to read and not predictable.
I liked Honor with her son Ted and her friendship with Henty.

[Elsabeth Marriott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly good, easy read and an enjoyable listen with entertaining characters. It did seem however like the author has a bit of a dislike of “career girls” which felt unnecessary to the story and let it down.

[Miriam Elliot]

Adorable book. Enjoyed all the different lives woven into it. Kind of guessed what could happen but pleased it didn't quite work out as expected. Left you to decide what might come next. Easy read which doesn't mean bad read. Would read more of hers.

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished this book. It was ok but I would not want to read again. It might have been the book as it was an old second-hand book (nothing wrong with that) but pages were starting to come loose and they were stained. I prefer a lot of other Veronica books more

[Negin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book! A lovely comfort read with a predictable ending. That, and a setting in one of my favorite places of earth, the Cotswolds. Fabulous. I need to read Veronica Henry's books more often.

[Jenny Forman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun, quick beach read.

[Soconn5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful read! Fun, entertaining character with insightful flaws and details. If you're looking for a lovely summer read, look no further!

[Catherine Makin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading more by this author

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Lora Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was a great read with depth and great characters.

[Helen Magee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it was light to read and enjoyable

[Sheila Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable light hearted storyline

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little read.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Vicky Cawkill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book, took me a while to read as i had another book on the go. Such a lovely read with love and all its complications.

[JoJo · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a 3.5 star. Started off really ropey I thought and genuinely wasn’t sure whether I’d enjoy it but it got better, albeit predictable but enjoyable nonetheless

[Sara Matilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

[Denise Milner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, very easy to read

[Fiona Groves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice chicklit read. Fun and charming with some obligatory scandal. Like Veronica Henry!