An Eligible Bachelor

by Veronica Henry

Upstairs, downstairs... it's all going on at the manor.
From the bestselling author of THE LONG WEEKEND and A NIGHT ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Before THE BEACH HUT there was AN ELIGIBLE BACHELOR... When Guy wakes up with a terrible hang-over and a new fiancée, he tries not to panic. After all, Richenda is beautiful, famous, successful... What reason could he have for doubts? As news of the engagement between the heir of Eversleigh Manor and the darling of prime-time television spreads through the village, Guy wonders if he's made a rash decision. Especially when he meets Honor, a new employee of the Manor who has a habit of getting under his skin... But Honor has her own troubles - a son who's missing a father, and an ex-boyfriend who has made an unexpected reappearance...

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

464 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]

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]

Love Veronica Henry books so easy to read and fun

[Beatrizpt]

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

[Helena Wildsmith]

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]

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

[Jen]

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

[Julie Morris]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Helena]

A cosy romantic story, from Richenda the star and her fiancé Guy, the lord of the manor to Honor and Henty, Johnny and Charles, not forgetting Fleur!

A rich mixture of believable characters and situations. Suffice to say they all live happily ever after, but romances change!

Cuick enjoyable read

[Jenny Forman]

It was a fun, quick beach read.

[Soconn5]

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]

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

[Rachael]

3.5 stars

[Lora Edwards]

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

[Helen Magee]

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

[Sheila Robinson]

Very enjoyable light hearted storyline

[Jenny]

A great little read.

[Dawn]

3.5

[Vicky Cawkill]

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]

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]

Loved this book

[Denise Milner]

Really enjoyed this book, very easy to read