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Renovating Hearts #1
La Vie en Bleu
Pippa Saunders likes her life as it is. Uncomplicated, boring, and underachieving. She's engaged to a Prince Charming (AKA Doug Fletcher) and she and her best friend, Rebecca, share a flat in London. A series of events threatens to shake her neatly packaged life when Doug buys a holiday home for them in the south of France and hires the mysterious Berne Chamonix to help renovate the stonework.
Pippa finds herself face to face with the woman who has an uncanny knack of tying her up in emotional knots. Now she has to work alongside the beautiful, strong, and enchanting former lover she ran away from when she was nineteen. Her once simple life and well built-up façade is poised to crumble . . . la vie en bleu.
Pippa finds herself face to face with the woman who has an uncanny knack of tying her up in emotional knots. Now she has to work alongside the beautiful, strong, and enchanting former lover she ran away from when she was nineteen. Her once simple life and well built-up façade is poised to crumble . . . la vie en bleu.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 23, 2015
About the author
Jody Klaire
24 books71 followersJody has been everything from a serving police officer to working in kitchens before finding her home in writing. She can often be found chuckling to herself at her own jokes; being pounced by her golden retriever Fergus; eating cake or chocolate or preferably both, and sometimes, when Fergus hasn’t run off with her keyboard, she writes stuff.
Best Maid Plans is Jody’s first book independently published but you can find her other published works online or in most book stores (you’ll just need to order them in.)
Website: jodyklaire.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jodyklaireauthor
Twitter: @jodyklaire
Best Maid Plans is Jody’s first book independently published but you can find her other published works online or in most book stores (you’ll just need to order them in.)
Website: jodyklaire.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jodyklaireauthor
Twitter: @jodyklaire
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 7, 2018
Love it!
When circumstances force her to go to France, memories come back at full speed. Can she finds the courage to start all over again and listen to what her heart tells her? Faith, loyalty, heartbreak, new and old love and a lot of humor. It was game, set and match. No, it has nothing to do with tennis but all with love. If you read it, it will make sense. I highly recommend it and now I'm off to part two.
When circumstances force her to go to France, memories come back at full speed. Can she finds the courage to start all over again and listen to what her heart tells her? Faith, loyalty, heartbreak, new and old love and a lot of humor. It was game, set and match. No, it has nothing to do with tennis but all with love. If you read it, it will make sense. I highly recommend it and now I'm off to part two.
August 30, 2015
In a departure from her usual style, Jody Klaire has written a straight forward romance here. By straight forward I mean don't expect any paranormal twists, the story itself had twists and turns a plenty. The main characters were likeable and believable. Our entry POV is Pippa who is sweet and caring, as well as very muddled and stubborn. Twelve years before she left the love of her life behind in France without a word of explanation. She thinks she is over her giddy first love, settled into her life of stagnant work routine, crumby flat shared with best friend, Rebecca, and soon to be trophy wife of the rich, handsome and clueless Doug. A shift in her work life and the impending nuptials have started to turn Pippa just a little bit crazy. On a surprise trip to Marseilles, Pippa discovers that she needs to find herself and more importantly her faith in herself, before she disappears forever beneath the veneer of respectable, upper middle class woman she has cultivated and allowed others to force on her. Of course it turns out that Pippa might not be as over her grande passion as she thought. Is it possible that the woman she fell in love with feels the same? This is a warm, funny and moving romantic comedy that examines what it's like to try and get yourself back - and your one true love at the same time.
I agree with other reviewers that the supporting cast is stellar. I'd have kept reading for Rebecca alone - my personal favourite. It's a rare story where the roles of the best friends actually have agency and move the story on and this is something the book does especially well. I did get to the point where I was mentally screaming 'for the love of the gods just let them be together' but then I think that might have been the point - often the biggest barriers between two people are those they create for themselves. Minor niggle, I personally could have done with less of Pippa disappearing off into her own thoughts about Berne but this is my preference rather than an actual criticism. Not as much my cup of tea as the above and beyond series, I still thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who loves a well earned happy ending.
I agree with other reviewers that the supporting cast is stellar. I'd have kept reading for Rebecca alone - my personal favourite. It's a rare story where the roles of the best friends actually have agency and move the story on and this is something the book does especially well. I did get to the point where I was mentally screaming 'for the love of the gods just let them be together' but then I think that might have been the point - often the biggest barriers between two people are those they create for themselves. Minor niggle, I personally could have done with less of Pippa disappearing off into her own thoughts about Berne but this is my preference rather than an actual criticism. Not as much my cup of tea as the above and beyond series, I still thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who loves a well earned happy ending.
January 16, 2016
I noticed Jody Klaire’s new book Above and Beyond Series Untrained Eye is due out about now which reminded me I hadn’t reviewed her romcom La Vie en Bleu that was out last August.
La Vie en Bleu is an absolutely lovely read. It is well written, humorous and full of excellent human observation combined with an interesting version of the classic re-united lovers romance. It is very different from the Above and Beyond Series, but like all Ms Klaire’s work is extremely well done.
Pippa has settled, she is with a man she doesn’t love living a life she doesn’t like, because what she wanted was too scary. When her past is forced upon her the passion she left behind is impossible to ignore. The only question is whether she will have the courage to go back, to claim what is hers for the taking, and admit she was wrong.
Ms Klaire manages to get the ‘will she wont she’ tension in on several levels while nothing is over the top. The main characters are likeable and whole, faulty and human. The matching pair of best friends add a huge amount of fun to a romantic comedy worthy of a Hollywood script, and the background is ably filled by a beautiful setting and a loving village life.
Definitely a highly recommended for those who like a light-hearted romance, I look forward to more of the Romantic Ms Klaire.
La Vie en Bleu is an absolutely lovely read. It is well written, humorous and full of excellent human observation combined with an interesting version of the classic re-united lovers romance. It is very different from the Above and Beyond Series, but like all Ms Klaire’s work is extremely well done.
Pippa has settled, she is with a man she doesn’t love living a life she doesn’t like, because what she wanted was too scary. When her past is forced upon her the passion she left behind is impossible to ignore. The only question is whether she will have the courage to go back, to claim what is hers for the taking, and admit she was wrong.
Ms Klaire manages to get the ‘will she wont she’ tension in on several levels while nothing is over the top. The main characters are likeable and whole, faulty and human. The matching pair of best friends add a huge amount of fun to a romantic comedy worthy of a Hollywood script, and the background is ably filled by a beautiful setting and a loving village life.
Definitely a highly recommended for those who like a light-hearted romance, I look forward to more of the Romantic Ms Klaire.
September 10, 2015
This is the first time reading from the author and I enjoyed it so much that I ended up ordering her Above and Beyond series.
January 2, 2021
La Vie enough Bleu
This book is a tender love story. As always I was captivated by Jodie's descriptions of emotion. She is a master storyteller, pulling the reader along with Pip and her dilemma. The characters are rounded and well portrayed. I loved the setting. It is a long time since we travelled to France so this book brought back warm memories.
It is easy to give this author five stars.
This book is a tender love story. As always I was captivated by Jodie's descriptions of emotion. She is a master storyteller, pulling the reader along with Pip and her dilemma. The characters are rounded and well portrayed. I loved the setting. It is a long time since we travelled to France so this book brought back warm memories.
It is easy to give this author five stars.
January 3, 2018
Sweet, Frenchie but alarmingly frustrating for me!
There isn't much of deep story line, just two people who are destined to be together who just won't get together. It was just reason after reason, excuse after excuse which made me feel like the characters are quite shallow. I couldn't connect with either of the main characters sadly.
There isn't much of deep story line, just two people who are destined to be together who just won't get together. It was just reason after reason, excuse after excuse which made me feel like the characters are quite shallow. I couldn't connect with either of the main characters sadly.
November 8, 2015
Sweet story!
This was a very sweet story. The author developed the characters very effectively. Very sweet love story. I enjoyed very much. Well done!
This was a very sweet story. The author developed the characters very effectively. Very sweet love story. I enjoyed very much. Well done!
September 23, 2018
Pippa is engaged to marry Doug and he buys a house in France that needs renovating. He hires Berne and her father to do the renovations, and wants Pippa and Rebecca her best friend to project manage the build. But Berne is Pippa’s lover from twelve years ago.
An enjoyable will they, won’t they, get back together story, set in the beautiful countryside of France. Wonderful descriptive writing I particularly loved the kayaking/camping scenes. I loved Rebecca and Babs they were so funny. Jody Klaire is an expert of writing about emotions that just pull you into the story. Very pleasant read.
An enjoyable will they, won’t they, get back together story, set in the beautiful countryside of France. Wonderful descriptive writing I particularly loved the kayaking/camping scenes. I loved Rebecca and Babs they were so funny. Jody Klaire is an expert of writing about emotions that just pull you into the story. Very pleasant read.
November 2, 2015
This was a truly appalling book. The plot was facile and the characters were all cartoon characters, with no depth or insight. It was also very badly written and contained numerous grammatical and spelling errors in the French attributed to a French character.
Here are some examples of dreadful prose.
"Berne had always been the kind of woman who forever felt as though you needed to be a locksmith to unshackle what was going on insid her her head"
"The gentle chatter of birds in the trees filled the barmy [stet] air." Barmy is used several times in the book when balmy is intended!
"Combined with her bubbly nature, Madame Chamonix was poles apart from my own mother."
"Culinary delights were everywhere, any kind of French delicacy a mind could think of was on display."
Aaaagh!
Here are some examples of dreadful prose.
"Berne had always been the kind of woman who forever felt as though you needed to be a locksmith to unshackle what was going on insid her her head"
"The gentle chatter of birds in the trees filled the barmy [stet] air." Barmy is used several times in the book when balmy is intended!
"Combined with her bubbly nature, Madame Chamonix was poles apart from my own mother."
"Culinary delights were everywhere, any kind of French delicacy a mind could think of was on display."
Aaaagh!
October 19, 2015
Mixed feelings. The plot was appealing, but i was not very found of the writer style. Maybe it's because i'm french, but i had somme difficulties to understand a lot of dialogs. The chemistry between the main characters is not really exploited and most of the twists are unintersting and exaggerated... For this price i'm a little disappointed.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews