Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  To Mend a Broken Wing

SERIES:  Rossingley

AUTHOR:  Fearne Hill

PUBLISHER:  NineStar Press

LENGTH:  274 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 7, 2023

BLURB:  

“I think,” Lucien began, “that we accept the love we believe we deserve. And unfortunately, Noah doesn’t believe he deserves any.”

For twenty-two-year-old Noah, the revelation that his biological father is an ex-professional footballer is like tearing the wrapper from a cheap chocolate bar and discovering he’s won the elusive golden ticket. Every homeless young man’s dream, right?

Wrong. Because his father has also served a lengthy prison sentence. For murder.

With nothing to lose and facing a winter sleeping rough, Noah travels to France to meet him. Despite an angry encounter, Noah reluctantly agrees to stay at the ancestral home of one of his newfound father’s friends until he finds his feet.

Twenty-five-year-old Toby loves his village of Rossingley so much he’s never left. Working as a manny caring for the children of the eccentric sixteenth earl is his dream job. Sure, he’d like to travel someday and maybe find a boyfriend, one who doesn’t treat him like a doormat. But with his deformity denting his confidence, Toby counts his blessings and takes what he can get. That is, until a sullen, handsome misfit comes to stay, flipping Toby’s ordered village life upside down.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the fourth book in this series and as such, contains major spoilers for the first three book.  I recommended reading them in order – mostly because they are all so good 🙂

Noah is a young man from the north of England who has had a rough go of it.  He and his mother have not gotten along and he’s been couch surfing.  He has never known who his father was and his mother’s husband doesn’t want him around either.  He finally gets his father’s name out of her and discovers that he’s French and has been in prison for 15 years for murder.  He is going to go to him and demand – well he doesn’t really know what.

Noah shows up at Marcel and Guillaume’s house in France skint.  He’s soaked and cold and hungry and filthy.  Marcel is shocked when he opens the door to this young man who looks a lot like his husband demanding to see his father.  When Guillaume shows up they get off to a rocky start.  But Marcel convinces him to stay.  And comes up with a plan for him.  He of course easily talks his best friend, Lucien, to take Noah in and provide him with a roof over his head and hopefully something to do while he figures out his next steps.  Noah is broody and angry but it’s not like he has options.

Rossingley is not at all what Noah expected.  Lucien and Jay and their twins Eliza and Arthur and baby Orlando as well as the rest of the household – Reuben and Lucien’s model cousin Freddie are all there when Noah arrives and it’s a bit overwhelming.  And they keep asking him about cricket 😉  But most surprising to Noah is Toby – the manny.  At first he doesn’t think much about Toby, but then he comes to realize how amazing he is – well once he stops being angry every second of the day.

Toby for his part is quite attracted to Noah, but he’s got his own issues.  He loves his job and he’s good at it.  He’s left for college but has returned to the village and his family.  He’s the oldest of many siblings and his family are all around the village as well.  Noah settles in working in the local pub and he’s starting to loosen up and bit – but it’s not easy.  Also he begins to realize just how attracted he is to Toby. He’s always been attracted to both sexes, but the availability of girlfriends was always much more than boyfriends.  But he really wants Toby 😉  And he wants the closeted farmer to leave Toby alone 😀

Everyone is working on encouraging Noah to stick around.  Marcel and Guillaume encourage him from France even.  Jay and Lucien and of course Toby want him to stay and try his hand at a college course, but Noah is reluctant. He’s never been able to stick with anything.  He doesn’t want to disappoint anyone and he’s worried that he’s just not good enough for these people.  This leads to some issues between him and Toby also.  Thankfully with a lot of help and care and understanding, things get back on track 😉

I absolutely adore this series.  Every single story is just a lovely little gift.  Toby is such a total sweetheart.  The fact that he’s the manny and so good with three adorable children is just icing on the cake.  His disability doesn’t hinder him from having a beautiful life.  Maybe it makes him slower at some things and yes, it’s put of the wrong sort of men.  But when Noah looks at him, he sees the real Toby.  The sweet ginger with the missing hand who has a heart as big as anything.  Noah definitely hasn’t had it easy.  His early years were not good – and at the end of then day, he realizes why and can finally let go of some of the blame and anger.  It isn’t easy for him to stop resenting his unknown father and then feeling like maybe he is not going to be able to overcome his “genes” and not have any kind of a life.  The whole Rossingley gang is there to help and support him though – even when he really doesn’t want it.  Like Guillaume, he has a lot of difficulty believing that he is worthy of love – despite how many people tell him he is worthy.  Lucien is positively giddy when it seems that Toby and Noah might be a thing.  Then there is Toby’s mum (who is a total surprise) and his sibling and uncle.  Really the whole village is in on this one.  Nothing is simple though and it takes some push/pull to get Noah into the right headspace to accept what is being freely offered to him.  Toby’s not exactly overflowing with positive self-esteem either and Noah helps him realize that he has a lot to offer to and that he is as deserving of love as the next man with two hands!  This book is just a truly satisfying addition to this series that I highly recommend.  Swoony sigh 🙂

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

NInestar Press