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What a wonderful read - a very difficult book to put down! I had not read anything by Elvi Rhodes before and found this one quite by chance by the picture on the cover. A great deal of the content could be related to locally from the problems of being the vicar that wasn't what the parish was used to and also for the parishioners who had problems accepting their new priest. I found the book gripping from beginning to end and hope there may be another follow on to see how the future turned out - did some return to St Mary's after leaving; the events leading up to and including the vicar's wedding; did the vicar have any more children; did Bertha Jowett become a Christian and how did it work out with the vicar being Anglican and Nigel, her husband, being a Roman Catholic? I'm sure there's plenty of material for the next book!

Started off well- as a widowed parent myself I had a real interest in the storyline.
However, the character Venus is lucky enough to have family who spend nearly all the book looking after her daughter for her, and it ends with to me quite an unsatisfactory and unrealistic ending.

Elvi Rhodes is not an author I had ever read before, as I had her down as a 'rags to riches' historical romance writer - probably very unfairly. But when this book was bought for me, I was very glad I'd decided to read it. I found it light but well-written, and felt it gave a real insight into the everyday life of the clergy. As a Christian myself who knows female vicars and ministers, I felt this was a pretty accurate description of the reactions they receive from different factions of the congregations, and was only very slightly embroidered for fictional use. Yes, maybe the romance between the vicar and the doctor was rather hasty, but hey, this is a novel and meant to be entertaining! I'll certainly be reading more of Elvi Rhodes' novels, particularly the contemporary ones, and would even welcome a sequel to this particular book - after all, unless I missed something we never found out what became of Miss Frazer. It would have made a trite ending, but I'd have liked her to have 'seen the light'!

I'm sorry but I cannot recommend this book to anyone I found it non believable. Especially the relationship between vicar and doctor how can you feel this way after meeting only 3-4 times and having one date and so soon after her husband dying.It felt like the author couldn't make up her mind on which direction the book was to go and never covered any direction fully. I found it impossible to care anyway. Unbelievable story and people. Sorry.