Hettys Farmhouse Bakery

perfect condition

Hetty is a farmers wife with a 12 year old daughter , helping with everything on the farm and baking pies for charity and her sister in law's farm shop her life revolves around her family. When at a school parents evening her daughter announces to the teacher the person she most looks up to is her Aunt, Hetty is shocked and starts to reassess her life. She enters a pie competition and after winning and being put forward to a national competition she knows she wants to start her own pie making business.Unfortunately her husband Dan is resistant to this idea, worried that Hetty wouldn't be able to help on the farm as much, I found this so condescending and hurtful for Hetty, especially as a great secret is revealed adding drama and angst to this story causing Hetty to question everything about her marriage and friends.An enjoyable entertaining story with excellent storylines, my only niggle is that I found Hetty just a little bit of a doormat and although all came good in the end I still felt she had been treated badly.

This book has pies, and sheep, and a friendly little village filled with caring neighbors. But there’s a lot of depth to the story. There are secrets and intense moments that made it difficult for me to put the book down. I loved it!

4.5 StarsThe real star of this book is not Hetty, Dan or any of the other human characters. It is definitely the pies and I am all about the pie. Unfortunately, some of Hetty's creations sound, quite frankly, awful. Yes, I know cheese pairs well with apple but in a pie, the texture alone would be offputting and as a warm creation extremely disturbing. The only flavour combination I could get behind was the apple and dark chocolate. There seemed to be a surfeit of extraneous ingredients in every pie and a preponderance of lamb (Yes, I am aware Hetty and Dan have a sheep farm) which is possibly the worst meat for a pie filling ever. I was lusting after a good old-fashioned steak and ale pie but Hetty would never make anything so mundane it seems.Okay, the story is about more than pies - but only just. I just happen to love a good pie and did expend a fair amount of brain power imagining that golden crust and little puffs of steam coming from the top whilst I was reading.The main thrust of the story (apart from pies) is about Hetty and Dan's relationship, they have been together since school and are married with a teenage daughter - Poppy. Still living in the same small Cumbrian town in Dan's childhood home where he has taken over the reins of the sheep farm. Life is comfortable and plods along following the same formula day after day. That is until Dan's sister intervenes and gets Hetty to bake some of her pies for the Farm Shop she runs and just so happens to enter one of her more exotic creations in to Cumbria Finest Food competition.This proves to be the cue for Hetty to discover long buried ambition and to want to do something for her. Dan is then cast in the role of very unsupportive husband. A long lost friend pays a visit. Hetty's best friend reveals the identity of her son's father and, as it does in all good books, our heroine's world falls apart. Fortunately the falling apart comes quite near the end so we are saved from long soul-searching passages and morose flopping about from our characters. Of course everything comes together in the end and although Hetty's world has changed she is stronger for it and we have our Happy Ending.I am aware that the above all sounds fairly snarky, but the book does follow a tried, tested and reader approved formula. Going in to this genre you know you are guaranteed a happy outcome that is tied up in a big, floppy satin bow. That is why we read these books, to lift our mood and for sheer escapism from the day to day garbage that fills all our lives. Fortunately, Cathy Bramley knows what we like and knows how to deliver it in spades and put a smile on my face as I was reading.

Oh, Cathy Bramley sure knows how to write a book. I absolutely adore this cover and I think it's my favourite one of hers yet. I just love the polkadot jug, the pie at the bottom and of course the pretty farmhouse with the lovely green fields behind. The animals in front of the farmhouse look so cute and the whole cover just comes together nicely and looks so pretty.I did like the character of Hetty, although she seemed a bit of a pushover, I really felt for her and how she really wanted to get her pie business off the ground but husband Dan wasn't too keen. Nearer the end of the book, when everything was settling down again I thought that Hetty was far too nice to Dan! I really don't think he deserved what he got in the end. Whether it was when they were both young or not, it's still not nice!I loved the character of Poppy, she was probably my favourite of the book. And I absolutely loved the location of where this novel was set. It sounded so idyllic and even though farm life doesn't sound like the most fun - it sounds lovely and homely and making me wish I was a bit of a farmers wife! Reading about Hetty bake her pies made my mouth water and the flavours just sounded absolutely delicious! Where can I buy a similar pie to what Hetty has made please?!The story itself started a little slow, and there were certain characters which I just didn't gel with unfortunately. I'd say around 60/70% in was when it started to get really good and from then on I couldn't put it down. Even though it's not very long (just over 300 pages) it took me a little while to get through it. This isn't my favourite of Cathy Bramley's but it's slightly different to her other novels so perhaps that's why? There was so much drama in the second half of this novel though, which is why I gave it 4 stars!Overall, it wasn't my absolute fave of Cathy Bramley's but I'm glad I read it. The second half was definitely better than the first, so I'd recommend sticking to it and reading it the whole way through. It was an enjoyable novel with some lovely characters and lovely surroundings - and let's not forget about the delicious sounding pies!

Hetty is one amazing lady she holds the whole family together never looking for much in return life is never easy on a sheep farm but she juggles it well wanting to follow her dream was always on the backburner so glad she got a chance to show her true self along with massive twist loved this book.

I choose this book as Cathy Bramley is one of my favourite authors and having enjoyed all of her books, I couldn't wait for this one. The story captures your attention quickly and I would look forward to reading it, however I have to say the book is a bit far fetched in that when a massive revelation is revealed one of the main characters takes the news almost too well. I don't want to give away the story as this book is definitely worth a read,it just left me a bit disappointed as I have very high expectations of this author based on previous books.

From the start you will instantly love the characters. This is set on a sheep farm and although there's a few technical terms,they are easily explained without being boring. While reading this you will think you're actually on the farm, it's quite weird to look up from reading to find that you're not walking through the fields with the wind in your face, or sitting on the step outside of the farmhouse.If this is the first Cathy Bramley book you've read, I'd urge you to read them all. You will find out all about Freya's journey in Appleby Farm.