ncrabb's review
4.0
A trip back to the Barleybridge Animal Hospital in rural England is always a treat. This book is no exception. These books are a fun look at a rural veterinary practice, and they somehow feel real to me; the details seem authentic, the characters are developed enough that their actions mostly make sense.
This fourth book in the series focuses on Zoe, a single-mom vet who, having been burned by a charming male colleague who impregnated her and resigned from the practice. (He didn't know she was pregnant when he resigned).
She's a competent person who has few friends, lives with her nagging bitter widowed mother, and simply tries to do her job.
When a veterinarian is injured in a car crash, the head of the practice brings back the vet that unknowingly impregnated Zoe, and that decision causes no end of fireworks and difficulty among the staff. Long-time office manager Joy resigns because she won't work with the charming vet who gets his job done competently and causes every farmer's wife in the practice to fan herself even on those frosty winter days.
Much of the charm of this series is the interaction with animal owners who are part of the practice. There's a bit of mystery and suspense here as you try to figure out why a farmer's pigs are ill and what is wounding and killing cats in the area.
Shaw has a real talent for making you feel the warmth of these characters. There are no elongated sexual descriptions here, and while there is a romance element in all of these books, it weaves nicely into the overall structure of the book such that you recognize the romance, but you come away remembering the other characters and plot lines she creates.
This fourth book in the series focuses on Zoe, a single-mom vet who, having been burned by a charming male colleague who impregnated her and resigned from the practice. (He didn't know she was pregnant when he resigned).
She's a competent person who has few friends, lives with her nagging bitter widowed mother, and simply tries to do her job.
When a veterinarian is injured in a car crash, the head of the practice brings back the vet that unknowingly impregnated Zoe, and that decision causes no end of fireworks and difficulty among the staff. Long-time office manager Joy resigns because she won't work with the charming vet who gets his job done competently and causes every farmer's wife in the practice to fan herself even on those frosty winter days.
Much of the charm of this series is the interaction with animal owners who are part of the practice. There's a bit of mystery and suspense here as you try to figure out why a farmer's pigs are ill and what is wounding and killing cats in the area.
Shaw has a real talent for making you feel the warmth of these characters. There are no elongated sexual descriptions here, and while there is a romance element in all of these books, it weaves nicely into the overall structure of the book such that you recognize the romance, but you come away remembering the other characters and plot lines she creates.
julie7's review
3.0
3.5 ⭐ = Quite Good.
Fourth book in the Barleybridge series.
Gentle read, based around an English country veterinary practise.
A murder thrown in as well, this time!
Fourth book in the Barleybridge series.
Gentle read, based around an English country veterinary practise.
A murder thrown in as well, this time!
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