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The Country Escape - Fiona Walker (2014)
Kat is running from and for her life as she escapes to the country where she uses her nursing skills to assist an elderly woman, Constance, in her final years. Constance leaves her a broken-down part of the estate and the animals who live there in an air-tight will that the family cannot break. Kat takes the challenge and cares for the animals that were so much a part of her friend's life. As Kat struggles, famous film star Dougie is also struggling with his choices in life. Engaged to two Hollywood stars and unable to commit to them, afraid that his acting skills are not as solid as he thought, he turns to running Constance's estate for the new owner, Seth, a dotcom billionaire. He is wowed by the beauty of the estate and stunned by his attraction to Kat. Still nursing his mental wounds from Hollywood, he begins to heal as he runs the estate. Seth, meanwhile, is trying his best to find a wife and please his family. An arranged marriage is something he has been fighting for years. Determined to make a success out of the large estate by attracting people to hunt game and play cricket, Seth demands much of Dougie. Will Seth accept an arranged marriage? Will Dougie go back to being a film star? Will Kat complete her dare? I was disappointed in this book, having read The Summer Wedding and loved it. The Country Escape brought in a few characters from the previous book but that couldn't save it. It had too many storylines and not enough passion. The characters were not well developed so I didn't feel a solid connection with any of them. This disconnection made the book move slowly and my interest waned throughout. (MS)
The Country Escape, by Fiona Walker, features Dougie from her previous novel The Summer Wedding. The summary says: "Hidden amid lush Herefordshire parkland, Eardisford is the ultimate English country retreat and it's just been sold for the first time in its history. Romantic daredevil Kat Mason has been bequeathed the estate's lakeside sanctuary, Lake Farm, until she dies or marries. But the new owners want her out now. In rides charming playboy Dougie Everett, the man hired to sweep Kat off her feet and off the property. Although pursuing the Hollywood dream has not been all he'd hoped, Dougie loves nothing more than the thrill of the chase, but does he risk losing his heart along the way?"