NEW RELEASE
Cold Enough to Freeze Cows - Lorraine Jenkin (2010)
Iestyn Bevan doesn't have a lot of luck with the ladies, instead he pines after fellow farmer Menna Edwards. Menna seems more interested in her rugby shirts and rams. Iestyn enlists the advice of Johnny 'Brechden' - the local stud - and his brother's girlfriend, the lovely Sima, life coach extraordinaire. Then there is Louisa whose family are all hiding behind their own secrets. As the village characters' stories weave together, they come to a head on the night of the Annual Sheep Breeders Dinner, where their lives change forever. Like a Welsh Love Actually, this is a nice ensemble chick lit book. It transports you well and truly to the farmyard. The only problem is that just as a story for a particular character gets really good, it then switches to another character's point of view and you get sucked into their story instead. (AB)
Lorraine Jenkin's third novel, Cold Enough to Freeze Cows, is out in July. The summary says: "Iestyn and Menna have known each other since school but the path of true love is rarely a smooth one... Particularly when it's a rough farm track obstructed by a raging torrent. It takes a series of unusual events in and around the small mid-Wales town of Dros-y-Bryn to make them realise what they've been missing. Johnny 'Sandwich' Brechan is a ladies man par excellence - flitting from one illicit dalliance to another, nary a female safe from his attentions. Until that is, one lonely night, a voice in the distance calling for help turns him from flirt to family man in a matter of hours. Esther is struggling to love her husband and daughter, whose selfishness knows no bounds - despite her own physical frailty. Her venom needs an outlet where it can do no lasting harm and thanks to a recent foray into the world of computing she might just have found a way to vent her spleen and do some good in the world."