Book review: Conditional Love by Cathy Bramley

*Copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review*

All she ever wanted was a place called home. Nice and cozy place where she could be herself. Not that Sophie didn’t like her two flatmates, they were her best friends. And there was Marc, with that well-shaped body wrapped around her.

And then, Marc dumped her. On Valentine’s Eve. How cruel is that?

One letter changed everything. She inherits a property from an aunt she didn’t even knew she had. Talk about surprises life offers us e? But there is a condition: Sophie has to meet her father who abandoned her and her mother when Sophie was just a baby.

Struggling between making her dream come true, forgiving her father and not losing the trust of her mother, Sophie meets Nottingham architect Nick Cromwell. A guy who can give that old bungalow a name: Sophie’s home.

Sophie didn’t seem like much of a strong character at the beginning. It was all about Marc. “What would Marc think? Oh, my God, Marc can’t see me like this. Marc tells me to lose weight because he cares about my health. I’ll tell Marc about the inheritance, he will be happy for me and he’ll come back.”

I really felt like shouting out loud – Sophie, he doesn’t deserve you!

But despite being slightly annoying at the beginning, Sophie was a very interesting character. She’s naïve but in a cute way, and she always seems to want to make things right. She reminded me a little bit of Bridget Jones. Growing up without a father, with a mother who blamed him for everything that he did and he didn’t do, Sophie longs for a family, for people who will love her no matter what. With a background like this, it’s totally understandable she ends up in a couple of bad relationships and feels lonely most of the time.

I liked her flatmates, Emma and Jess, the two sisters. They were pretty down to earth and acted as Sophie’s guardians. They were fighting each other all the time, but they were always there when anyone of them got into trouble. They were the closest thing to a family for Sophie.

Let’s talk about the boys. I think I’ve said enough about Marc. I didn’t like him at the beginning. But, Nick, Nick was something different. He believed in Sophie and her dream from the very start. He loved the old buildings in town, and he fought for them with all his heart. But, he had some skeletons in the closet that had to come out. Is he just someone no better than Marc?

I thoroughly enjoyed this debut and would recommend it to every romance fan.

My rating: 5/5

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