Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Gay
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
“I think,” Lucien began, “that we accept the love we believe we deserve. And unfortunately, Noah doesn’t believe he deserves any.”
For twenty-two-year-old Noah, the revelation that his biological father is an ex-professional footballer is like tearing the wrapper from a cheap chocolate bar and discovering he’s won the elusive golden ticket. Every homeless young man’s dream, right?
Wrong. Because his father has also served a lengthy prison sentence. For murder.
With nothing to lose and facing a winter sleeping rough, Noah travels to France to meet him. Despite an angry encounter, Noah reluctantly agrees to stay at the ancestral home of one of his newfound father’s friends until he finds his feet.
Twenty-five-year-old Toby loves his village of Rossingley so much he’s never left. Working as a manny caring for the children of the eccentric sixteenth earl is his dream job. Sure, he’d like to travel someday and maybe find a boyfriend, one who doesn’t treat him like a doormat. But with his deformity denting his confidence, Toby counts his blessings and takes what he can get.
That is, until a sullen, handsome misfit comes to stay, flipping Toby’s ordered village life upside down.
The Review
This is one of those heart-warming, lovely stories that is wrapped up in a light cloak of snark and angst. It’s the sign of an excellent writer that they can create a character who makes you want to smack them upside the head, repeatedly, and still want to knit them socks.
Noah has lived his life with a mother who really didn’t know how to cope with being a single teen mom. In a fit of cruelty, she finally reveals his biological father’s identity as both a former professional footballer and a convicted murderer.
The chip Noah has long carried on his shoulder grows to glacier dimensions and he shows up on his biological father’s doorstep with no real plan other than to shock and awe. I spent the first several chapters hissing and growling at Noah to grow up and lose the attitude. Clearly, Hill is an excellent writer who made me forget these were fictional characters.
I instantly fell in love with Toby, the manny for the sixteenth earl of Rossingley. Toby adores his job and his charges, and is content to live in Rossingley for the rest of his life. Born with phocomelia, which caused one arm to be imperfect, Toby hides in the familiar life of his hometown.
When the two meet, it is not love at first sight.
The story is well written, the characters beautifully complex and weird and fun. It was very easy to become fully vested in their lives. This wasn’t a book I could put down and come back to later – more of a ‘gather the snacks and set the phone on silent’ kind of story.
Although it is the fourth book in a series, it read perfectly well as a stand-alone. However, I enjoyed the entire cast of characters so much that I fully intend to get the previous books in this series.
To Mend a Broken Wing is a fabulous story, filled with lovely characters paired with an excellent, well-paced plot. There is enough angst to make it interesting. but not enough to leave you with a book hangover the next day.
This was my first book by Fearne Hill, but I’m looking forward to more.
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.
