Gwen Jones is a writer who lives with her mother and dog, Oscar, in a rural village in Wales. John Thatcher is an editor – a busy, professional, workaholic loner. Gwen’s gift for writing brings her to the publishing house where John works and he is assigned to her as her editor. Having met before in difficult circumstances and finding they have an instant, and highly inconvenient, mutual attraction, neither is happy about the situation but they have no choice in the matter.
Gwen’s “mam” is ill in hospital after suffering a stroke, and Gwen is relying on the success of her book to clinch a mortgage deal to enable her to buy the farmhouse that has been her home all her life and save her mother from having to leave the place she loves. She needs John’s professional help and so, when he tells her that they need to put in a lot of work editing the novel and get it ready for publication as soon as possible, she can hardly argue. John is stunned when she tells him she can’t go to London and he will have to work around her commitments to her mother and to her job, waitressing at a local cafe.
John decides to move in with her at her home while the work gets done, and the two begin an uneasy professional relationship that, bit by bit, leads to a respect and liking and eventually to something much deeper. But Gwen has too much to think about, worrying about her mother and her home, and John has a secret of his own which is preoccupying him. When Gwen receives some shocking news from her publishers she wonders if she has been wrong about him after all…
This is a very sweet story, with a lovely setting in the Welsh countryside. The two main characters are very likeable and the romance develops at a gentle pace that keeps the reader turning the page to see what will happen next between them. Very enjoyable.

You can buy The Green Hills of Home here.