Book Review - The Show by Tilly Bagshawe

Amazon UK

Title: The Show

Author: Tilly Bagshawe

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Harper

Publication Date: 4th June 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Welcome to Swell Valley – where the scandal is in a class of its own…

The second book in the Swell Valley series by bestselling author Tilly Bagshawe

Nestled in a glorious patchwork of fields, surrounded by chocolate box villages, Wraggbottom farm means everything to Gabe and Laura Baxter. But love and tradition doesn’t pay the bills. Luckily, Laura has an idea that will share the secret of her happy (if sometimes muddy) country life: producing a reality show that will save the farm!

Until the interfering new vicar, ‘Call-me-Bill’ takes it upon himself to lead a protest against the show. Suddenly the village is divided; even Gabe is torn between his new found fame and his old, happy life.

With so much at stake for her village and her marriage, will Laura be able to weather the storm or will her big idea turn out to be her biggest mistake?

This is Tilly Bagshawe back to her best, and in the return to her area of Swell Valley.  Although this is a return to the place featured in The Inheritance, and those characters do return, they are not the focus of this story at all. This can easily be read as a standalone book, and a very enjoyable one at that!

There are two main couples this book features around. First up we have Gabe and Laura. Laura is a television producer, and Gabe is a farmer, and they have 2 adorable children. However they are struggling financially, until Laura has a gem of an idea for a TV Show. 

She wants to do a scripted reality show based around life on Wraggbottom Farm and Swell Valley. However not everyone is so keen on TV cameras around the village. Head of the protestors is new local vicar "Call-me-Bill", who is adamant that the show will do more harm than good. 

The other main couple featured are Sir Eddie and Annabel. Eddie is a disgraced politician who we first see as he is leaving prison, having served his time, and had his private life smeared all over the courts and papers. Eddie and Annabel leave their Westminster life behind them and move to Swell Valley to start over, and Eddie gets involved with Laura's TV Show idea. 

I am a huge fan of Tilly Bagshawe and this book doesn't disappoint. As always with her books, she features a lot of various storylines and characters, some major and some minor, and as the story progresses between them all, it is easy to get absorbed. I never got confused or lost, which is always a potential problem with books like this. 

There are some incredibly amusing antics, especially during the protests of the reality show, and there was only one person I didn't like. David the editor of the Echo who really was all out to destroy Sir Eddie. I don't think he had a compassionate bone in his body, and was focused not even on selling papers, but on his personal vendetta. 

There is a lot of intrigue an scandal in The Show, there are tales of revenge and personal vendettas and shows that even the most solid of couples, can have their sticky points. 

Fantastic story that leaves you wanting more from Swell Valley. I really hope there will be another return in a future book. 

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for my e-ARC of this book. This was my honest review. 

The Show is out today. Happy Publication day Tilly!