Book Review - A Cottage in the Country by Katie Fforde

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Title: A Cottage in the Country

Author: Katie Fforde

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Publication Date: 16th July 2026

Rating: 5 Stars

She's found her dream home but can she make her dreams a reality?

Hattie finds other people their dream homes for a living.

Surely she, of all people, has the connections and the knowledge to find her own forever home? Instead, she baffles those closest to her by choosing to pack up and move every few months from one housesitting job to the next.

Of course, that's because she knows where she wants to live. It's a beautiful house owned by a lovely old woman who'd simply love for Hattie to have it.

But nothing is ever that simple.

There's Clive who refuses to listen to his great-aunt's wishes about her house. There's Luke, Hattie's oldest friend, who just wants to see her happy. And there's Hattie herself. It might take a difficult client, an awkward teenager and a couple of dogs to help her see what really makes a house a home.

I don't know how Katie Fforde does it but every single time she writes such a warm and cosy story that I never want it to end, and this was no exception. 

I was loving Hattie and her house finding abilities, as well as her "special ability". I was totally invested in all of the characters in this book. 

There is some creative matchmaking, there is the slowest burn of all relationships, where I think the audience and just about all the characters other than Hattie could see the obvious about something before she could. 

There is Hattie's friendship with Mary, who lives in Hattie's dream house, but there is Mary's bully of a son Clive to deal with. 

There is one other totally despicable man in this story too, who doesn't even deserve to be named in this review! 

This is a book full of good feelings, and certainly gave me a warm fuzzy feeling as I devoured it.  Another wonderful book from the pen of Kattie Fforde. 

Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.