How to Fall in Love Again Kitty's Story - Amanda Prowse

Is it ever too late to find your soulmate?

Kitty Montrose is packing up her home, and the memories that go with it.

Under this roof, she's seen her children grow up, her grandchildren arrive and her marriage come and go.

Kitty knows better than most that the twists and turns of life can bring you joy, despair, and everything in between. But when she was a little girl, she had hoped for more. She dreamed of finding her true soulmate. Someone to laugh with, cry with, and share her twilight years.

Then Kitty meets Theo, an old flame. The timing was never right for their lives to intertwine. Can Theo and Kitty find away to fall in love again?

Or is too late for them both?

Kitty Montrose grew up at her beloved Darraghfield located in the Highland's of Scotland, the only child of her mother Fenella and father Stephen.  She may not of had any siblings but she had her two cousins Raraigh and Hamish who were like her two big brothers and when not at school returned to Darraghfield as their home whilst their parents worked abroad. Invariably they  would bring a friend back for the holidays and it was on one such occasion that Kitty met Angus Thompson.  At 14 years old Kitty's trunk was packed and she joined her cousins at Vaizey College in Dorset. Although a little apprehensive she knew she would have her cousins and Angus to help her adjust to life at boarding school. We first meet Kitty Montrose in Theo's story.  They sat next to one another in class and although everyone else thought Theo a little geeky and a bit of a loner Kitty always considered him one of her best friends. Theo would of liked to have been more than friends but Kitty only ever had eyes for Angus Thompson.  

Some years later in a chance meeting Kitty and Theo  decide to go for a coffee and  and a catch up. This led onto going for a drink and a drunken liaison.  The next morning Kitty awakes and realises what a terrible mistake she had made.  She loves Angus and they are due to be married. It is some weeks later when "Aunty" hasn't arrived that she realises that she is expecting the unexpected. She decides to tell Angus about her and Theo. Angus decides it was a stupid drunken mistake and not worth throwing all they had away for, he still wishes for the wedding to go ahead but on the understanding that everyone knows the truth as to the parentage of her unborn child including Theo.  Kitty writes the hardest letter she has ever had to write in her life.  She informs Theo he is to become a father and although she fully intends to tell her child the truth she feels for the sake of her relationship with Angus that there should be no further contact between them.    As time goes by Kitty and Angus move into their first home in Blackheath and raise their daughter Sophie. Sophie has always known she has two dads. Dad Angus she lived with and Dad Theo who is her biological father.  It is whilst Kitty is expecting their second child Oliver that Kitty learns of Angus's betrayal and the truth about her husband and her world falls apart along with her marriage. 

At 11 years old Kitty's daughter Sophie starts Vaizey college just as her mother and Uncles had done.  It was as Kitty was unpacking her car that she spots the familiar black curly hair of her best friend and Sophie's father Theo, who had not come to Vaizey on a sentimental journey but to attend the funeral of his close friend Mr. Porter.   This would be the first time father and daughter would meet but would open up a whole new world for the two of them and Kitty.  Theo is married to his beloved Anna who accepts Sophie as if she were her own and forms a firm friendship with Kitty.  Kitty knows the whole family set up is a little bonkers but for her little family this works and that's all that matters.  Kitty is devastated when her daughter calls her to tell her that Anna has died suddenly at home. After Anna's funeral Kitty invites Theo to stay with her for a while until he feels he can cope with the emptiness of the house he'd shared with Anna.  Although a little awkward at first Kitty soon gets used to having Theo around and how much she misses Theo's company once he has returned home.  She decides to go and visit her father and spend sometime at her beloved Darraghfield and invites Theo to come up to Scotland to get away for a while.  It is there that they see a flicker of the Kitty and Theo that could of been.  Now in their 50's and heading towards their twilight years could this finally be the time for Kitty and Theo to fall in love again. 

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It started with Anna & Theo   one love, two stories and I thought they were amazing and  proved there are always too sides to every story. I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like Kitty Montrose, because she broke Theo's heart.  Theo always considered her the one who got away, that is until he met Anna Cole. 

I have long been a fan of Amanda Prowse going right back to Poppy Day released in 2012.  Just as with Poppy Anna & Theo  stories are interlinked and you get to know both sides of their love story and the struggles they go through in finding happiness.  Just when you think it can't get any better in comes Ms Montrose stage right and puts yet another layer and completely different perspective on the whole story. Having broken Theo's heart once I really didn't want Kitty to turn out to be the flamed haired mistress or the one to steal Theo away from Anna and to break up their happy home.  Ms Prowse did well I didn't need to reach for the tissues until about chapter 12 but from then on a lot of tissues, chocolate and possibly the occasional glass of wine were definitely needed.

If you've never read any of Amanda Prowse books before I would definitely recommend you read these three at least  It doesn't particularly matter whether you read Anna or Theo first but my personal opinion is that you should start with Anna followed by Theo and lastly Kitty's Story. 

As a side note if you read my original review of Anna & Theo   you may have noticed that the copy of Anna that appeared in that review is not the same as the one that appears below.  This is because having sung their praises to my colleague she borrowed them to read.  It was when I returned to work after the bank holiday that she presented me with a new copy of Anna. She went on to confess that upon emptying her washing machine of towels that she discovered a lot of bits of gloopy stuff stuck to her washing. It was as she spotted her little metal book mark sitting in the rubber at the front of the machine that the penny dropped and she realised that in gathering up her washing she had put Anna on the top and forgotten to take it back off before loading the machine and so poor Anna went through the washer.  She couldn't quite decide whether she was more devastated at the fact it was my book or the fact that she was three quarters of the way through and needed to know how it was going to end and to add insult to injury her local Smiths did not have a copy and neither did her local Waterstones' and she then had to wait a further four days until the new copy arrived.  Thankfully she enjoyed them as much as I did but made sure that poor Theo did not meet the same fate.  I will be passing over Kitty this Friday so please keep everything crossed for her safe return.

If you're having glorious weather enjoy it while it lasts and don't forget your sun cream if you're sitting in your garden with a glass of Pimms.


Mx