A Leap of Faith by Trisha Ashley – Fun women’s fiction with eccentric characters

Leap of Faith is heartwarming and fun women’s fiction with eccentric characters and amusing plot. This is first book by the author and I would like to try other books as well.

Synopsis

Sappho Jones stopped counting birthdays when she reached thirty but, even with her hazy grip on mathematics, she realises that she’s on the slippery slope to the big four-oh! With the thought suddenly lodged in her mind that she’s a mere cat’s whisker away from becoming a single eccentric female living in a country cottage in Wales, she has the urge to do something dramatic before it’s too late.

The trouble is, as an adventurous woman of a certain age, Sappho’s pretty much been there, done that, got the T-shirt. In fact, the only thing she hasn’t tried is motherhood. And with sexy potter Nye on hand as a potential daddy – or at least donor – is it time for her to consider the biggest leap of all? It’s either that or buy a cat . . .

Wonderfully wry, heart-warming and life-affirming, Trisha Ashley’s hilarious novel is perfect for fans of romantic comedies by Milly Johnson and Jill Mansell. And it contains recipes!

**This novel was originally published in 2001 as The Urge to Jump.**

Review

Leap of Faith is fun and heartwarming women’s fiction that revolves around fantasy writer Saphho moving to her cottage in Wales and drama that comes with settling down, staying near her best friends, and realizing she soon will be forty and she needs to work on getting pregnant without any relationship. The story is about friendship, life of artist, love, new phase in life, along with manipulation, stalking, and fertility issues.

Writing is entertaining, vivid, and witty. The story is written in first person narrative from Saphho perspective. Her voice is refreshing and fun.

I have read stories with this plot of getting pregnant, looking for donor, and falling for the potential donor but this is different. This is more than what is said in synopsis. She suddenly realizes she is 40 and that’s it. I didn’t find her desperate for kid at all. She talkes about it with her friends but her life at the cottage is pretty normal. Most of the story revolves around problems in her friends’ life and surprising mystery around weird things happening in the village that keeps story intriguing. The main thing about Saphho meeting the man and falling for him happenes in second half and it all happenes much more differently than I imagined or what we expect from synopsis and I loved that author kept that part simple and believable. There are lots of amusing subplots with eccentric characters which is the real charm of the story.

I liked Saphho. She is most amusing character. She is eccentric fantasy writer, 6 ft tall, rapunzel like long hair, who walkes around barefoot, like the Greek poetess she is named after she liked cliffs but unlike her she never has urge to jump, she recordes her novels in a dentist’s chair, and attracts short men. She is full of life, lives adventurous life and I could see why her friends thought having kid is not something she is ready for and her idea of dropping kid to her aunt Pop or her friends while she is traveling is not normal and it won’t work. It was great to see her settling down and slowly getting comfortable with the idea of home. She is fabulous friend and I loved how she helped Mu and Miranda.

Mu is great. She is willing to try anything to get pregnant. She does all tests but her husband is scared of even visiting the clinic. Only option for her is AI through her husband’s younger brother. She is in tricky situation but I liked how she navigated through it and how supportive Saphho is with everything even though she doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea. Miranda is lovely but she lacks self-confidence and she let her husband rule over her life and career until Saphho starts a revolution. I hated Miranda’s husband. He is manipulative bastard and I felt for Miranda. I couldn’t even imagine how she lived with this guy who attemted all dirty tricks to keep her under his thumb. It was great to see Miranda coming out of his control and taking back her life, independence, and career.

Both Mu and Miranda’s situations are serious and relatable but I liked how amusingly it is dealt without losing its importance. There are also other crazy characters and mysteries. Most insane is Dave, Saphho’s ex-boyfriend who still couldn’t get over her and couldn’t digest she doesn’t want to be with him. I felt happy imagining pushing him off the cliffs Sappho loved and I’m glad my fantasy wasn’t far-fetched. Gil is interesting. He is ornithologist whose wife went missing and he is prime suspect. And then there is another amusing character- Lily for whom only two things are most important in life, writing and sex.

Best part of the story is subplots of Mu and Miranda’s life, and small mysteries of missing person, and wierd things happening in village. Characters are also best. Apart from that I also liked Saphho’s fantasy story and we see glipse of it intermittently, how her story’s characters’ are based on her, Dave, and Nye. I liked how she got ideas for story but it is little cofusing at some point.

Twist and turns are well written. Most of them I could see coming at some point but still I found them interesting. Climax is fun to read with revealation of what happened to Gil’s wife, Miranda’s husband, and how all characters ended up on cliff. It was most amusing part. I liked the end as well.

Why 4 stars-

No matter how much I enjoyed eccentric charatcers and amusing plot, it took me some time getting used to the story. Maybe because we are thrown into it without proper introduction. I liked Soppho’s fantasy story but like I said some of it is confusing even for me, a fantasy lover. I think non-fantasy readers woouldn’t like it.

Overall, Leap of Faith is fun, entertaining, refreshing, and unusaul women’s fiction with eccentric characters and amusing plot.

I recommend this if you like,
Ecccentric characters
amusing plot
small town setting
romance mixed with humor and mystery
Author’s writing
getting pregnant theme but different from other such stories

Book Links

Add to Goodreads | Storygraph

Buy this book at Amazon.in | Amazon.com

Buy Women’s Fiction at Amazon.in | Amazon.com

---

---

Thank you for reading! Let’s chat…

What do you think about the book and review? 
Have you read this or any book by the same author? 
Which genre you want to read more in 2022?

Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads

Just in case you missed,,,

Top 15 New-to-me Authors in 2021
A Secret at Tansy Falls by Cate Woods – Book Review

Sign up to receive email whenever I publish new post-

Have you read this or any book by the same author? 
Which genre you want to read more in 2022?#ALeapofFaith #TrishaAshley #WomensFiction #fiction #BookwithEccentricCharacters https://t.co/ydIqcclwm3

— Books Teacup and Reviews (@BooksTnReview) January 31, 2022

---

---