A Rose Petal Summer

About This Audiobook

*A Rose Petal Summer* is Katie Fforde at her most unapologetically cozy—a romance that swaps city cynicism for the damp, dreamy highlands of Scotland, where the real love story isn’t just between the protagonists but between the listener and the setting. This isn’t a fireworks-and-grand-gestures kind of love; it’s the slow, steady warmth of a peat fire in a stone cottage, with all the awkward stumbles and quiet revelations that come when two people (one a pragmatic Londoner, the other a gruff Scotsman with a secret soft spot) are forced to share space, chores, and eventually, confessions. Jilly Bond’s narration leans into the wit and wobble of Fforde’s dialogue, her voice shifting effortlessly between Caro’s dry humor and the rumbling brogue of the male lead—though her real triumph is the way she sells the *pauses*, those loaded silences where everything changes.

What sets this apart from Fforde’s usual fare is the setting’s almost tactile presence: the audiobook doesn’t just *tell* you about the Scottish countryside, it *drops you into it*—the smell of rain on heather, the crunch of gravel underfoot, the way the wind howls like a disapproving relative. The romance is predictable (this is Fforde, after all), but the joy is in the detours: a subplot about a crumbling estate, a scene where the heroine bakes a disastrous cake, and a supporting cast of locals who steal every scene they’re in. If you’ve ever fantasized about quitting your job to hide in a cottage with a grumpy handyman and a very opinionated dog, this is your audiobook. Just don’t expect edge—this is comfort food, not a five-course meal.