D’you ever watch a film and have it leave an impression on you for a while afterwards or read a book that you revisit in your head for days after you’ve finished reading…. THAT’S what Freya Barker’s books do to me every time; they leave me with lasting impressions and a whole helluva lot of feels!!
A Change in Tide is the first story in a new and, what promises to be an interesting series from Ms B.
In this book we meet Mia and Jared. Jared is a recently retired ice hockey player who has moved to the lake to escape the glare and intrusion of the media and get used to living a different kind of life to that he’s been used to. He was a bit of a player but has realised that this is no longer how he wants to live his life, partly because he’s getting older but also due to changes in his family circumstances. I really liked the guy! He was unapologetic for the life he had led and was genuinely interested in changing his ways.
Mia was a real contradiction once we got to know her… A quiet woman, she has sequestered herself away in her cottage, with nigh on no contact with the outside world – with the exception of her friend and the therapist she attends. Terrible nerves, panic attacks and the fear of being outside (apart from walks with her dog, working on her small garden and her valued time on the lake) has led to Mia cutting herself off and that’s just they way she likes it… or so she has led herself to believe.
When faced with Jared and an unusual situation when out on the lake one day she finds that maybe the life she’s been leading isn’t entirely what she needs any longer. Over a short period of time her life takes some unexpected turns that throw more than a few bumps in her up until now quiet life and reading about how she copes and deals with these events made for exceptional reading!
Mia’s fear and anxiety was palpable and her emotional roller-coaster ride with life, and Jared, played out with such depth. Freya’s writing conveys feelings and emotions to such an extent that, for me anyway, it’s like watching a movie reel in my head that’s showing the whole story in full technicolour.
I hate spoilers and you get the gist of the book from the blurb so I’m not gonna say much more about the storyline.
What I am gonna say is that Freya Barker has an immense talent that is terribly underrated.
She is now one of my top 3 favourite authors and an auto 1-C buy (I don’t even need to read the blurb!). I adore the fact that her characters are generally a little older, have emotional (and sometimes mental) baggage, they have lived a life that hasn’t always been easy and through their books they face new & difficult challenges and issues that could understandably send them running in the opposite direction but their strength of character and determination sees them face their fears, whether that’s their first choice or not, and makes them all the more endearing to us!
Packed with great relatable characters, main and supporting, drama, humour, heat and so so many feels, if you haven’t yet picked up a Freya Barker book you are seriously missing out! A Change in Tide would be a great place to start as it is a new series that you can dive into, but in my humble opinion, go back to the Cedar Tree series that was the start of her writing and begin there – I promise you won’t regret it!
Book 1 in the new Northern Lights series gets 5 tide changing stars!
~ Tracy xx
*****************
*
*
~ Rebecca
Book Loving Pixies 
Adore your words. Thank you! xox
LikeLike