Review: Wonderful, well worth the wait!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 21, 2013
What a wonderful read.  I know Melanie and Craig personally and I have, for many years, urged Craig to put their adventures into book form.  I have seen early draughts of his 'episodes' and, even then, his writing style just made you want to read more.  Now he has waited so long (sorry Craig) he has perfected it and I must say this book is free from those endless mistakes you usually see in Kindle editions.  Very polished.  Craig certainly has a gift for writing; he captures the atmosphere and the sights, sounds and smells of the beautiful Spanish countryside which is now his and Mel's home. (You can almost smell the coffee, taste the wine etc.)  Craig's writing is so descriptive yet not unnecessarily long-winded- I love the scene where he is describing experimenting with his new cookbook. Fabulous writing.  Some really funny moments.  What is so wonderful about Mel and Craig's dream is that they didn't do the normal run-of-the-mill type of move where it's just like any old English seaside town, commercialised but with more sun, they moved to somewhere more 'Spanish' -a more unspoiled, undiscovered part of Spain and experienced real Spanish culture.  Craig writes about all their experiences of this so beautifully.  He has excellent comedic timing; this book isn't meant to be a comedy book but I can remember one chapter for instance where he is telling of something going on and on for ages(won't say what so as not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet read it)then suddenly he says something to the effect of "were we going to do this for any longer? NOT ON YOUR NELLIE!!! It's just so funny with this interjection, a real piece of Yorkshire in a Spanish book.  It hasn't been plain sailing by any means for Craig and Mel they have their fair share of set-backs along the way-not the normal expected set-backs-this book is by no means predictable.  Anyway Craig, you finally did it and you did good.  You actually did great.  But how could you do this and stop? There must be another book on the way?  I know you have far more adventures to tell-so get on with it!  If there was one thing I would have liked to have been included in the book it would have been some photos.  I don't know if there are any in the print edition but there aren't any in the first kindle edition but apparently Craig has rectified this and a free update will be available in the next few weeks to any existing purchasers and after that everyone who buys will get this up-to-date version.UPDATED REVIEW:I turned on my Kindle Fire this morning and was delighted to discover that the update for this book had auto downloaded. Fantastic-it now has photos. These are before and after shots so the reader can really get the idea how Mel and Craig's home took shape. At first I thought hmm-these pictures are a bit small? I tried to enlarge them using thumb and forefinger as you do on a mobile phone but this did not seem to work. The photos do enlarge: you have to hold your finger in the centre of the photo and then an option to zoom comes up then if you click that the picture will enlarge and you can then use your thumb and forefinger to get it to the size required. The pictures can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode. These do definitely add something extra to an already excellent book. Craig has also written an Epilogue. This ties up the loose ends of the first edition of the book yet still whets the reader's appetite for the next book. It doesn't leave you as 'high and dry' and things can seem to wait a while until the next instalment becomes available. I suppose now, I , as a reader got more of a feeling that Craig had actually 'finished' this first book but another one on the way. The epilogue is just a few pages but boy does Craig pack so much into these! Still the same writing quality, concise yet telling you so much and still quite a few comedy gems in this final bit. Also a very moving bit. Some of the funny phrases, obviously, I can't mention so as not to spoil for another reader but also they just don't sound so funny when I tell them, Craig just has the knack. Well done, great job, congratulations.