I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

A compilation of three stories that center on the little town of Chilton Crosse. Each story can be read independently of the others but there are characters that appear from one story to the next. It is a delightful book that immerses the reader in every day life of a small English town and all its inhabitants.

The book is fun to read and engaging. ( )

The Chilton Crosse Collection by Traci Borum consists of three delightful novels set in a small English town. The townspeople are the same in all three novels but the focus shifts depending on who the main character is - Noelle in Painting the Moon, Holly in Finding the Rainbow and Ben in Seeking the Star.

The novels are set in the present day but have the feel of Jane Austen novels. The first two have a romantic theme and the third has a more religious theme. The third novel was much shorter and didn’t seem to fit with the first two but it was well written and takes Traci away from just using a formula.

It’s a perfect book for a long trip. I completely forgot where I was through various airplane delays because I was happily in the Chilton Crosse world. Traci Borum is an engaging writer and I hope she’s working on more Chilton Crosse novels. I’d like to go back there many more times. ( )

I received this as an ebook through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. This is a set of three novels set in the Cotswolds village of Chilton Crosse. Two are romances, and the third is a Christian novel.

The first, Painting the Moon, is about an American girl whose aunt, a well-known painter, dies and leaves her everything. It doesn't seem like much at first, until she uncovers a cache of paintings, worth a small fortune. The characters were appealing and there was enough plot to be interesting.

The second, Finding the Rainbow, follows a village girl helping raise her sisters after their mother has died. She works in the gallery that the aunt from the previous book used to own. A film crew is working on a new version of Jane Austen's Emma nearby. Again, the characters were appealing and there was enough plot to be interesting.

The third book in the collection, Seeking the Star, is a Christian novel, set close to Christmas time, in the same village. I found this one a lot less appealing, and the ending was kind of abrupt and felt unfinished.

There is 3 books in this collection so I'll review them separately

Painting The Moon - 4 1/2 stars

This book starts off with Noelle finding out her Aunt Joy who was a painter and owned an art gallery has died and left everything to Noelle. Noelle who lives in the U.S. but spent her summer's with aunt Joy until she was seventeen flies to England then takes a cab to Cotswold Village in Chilton Crosse.
I was hooked on this story from the first chapter. It's starts off with 2 mysteries: why did aunt Joy become a recluse? And what is behind the locked door?
We find out the answer to the locked door fairly quickly but what happened to Joy won't be revealed until close to the end.
**No spoilers from me, you'll just have to read the story**

What I loved most about Painting The Moon is the vivid descriptions from Joy's cottage to Mr. Hentley to Joe's pub (central place included in all 3 stories). I could practically see how the cottage looks like through Noelle's eyes and it makes me wonder if there is houses like this one.
Jill who is one of Noelle's friend during her stays there during summer was such a fun character. She is this funny, thoughtful, caring person. She was the "listening ear" and soundboard for Noelle.
Adam is her teenage crush(he didn't know her feelings for him), they both from the very beginning shared this bond that was still there even after yrs of never seeing each other. Their relationship goes through a roller coaster of emotions and end up (of course) with an HEA
I took half a star away because the ending felt rushed. It went from them kissing for just a 2nd time to them getting married. Did they confront Adams mom? What about his job in London? All of this could have been answered but wasn't which left me a tad disappointed BUT I still loved this story!

Finding The Rainbow - 1 1/2 stars

This story is from Holly's POV. She takes care of her 3 younger siblings (all girls; two are twins) after her mom dies and her father works a lot so he's not able to be there for them all the time.
I went into this with high hopes because I loved the first book but it really disappointed me. It honestly felt like a completely different author wrote this story. The descriptions was lacking which is sad because I would've love to hear more of how Foxglove house looks like.
Half the story was spent on Holly's inner dialogue/thoughts. After a couple chapters I started to loose interested and skipped pages. There was absolutely nothing to keep me interested and to be honest I don't remember much of what happened in this story.

Seeking The Stars - 4 stars

This story is about Ben (a stranger) and Mary and George Cartwright. It's a dual POV (Ben & Mary) which I liked.
The story took place during Christmas time and started off with a mysterious stranger passing out in the street in front of the Cartwright's home. My interest was piqued right away.
Seeking The Stars was a very different book from the other two because this was not a romance book. It's about faith, healing, grief, inner pain and kindness.
I can't help but love Ben, his grief over losing his wife and baby girl is so heart wrenching. Then blaming himself; thinking if he stayed home they would be alive. It's unimaginable the inner pain he must be going through. I truely believe it was devine intervention that landed him at the Cartwright's home.
Mary saw in him what she went through when she lost her son in a car accident. Both George and Mary never asked Ben about his life or stopping him from leaving, they had hope that he would tell them his story when he was ready(we don't find out about his background until the end) The fact that Mary and George went as far as telling people he was their nephew in order to protect him from gossip shows how kind and loving they are.
I think the whole town (without even knowing it) helped him heal. He made friends even though he didn't seem to want to get close to anyone. Ben was setting down roots without realizing it.

I would've loved to give this story 5 stars but the ending felt unfinished to me. It had me saying 'wait, that's it?' He finally tells Mary the details of his life then it ends as mysteriously as the story started out. I have so many questions left unanswered like: will he go back to his life in London? Is he going to stay with the Cartwright's? etc. I wish it didn't end so abruptly.
Throughout the story we do get updates on the people from the previous books which is good

So overall this collection was a good read. It did have some disappointments for me but I would recommend it to anyone looking for some feel good stories ( )

Thanks to LibraryThing for hooking me up with this complimentary Advance Review Copy.

This is a reissue of the first three of Texan Traci Borum's four books set in the affluent Cotswold village of Chilton Crosse. Her use of language is quite good, and the descriptions can be delightful. Borum has obviously done a good deal of research, and only occasionally do setting errors detract from the stories--shepherd's pie, for instance, is lamb; if it has beef instead, it's a cottage pie. There are also continuity issues even within single books. At one point, a previously vegetarian main character suddenly becomes a carnivore without any comment at all. That said, Borum has created a lovely environment where everybody has an Aga and money is rarely a problem, at least not for long, and a wandering stranger who collapses during a snowstorm is invited into one's home rather than consigned to a jail or mental hospital. It's a beautiful fantasy world, and I loved visiting it.

What I found bothersome was the change of genre. There is no reason, of course, that all the books in a single setting should be in the same style, but when packaged like this as a series, it's quite striking that the first two, Painting the Moon and Finding the Rainbow, are delightful romances and the third, Seeking the Star, is a Christian book about characters recovering from bereavement. I kept looking for Seeking's main character to find romance, which would have been totally inappropriate to the plot, but more in tune with the other two books. It might have been wiser to package the first two together for this reissue and save the last for a collection of more similar books.

I did enjoy the books individually, and Seeking the Star is probably the best because of the wonderful depth of character. As a collection, though, this doesn't really work. ( )