If there was ever a book to cheer the soul and bring some sunshine into your life then this is one of those books.
Poppy has inherited her grandmother’s flower shop, The Daisy Chain in St Felix in Cornwall. However at 30, this is not where Poppy sees herself. She has an aversion to flowers and she is rather snappy and irritated by anyone she comes across. Being back in St Felix where she spent many happy summers as a child is perhaps what she needs – but it is going to take some time for Poppy to realise that.
Jake supplies the flowers to The Daisy Chain, where magical bouquets are crafted and sold to customers who seem to believe the shop is magical. Poppy is a bit more cynical about it but it seems she might have met her match with Jake who can come back with a quick retort from Poppy’s cutting remarks.
Amber has flown in from the States to help Poppy, she falls in love with St Felix and says it has magic powers all of its own. She understands flowers and when a discovery leads to some understanding of the magical bouquets, it seems the florists is going to be a success.
Despite all this there are still demons and long-held resentments by many members of the St Felix community not just Poppy and when an old childhood haunt suddenly offers the answers it seems that perhaps St Felix has got under the skin of Poppy and it is the balm that she needs.
Wonderful descriptions of Cornish scenery, the beauty of flowers, their scent and the power that each bloom has makes this an enchanting novel. It has a predictability about it, but it still surprised me, which made me overlook such things.
An admirable summer or holiday read.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read and review this novel.
The Little Flower Shop by the Sea is out on 30 July in all formats.
Confession time – I was in two minds whether to request and read this book. I had read two previous novels by this author From Notting Hill with Love Actually and Breakfast at Darcy’s and I was rather disappointed with them. In fact I clearly state “….disappointed with this novel, but for me much better than her début book, that said I do not think I will be seeking out her third”. I did not seek out her third as it turns out, nor her fourth or fifth.
However I have picked up her sixth and I would say out of the three I have read this is the best. Perhaps the author has found her style, perhaps it was the subject matter, perhaps it was the scenery or just perhaps it was the right time for me to pick up and read her novel. Whatever it was I will perhaps be a bit less scathing when I say that I will not read anything by an author again!
The Book Jotter 