The Little Village Bakery – Tilly Tennant

I love village stories, the community feel that I can simply spy on and watch as all these wonderful characters interact with each other, the lives they lead are always or nearly always far more interesting than watching soap operas on television and the dynamic of people fascinates me. Add into the mix the mysterious stranger from out-of-town, a bit of romance and some scheme to save something dear to the village and you have me hooked.

The Little Village Bakery, ticks all those boxes and more. Millie has moved to the village Honeybourne, she is obviously escaping something and plows all her money and life into bringing back the Old Village Bakery. She wants to expand her loved hobby of making cakes into making cakes for a business, her own.

However, the ghosts of her past are never far behind and perhaps Millie will have to escape again.

Jasmine and Rich seem to be the village’s golden couple and have no need to work at their marriage, with their adorable triplets and Dylan, Jasmine’s brother who seems to be breaking hearts all over the village and beyond.  This family is very much apart of the village. Jasmine and Rich have a very happy marriage, but when an opportunity looks like it is going wrong and a past confession comes back to threaten their stability, it looks like Jasmine and Rich might need to work even harder.

Jasmine offers help and friendship to Millie when she arrives in Honeybourne, as does Dylan but it seems his idea of help might be slightly different.

Can they help bring the bakery back to life? Will Millie be able to stay in Honeybourne?

Tilly Tennant has written a strong novel, I wondered for pages and pages what Millie was running away from and when the truth is revealed it was not what I was expecting. Which made me enjoy the book more, it did not have the predictability that sometimes women’s fiction/chick lit can have.

I am glad that it seems to be the first in a series of books set in Honeybourne, because I want to go back to the village soon. This is the first book I have read from Tilly Tennant and I can honestly say it was delightful.

My only criticism is the tagline on the front of the cover – ‘A feel good romantic comedy with plenty of cake’ I agree with the former statement but not the latter, there is no mouth-watering descriptions of cake, which you would probably expect from a book about a bakery – this was a book with a very strong dominance of character and for me that worked better. You will have to provide your own cake when reading this!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. The Little Village Bakery is published on 15 June.