The Cafe at Seashell Cove – Karen Clarke

This is the first in a new series of books from the author Karen Clarke, who in 2017 gave us the Beachside series. This time we are in Seashell Cove and quite frankly I want to move there straight away, it seems to be a hive of activity.

Cassie long since left Seashell Cove but she has come back home because she needs a break from her career – well that is what she is telling anyone who asks and probably is trying to convince herself as well.

To keep herself occupied Cassie decides to breathe some new life back into her parents cafe. She is too late it seems the cafe has a lot going for it, but not one to be put off despite her parents reluctance  – she starts thinking about how she can set up a cat cafe or coffee tasting to bring something different to the area.

Trouble is Seashell Cove does not need anything different. It has everything for everyone which is why Cassie’s brother has also returned and started surprisingly to settle down. Even Cassie’s old school friends, Meg and Tilly have a different outlook on living in Seashell Cove. Then there is Danny who remembers the girl he sat with in art classes in school, perhaps now he can see a future being painted before his very eyes.

Of course Cassie’s impact on Seashell Cove has some interesting and somewhat humorous outcomes. In fact all the characters are likeable and even the disagreeable ones are quite fun in their own way! At its heart is the strength of family love for each other and respecting decisions. I did think at one point it might not all be settled how it should be, but of course with a bit of humour even the quirkiest of families can love each other.

Heartwarming and funny is sometimes all you need in a book and this is one book which will satisfy the reader!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

The Cafe at Seashell Cove is out now.

I was lucky enough to get the next book in the series and have dived right in after reading this one. I don’t want to miss out on any of the action. 

 

 

Annie’s Summer by the Sea – Liz Eeles

Back in the beginning city girl Annie came down to Cornwall when she receives an unexpected letter from an unknown relative, Great Aunt Alice. Annie ends up staying and becoming part of the community of Salt Bay.

In this the final part of the trilogy we get to see how far Annie has come from that city slicker to a real Cornwall local who is loved by all.

Of course it is not going to be an easy ride and when Annie finds that she has been left the house she now calls home, Tregavara House she realises being away from the city is not merely a whim or fancy it has become reality. Even more so now her gorgeous boyfriend Josh has moved into the house and along with step sister, Storm and Emily Alice’s carer they make for an interesting story.

Of course being married to Josh would certainly mean Annie will stay in Cornwall, but when a fierce summer storm batters Salt Bay the house shows its true colours and worth and along with ruining Annie’s wedding dress it might ruin her chance to have a permanent home.

It was great to return to Salt Bay and catch up with everyone there. I disliked Annie at the very beginning of this trilogy and so was thrilled that the writing was so good that I actually changed my mind and grew to love her and everyone else in Salt Bay.

I will be sad to be leaving but know that now I am gone, that all will be well,.

A great trilogy for a summer read that gives you that feel good factor long after you have finished the book.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

Annie’s Summer by the Sea and the first two novels are out now.

The Little Cafe in Copenhagen – Julie Caplin

Kate gets passed over for a promotion at work and all of people it goes to the man she thought she was in love with.

Wanting to prove a point she goes out on a rather conceptual pitch to Lars and his idea of brining a Hygge department store to London. No one thinks she has pulled it off – but Lars loves the idea and so Kate is now the one who has to convince some journalists, bloggers and feature editors that the Danish hygge concept works and is coming to a store near you.

What better place to be able to experience it all that in Copenhagen.

Despite having to put up with egos, drunks, accidents and everything else the journalists throw at her over the trip Kate finds something else.

She finds the way she wants to live her life.

All the journalists with her also find something else. It was lovely for the book to give to time to the supporting characters and showed that despite Kate’s main presence within the storyline the trip to Copenhagen was going to effect everyone. That was one of the reasons I enjoyed the book so much.

This really is a cosy book and probably embraces Hygge at its best. The simplicity of life, the choices we make and in this particular place the amount of Danish pastries consumed. Trying to get that promotion and the money doesn’t necessarily give you everything you need. Kate finds out how life can be lived even with a few hiccups along the way.

This book is full of humour, love and happiness and I cannot wait to see where I get to go next with Julie Caplin.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

The Little Cafe in Copenhagen is out now. 

 

The Wedding Promise – Emma Hannigan

Stella has lots to celebrate, she has turned fifty and is feeling fabulous, her daughter Leila is detailed and about to have her first grandchild. Her son, Jake is full of ambition as a pilot and has a lovely girlfriend, Fee an up and coming surgeon. Plus there is Gerry her husband the man she has spent her life with.

When tragedy strikes Stella finds herself in Spain. At a rundown villa called Casa Maria.

THis is now her future and she finds that restoring the villa to its former glory is not just helping her but also her family.

Leila is rather shocked by the way her baby arrives in the world and with Christmas coming she wants to be near her mum. But how can she manage anything, when she cannot even manage to feed the baby well enough and make herself look presentable. No one else can possibly feel like she does, do they?

Jake has hit self destruct, events make him reckless and when faced with it all he wants to do is run away, switch off and just be. What better place than in Spain with his mum. trouble is Fee is struggling to understand the man she fell in love with is not the man he is now. Only time will heal, but Fee seems to not be able to wait,.

With all of Emma Hannigan’s novels this deals with so much. Postnatal Depression, grief, reckless actions, love, sickness and humour in such a way that with the storyline you are pulled in to the world and you do not want to leave.

To learn about the characters when they are at Casa Maria was lovely, the sense of community that is around the villa and the way the Spanish locals embrace Stella and of course the what happened at Casa Maria before Shelly arrived.

This is a lovely uplifting book and a joy to read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this. 

The Wedding Promise is out now. 

Having read only a couple of her novels, it is with great sadness to hear that Emma Hannigan lost her battle with cancer in March 2018. Her books are a lasting tribute to a wonderful author. I endeavour to read them all. 

A Family Recipe – Veronica Henry

I have read a lot of Veronica Henry’s novels and she is an author who I will go back to when I know I want to read something and get completely lost in it.

And I did get lost in A Family Recipe; set in Bath and with a dual narrative which took me from the present day back to the Second World War all set in one house.

That house is 11 Lark Hill. Now home to Laura Griffin, her husband Dom and their two girls, Jaz and Willow. With Willow about to fly the nest to university, Laura is going to be faced with an empty house and nothing to do.

When her life takes a completely different turn, Laura turns to her love of cooking and the recipes she has that date back to her grandmother and great grandmother. Perhaps she can find some purpose in food?

Back in 1942 at 11 Lark Hill, Jilly suddenly finds herself an orphan after the devastating attacks on Bath. The house survives and Jilly has to live with the guilt of not being there for her parents. Ivy moves in initially to keep her company but a friendship is borne which grows from strength to strength and will cover their whole lives. When Jilly feels like she has to do something to alleviate the guilt she feels for surviving she takes in a mother and her children who have been bombed out.

Of course the past and the present interlink with more than just the house and as the story develops and we start to work out everyone’s place in the past and how it affects the present the story draws you in further.

When events means Laura is suddenly faced with a possible different future will her actions leave her with the guilt that Jilly faced all those years previous.

A heartwarming novel which shows you the strength of love, the choices you make and the place that you should always call home. What more of a recipe do you need to read this book?

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

A Family Recipe is out on 17th May.

 

The Holiday Cottage by the Sea – Holly Martin

Tori has come down to Cornwall for a few weeks to take a break from her broken heart as well as her work.

She has followed her friend Melody who now lives in Sandcastle Bay and has agreed to stay rent free in Blossom Cottage in return for some berry picking. Seems a fair exchange.

What she did not bank on is being chased by a turkey that thinks it’s a dog and encountering a quirky old lady who says she will marry Aidan Jackson within a year.

Aidan Jackson is in fact the owner of the cottage and the farm where the berries need picking. These are not any old sort of berries but heartberries – and they have to be picked at night, by the first full moon and candlelight and it all has to be done before the tide starts and in time for the festival which features of course heartberries and lots of romance!

Tori doesn’t know what she has let herself in for, but if it means she can spend more time with her friend Melody and her sister Isla, then it is worth it.

Trouble is Tori starts to find that Sandcastle Bay and Aidan start getting under her skin and she realises that the bustling life she was living before was perhaps not living or loving at all.

Resolutely trying to not get her heart broken again, Tori and Aidan come to some sort of an understanding, but it seems that the locals of the village and the heartberries have other ideas.

If you want pure escapism, then Holly Martin is your go to author. I was transported to the beach, to the fields, to the cottage and even to Aidan’s bedroom (saucy!) with such ease that I felt so reassured by the book that love is out there for everyone.

The humour is subtle and the wonderful characters are easy to like and love and all I want to do when I read books like this, is to keep reading, to keep wanting to know more about them, to experience what they experience. Pure escapism reading at it’s best.

Clearly Holly Martin has set up this book to be another trilogy and I simply cannot wait until I can return to Tori, Aidan, Melody et al in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for opportunity to read this book. 

The Holiday Cottage by the Sea is out now. 

 

The Postcard – Fern Britton

Fern takes us back to Cornwall and to a place we have visited before – Pendruggan. If you have read any of Fern’s previous books then you will immediately recognise the characters and the setting. However it can quite easily be read as a standalone novel and will no doubt tempt you to go back and read more about Pendruggan and its residents!

Penny seems to be settled as the vicars’ wife and mother to the gorgeous Jenna, she is also still very much involved in her job as a television producer. She has all she needs in the village, her family and her close friend Helen.

But when her sister turns up to share the news that her mother has died at the same as her popular television programme is cancelled Penny struggles to cope. Her cry for help is noticed but not properly heard and it takes an outsider to realise what is going on as Penny’s past is laid bare for all to see.

Ella is that outsider, she becomes involved in Penny’s life through looking after Jenna as well as working for Penny’s new next door neighbour Kit. Ella though is in Pendruggan for another reason, she has come to speak to her grandmother’s solicitor about her legacy – trouble is Ella is not the recipient that is Ella’s mother who walked out and left Ella and her brother a very long time ago.

This novel for me was really honest as it deals with some rather sensitive issues and I became immersed in the storyline. Penny’s decline of mental health was distressing to read and I wanted to step inside of the book and somehow do something to help. In equal measure I also wanted to step inside and have it out with Penny’s sister about her behaviour. That is how good I think the writing is – when you want to throttle a particular character on one page and sweep up another into a hug on the next.

Along with the main characters there is of course all the secondary ones and the lovely quirikness of village life that jumps off the page along with the setting and the scenery – what more could you want in a book?

A worthy read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. It has taken me rather a while to get round to reading it. 

The Postcard is out now. The new novel Coming Home takes us back to Pendruggan and we learn more about Ella. 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage – Heidi Swain

I think without any doubt Heidi Swain is becoming one of my favourite authors up there with Trisha Ashley and Katie Fforde. The dizzy heights of being able to pick up a novel by this author and know that you are going to get a good story from the very beginning.

Lottie inherits a cottage in the village of Wynbridge, not any old cottage but Cuckoo Cottage which was previously owned by Gwen. Trouble is a number of the villagers think that Lottie is the cuckoo in the nest as she had only a tenuous link to Gwen.

Lottie though has other ideas, she has to live in the cottage for a year and as she has no other commitments or roots put down and no other family why should she not take up residence? The cottage holds a very dear par of her heart and perhaps here she can find what it is she wants out of life.

The cottage has some secrets and local builder Matt befriends Lottie and helps her with some of the more challenging tasks, trouble is local neighbour Will seems to think it is only a new shower and safer fuse box will keep the cottage going for many years to come.

When Lottie agrees to renovate a caravan for The Cherry Tree Cafe, but to keep it secret until she knows that it will work, it sparks some intrigue from the other villagers. What is Lottie going to do? Of course without knowing the truth people speculate and make their own minds up. Lottie is lost on who she can trust now and it seems that the only way to know for sure is to tell the truth. But there are some other locals who might need to start telling the truth too. What will the truth lead to?

If you have read other Heidi Swain novels you will recognise some of the characters. But not knowing who they are is fine, this can be read as a standalone novel and out of publication order as I have done.

I wanted to keep reading about Lottie, her cottage, her plans and the way the community embraced her, well nearly all of the community. Her cottage sounded just the sort of place to visit, for a cup of tea, a large piece of cake and an afternoon in a lovely squishy chair by the fire reading a book – in fact a book just like the one I have described.

An excellent book to escape right into, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel. 

Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage is out now. 

 

April Roundup

What a month! A holiday from work, various hospital appointments, plenty of knitting, a Royal Baby, plenty of cake, couple of days at Ragdale Hall and of course plenty of reading!

Where do I start really in looking back at what I have read?

Well I am really trying to make a dent in all the books I have on my netgalley list – I get a bit clicky happy when I see a lovely bright cover and something that is going to give me the feel good factor – which I need in buckets.

Which is why I went and caught up with Annie Darling – True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop and then discover there is another one out as I had got behind with the series! I think I liked this book more than the first.

Heidi Swain – Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage was another catch up and Heidi is fast becoming a favourite author who you know as soon as you pick up a book you are going to get a great story! I still have to catch up with The Cherry Tree Cafe and of course I have her new novel waiting and tempting me on my kindle! Damn that netgalley!

Then of course I hear that Fern Britton had a new novel out earlier in the year and I realised I had not read Fern Britton – The Postcard which I had hanging around on my kindle. Why had I not read this earlier – who knows and there is part of me which thinks I should stop putting off reading books by my favourite authors – I treat them with such reverence!

Of course I need to make a dent in the books on the shelves as well and so picked up Kathleen Tessaro – The Perfume Collector which took me on a lovely journey from New York and Paris and the mystery of the art of scent.

Alan Bradley – The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches was the only male author who I read this month – it has been a very female dominated one. But I got back to the delightful Flavia and enjoyed her latest escapade! Flavia is one to watch for the future.

We all probably said the same about Hillary Rodham Clinton – What Happened. I really spent about three months reading this book, as I dipped in and out of it as whilst it wasn’t heavy going it was a book to concentrate on, not for light reading before bedtime! Thank you to everyone who commented on my review/post I was not sure what sort of reaction I was going to get. It is certainly a step away from my normal reading choice.

The joy of blogging means that you do get to find out about other authors and of course that is what led me to pick up Elizabeth Taylor – The Wedding Group. I found it a lonely read in both plot and character and did not enjoy it as much as Mrs Palfrey.

In the centenary year of (some) women getting the vote I was thrilled to get an advance review of Lissa Evans – Old Baggage. I am rather a late comer to Lissa Evans but this book is excellent and focuses on what happened once they got the vote – where did all those women go and what did they do?

Some women still want to live no matter how old they are or what their family thinks. You should certainly read Judy Leigh – A Grand Old Time if you think that age has become a barrier to enjoying wine, men, food and campervans.

Enjoying food is certainly a hobby of mine and I like baking but all of a sudden I want to make chutney and jams thanks to reading Veronica Henry – A Family Recipe her latest novel. I need to dig out my mum’s old recipe books now!

I whizzed through Holly Martin – The Holiday Cottage by the Sea simply because she is another author I really enjoy and she seems to capture romance and humour with fascinating jobs and lives and add a big bit of raciness in it that makes me keep reading and reading. I realise I have the White Cliff Bay series to catch up on, not that I am short of books to read.

As the month came to an end I started a new book – I love that feeling of choosing something with inly a rough idea of what you are going to get between the covers and on the pages and whether it is going to draw you in. And of course it means more books ticked off the netgalley list and moved from the burgeoning bookshelves!

Happy reading in May.