I am back in Cornwall again with another author who has visited before, it is three years since I was in St Felix with The Little Flower Shop by the Sea which got me back reading and loving this author’s work.
This time though St Felix is welcoming Ana as she comes to claim the camper van she has been left in her will by her closest friend Daisy when she passes away.
Ana is struggling to come to terms with her friends bequest as camping and certainly being away from a city is everything that Ana is not! But it seems there are other forces at work and it is not just the sea air and the fish and chips that is going to keep Ana in St Felix.
In the process of getting Daisy renovated by the intriguing Irish man Malachi they discover a number of old postcards written by someone called Lou to a Frankie and seemingly never sent. What story are they telling of Daisy and what really happened to them. Helped by local antique shop owner Noah, Ana tries to piece together the past as she seemingly settles into the present in St Felix and starts to feel very much at home there and with Noah.
A search goes on for the mysterious Lou and Frankie, Ana’s relationship with Noah and changes and they are thrown together when they take a trip to Brighton which is in the past for both of them. Will the past be the answer to the future?
However, all Ana can see is signs and they all seem to have taken on an eighties theme – that was her favourite era of music, even though she was born towards the end of the decade and it is what drew Daisy and her together as friends. Surely these signs are pointing Ana on to her new life.
The mysterious and at some points magical moments of this novel had me hooked, even if I did work out who Malachi was, it did not spoil my enjoyment of the story, the escapism to a beautiful place in the country and perhaps the possibility that I might not be so averse to a camper van!
A lovely uplifting book to read to soothe the soul. I hope we get to return to St Felix, because there has to be more to learn about that lovely place and all its residents. But them I am a sucker for a good saga.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
Daisy’s Vintage Cornish Camper Van is out now.
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