"Summer at Little Beach
Street Bakery" by Jenny Colgan is actually the 2nd book about the principal characters
of the story, but I have not read the 1st one and it can very well stand
alone.
Polly, her boyfriend and
their tame puffin have recently moved into the lighthouse on a tidal
island off Cornwall. It is a most unusual - and certainly not very
comfortable - dwelling with each small circular room on
its own floor and many, many stairs to run up and down every day.
At the bottom of the
lighthouse, next to the fishing harbour, is Polly's bakery. Strictly
speaking, it is not hers, but belongs to an elderly lady. Polly runs the
bakery successfully and has made many friends among the
locals. When the elderly lady dies, her daughter and grandson, both
neither living on nor fond of the island, inherit the property.
Difficulties ensue, and soon
Polly sees her whole world falling apart: Her boyfriend has to go back
to the US to step in for his brother on the family farm, she is thrown
out of the bakery and needs to find another means
to earn a living (and pay the mortgage on the lighthouse), and to top
it all off, her pet puffin has to go to the wildlife station for
re-habitation in the wild where it belongs.
A cast of more or less
credible (and some rather stereotype) characters make sure the book is
not boring. Some twists and turns are foreseeable, others less so. It
all culminates in a night so stormy and dangerous nobody
on the island can remember anything like it. As Polly faces real
life-threatening danger, all her other problems seem less significant.
When the sun shines again, it does so in a metaphorical way, too.
I must admit I was not overly
fond of Polly or any of the other characters, nor did the puffin's
cuteness melt my heart. But I put that down less to the author's
writing than to my mindset these days. Maybe I simply
wasn't in the mood for something you could call typical chick-lit.
The book is certainly
pleasant and easy reading; if you allow it, it can even become something
of a page-turner at times. But the allover impression it left on my
mind was simply not deep enough, I'm afraid.
It wasn't my first Jenny Colgan read and possibly won't be my last, but I am not actively looking
for more of her books; it's my mother-in-law who sent this to me,
probably having several more piled up for me when
I arrive in Yorkshire next week :-)
Wow seems really interesting and little mysterious story ,I enjoyed reading every line dear,hope your mother in law send you more to share with us
ReplyDeleteShe always sends me plenty of books, both for my birthday and for Christmas, and sometimes even in between - and on top of that, she usually has a pile waiting for me when I come over on holiday :-)
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