by Rebecca Raisin
Years ago, my mother-in-law in Yorkshire had a stack of paperbacks ready for me to choose from which books I would want to take home after my holiday. As I have always loved seasonal reading in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I took this one with me but only got around to reading it this past December and finished it at the beginning of January.
It was a nice enough read but not something that kept me wanting to know more, or to particularly like any oft he characters. Neither the author’s style nor the story itself are challenging – and sometimes that’s all I want from a relaxing read after a day that was challenging enough in ist own way.
The main character is Lil, a young woman who has worked hard to keep her small-town café going after her husband left her not only for another woman, but also with very little money.
When a new shop opens across the road, selling some of the same things she offers at her café, of course Lil is furious and thinks of a way to drive the shop owner – handsome as he may be – out of town.
Well, I think you can guess even from that one sentence what the outcome of that is! Needless to say, obstacles crop up left, right and centre, but with a large dose of home-baking and an even larger one of friendship and love, Lil overcomes them all.
The small-town setting is nice, if somewhat idealised (not that I don’t know that similarly close communities do exist). Many of the cast are a so cliché they are almost funny, and of course anyone who plays a significant role is either super gorgeous and sexy, or at least so kind and friendly their looks do not seem to matter. I am the last person to object to escapism, but sometimes I wish people in books were just normal, regular, average folks. Yes, indeed, people can fall in love with someone who does not have the looks of a super model.
Reading this book sometimes truly felt like eating a big, sweet, creamy piece of wedding cake with a lot of icing, but I suppose that is more or less what the author intended. I read this paperback alternating with the mystery I last reviewed, which I read on my kindle. If I had to give stars for each, I would give 5 to the mystery and 3 to this one.
The author's website is here.
Oh, sorry to say, that doesn't sound like a book I would read which is just as well as my library doesn't have it anyway! I just realized that the books you review are all in English. Do you read books in German too and just review the English ones for your blog? Or do you read the German book but then find the English version to display for your review? I don't know what made me think of this!
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting question, but easy to answer :-)
DeleteAlmost all my reading for leisure is in English. I need to read a lot for my work, and that is almost all in German.
Funnily enough, my current read for leisure is in German - a Christmas present. It is a book by an American author, and if it had been my choice, I would have rather read the original version in English, not the translated one, but as it was a present (and one I am truly grateful for, last but not least because it was totally unexpected), the person who gave it to me bought the German version (she read the Hungarian version which would have been of no use to me).
Icing & marzipan keep the wedding cake fresh, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteA sliver of rich fruit cake goes with an espresso or cup of green tea.
I used to dream of two enchanting bakeries on a high pavement, close to each other.
The other week I dreamt of an Italian-style coffee house with a mezzanine & tiled floor.
The lost coffee houses of Manchester (online) remind me of Bewley's, Dublin (YouTube)
I love a good café and bakery, and we do have several really nice ones here in Ludwigsburg. My sister and I also have our favourite places in Ripon.
DeleteThat book sounds like one of the Christmas movies that they show on the Hallmark channel over here.
ReplyDeleteIt does, doesn't it! I can just picture it, all that (artificial) snow and the glittering Christmas decorations everywhere, and a soundtrack heavily laden with sleigh bells :-D
DeleteNot my kind of book either. I am not a fan of books that are easily figured out at the get-go. I do enjoy seasonal reading at the holidays though, so Murder at Christmas, an early 80s collection of murder mysteries, was perfect for me this year.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally, I have come across a book of that kind which turned out much better than I expected, but this certainly wasn't one of them. True, the friendships and hardships the characters experience are realistic enough - it's not all sweetness, there are also illness, death and financial worries - but somehow none of it really engaged me.
DeleteThanks for the tip, I shall see if the collection is available on kindle.