SUMMER AT LITTLE BEACH STREET BAKERY by JENNY COLGAN

 SUMMER AT LITTLE BEACH STREET BAKERY

by

JENNY COLGAN

THE BLURB:

I (me, Jenny, the author, not Polly, who's the character in the book, and has much better hair than me)... Anyway, I often have this sense that any day now, everything in my life is going to fall into place and run smoothly and hurray! I'll have somehow figured out this whole 'life' business.

But, of course, my life never ever goes like that. As soon as one thing sorts itself out, something else falls totally out of whack, and I'm chasing my tail again.

If you are a very calm, sorted person, I envy you. But if you are more like me, well, you might really enjoy this book. One minute, Polly is baking bread in Little Beach Street Bakery in gorgeous Cornwall. Then she decides to buy a lighthouse and, well... let's just say it doesn't go quite to plan.

If you've ever dreamed of tossing it all up in the air and starting over, I hope you love Summer at Little Beach Bakery. And if you haven't- well, you know, it has a really cool puffin in it.

Very warmest wishes, Jenny XXX

THE REALITY:

Quite a nice touch, that- the author putting a personal message blurb on the back of the book, and this novel is real feel good chick lit. It is heart warming, and I picked it up from the charity shop shelf as it features Cornwall, which I love visiting. I also took it to read when I went there on holiday not too long ago, although I was a bit too busy to actually read it! I soon found out that fictional Mount Polbearne is based on real St Michael's Mount, which I've visited before (and did this time), so it was very easy to envisage. I also loved the fact that our heroine lived in a lighthouse, although I sense that the reality of that life-changing decision is more romantic in fiction than reality!

But my favourite character was Neil the puffin, who made me cry buckets. Why, you might ask? Well, I had a long term boyfriend who nicknamed me puffin as “you have a face like one!” Well, I love puffins so that term of endearment was nice. But that boyfriend- who I'd remained friends with, despite him living in another country- passed away suddenly during my reading of this book, so Neil perhaps became specially poignant. Yep, this was a book read through tears.

As storylines go it was okay with a pleasant mix of characters. Villainous Malcolm was gross and it was easy to work out that it was Selina who (spoiler alert) wrote slag on Nan the Van. I have to say, the plot tripped along nicely but wasn't particularly spectacular. If it's light, bright and trite you're after then this book is for you. But the main thing for me with this read was the delightful Cornish setting.