Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny ColganMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Polly Waterford and her boyfriend Chris had their own graphic design business, but the 2008 banking crisis and subsequent global recession hit them hard. Chris refused to accept reality and kept up a façade of expensive meals and fancy cars, refusing to accept smaller, less prestigious jobs until the bank forced them into bankruptcy. They lost their swanky new-build flat by Plymouth waterfront and Chris retreated into himself, going to live with his mother (and sulk).
Meanwhile, Polly realises that her tiny savings won't get her a flat in Plymouth, the best she can hope for is a grotty room in student accommodation, and she is both over-qualified and too old for every job being advertised. Then she sees a property listed in Mount Polbearne, a tidal island she used to visit on school trips as a child.
Somehow ,Polly ends up renting a derelict flat above a disused bakery in Polbearne where she soon makes friends with the local fishermen and baking bread surreptitiously for the other residents on the island. Featuring a wounded puffin, a reclusive bee-keeper, a reclusive American tech billionaire, a themed wedding and more carbs than you shake a stick at, I guess you can call this quirky. Randomly I've read the fourth book in this series already, so I was no stranger to Neil the puffin, although this does explain how he came to be Polly's pet/friend.
Although not without its heartaches, this is a cosy small-town romance to make you smile.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment