Review: Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Meet Janey and Essie Carter, mother and daughter respectively. Janey loves living in the tiny town of Carso, working in the local hospital as an audiologist whereas Essie couldn't wait to get away to the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh. But then it all falls apart, Essie's employer is moving to Switzerland and there's no position for her, also she's been there less than two years so she doesn't qualify for redundancy. With no new job on the horizon, realising she has huge credit card debts, and can't afford her flat share Essie reluctantly decides to move back to Carso and her mum's tiny cottage, since her posh boyfriend Connor doesn't seem willing to let her stay with him and his colleague Tris.

Janey is thrilled to have Essie back home, even if her daughter blames her for the divorce and finds fault with everything, but soon Essie's messiness, unwillingness to do anything around the cottage, and slovenly appearance are driving her to drink.

Luckily, Janey's son Al persuades Essie to join them and Janey's colleagues down the one remaining pub for a quiz night, where Janey runs into the father of one of her former patients, and Al and Essie catch up with their old school friend Dwight (who developed a love of country and western clothing as a child and doesn't seem to have dropped it) who has been working the oil rigs. Dwight has just bought the three dilapidated cottages next to Janey's and intends to do them up and sell them, but after five minutes talking to him Essie realises he hasn't the first clue about budgeting or decorating and volunteers herself as project manager.

Meanwhile, Janey's former patient's father's dog has had puppies in one of the cottages. Lowell is totally clueless and enlists Janey's help with caring for the puppies, which she helped to birth after the first one got stuck.

This was just charming from start to finish. As a woman of Janey's age I identified more with her, especially since Essie came across as a spoilt brat at first, but it was just charming, sweet, funny, all the feels.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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