Summer has arrived in the Cornish town of Mount Polbearne and Polly Waterford couldn’t be happier. Because Polly is in love: she’s in love with the beautiful seaside town she calls home, she’s in love with running the bakery on Beach Street, and she’s in love with her boyfriend, Huckle.
And yet there’s something unsettling about the gentle summer breeze that’s floating through town. Selina, recently widowed, hopes that moving to Mount Polbearne will ease her grief, but Polly has a secret that could destroy her friend’s fragile recovery. Responsibilities that Huckle thought he’d left behind are back and Polly finds it hard to cope with his increasingly long periods of absence.
Polly sifts flour, kneads dough and bakes bread, but nothing can calm the storm she knows is coming: is Polly about to lose everything she loves?
PEPPER’S REVIEW
OK. First of all, where the hell have I been that this is the first Jenny Colgan book I’ve read?!?
Just quickly putting it out there that JennCol is a kick ass writer. I was instantly sucked in to this book because it was just such great and easy story telling. LOVED. IT.
So, this book is actually a book #2 in a series. However, don’t let that deter you, as I had not read book #1 (but very quickly going to remedy that!!) and I was able to pick up everything and not feel I had lost anything - only obviously I NEED more of this story, so I’ll be going back to book #1 for sure. At any rate, JennCol does the reader a VERY nice favor by writing an update in the beginning of where book #1 left off. Thank you!!
Now, we have Polly, our main chick who is delightful and everything I would imagine a baker in this quaint little British seaside town would be. I mean look at this place and try not to imagine how amazing a story would be in this setting:
Polly lives in a god damn lighthouse, has a pet puffin named Neil, and a HOT farmer boyfriend named Huckle. It’s literal perfection. I’m obsessed with everything Polly, Cornell, and JennCol at this point.
Although we have an amazing set up with the aforementioned informational bliss, life isn’t always as amazing as we want it, and trouble comes brewing for Polly and co. This was where I began to really fall. Because I was easily entranced in this great story and this great life Polly has, and then we get a real life situation and drama ensues.
This intrigue really made the story happen for me. It showed depth, especially where Polly was concerned and it gave more meat to the beautiful set up.
Obvs I’m not going to go into anything, as you need to read and experience for yourself. Just know that you will be doing yourself a favor if you pick this gem up. You will absolutely love the detail about Cornell, Polly and Huckle’s relationship, the fantastic writing (and editing), AND most of all the simple light heartedness of it all.
I am easily a huge JennCol fan, after just one book.
I cannot wait to get more of these characters and go back and see how Polly and Huckle hook up. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
AUTHOR INFO
Jenny T. Colgan was born in 1972 in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK. After studying at Edinburgh University, she worked for six years in the health service, moonlighting as a cartoonist and a stand-up comic, before the publication of her first novel Amanda’s Wedding in 2000. In 2013, her novel “Welcome to Rosie Hopkin’s Sweetshop of Dreams” won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She is now working on her next novel.
She mostly lives in France, with frequent visits to London. She occasionally writes for The Guardian newspaper, as well as a TV series.
Her Doctor Who novel Dark Horizons is published under the name Jenny T. Colgan.
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