Little Beach Street Cafe by Jenny Colgan

Title: Little Beach Street Cafe

Author: Jenny Colgan

Publisher: William Morrow 2015

Genre: Romance

Pages: 465

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

A quiet seaside resort. An abandoned shop. A small flat. This is what awaits Polly Waterford when she arrives at the Cornish coast, fleeing a ruined relationship.

To keep her mind off her troubles, Polly throws herself into her favorite hobby: making bread. But her relaxing weekend diversion quickly develops into a passion. As she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, each loaf becomes better than the last. Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, chocolate and sugar, and the local honey—courtesy of a handsome beekeeper.

I really enjoyed Jenny Colgan’s The Bookshop on the Corner, but this one just feels like a repeat. Or more accurately, a first stab at the story. I know that the setting and characters are different and yet I felt like I was reading the exact same book. I finished this one, but I really was not entranced in the story.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

Title: The Bookshop on the Corner

Author: Jenny Colgan

Publisher: William Morrow 2016

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 427

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Popsugar - Makes Me Nostalgic; Alphabet Soup - C

Nina is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile — a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. 

From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

Next up on the TBR pile: