The Cafe by the Sea Jenny Colgan

Published: William Morrow
Date: June 27th 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages:416
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating:
             

Years ago, Flora fled the quiet Scottish island where she grew up -- and she hasn't looked back. What would she have on Mure? It's a place where everyone has known her all her life, where no one will let her forget the past. In bright, bustling London, she can be anonymous, ambitious... and hopelessly in love with her boss.

But when fate brings Flora back to the island, she's suddenly swept once more into life with her brothers -- all strapping, loud, and seemingly incapable of basic housework -- and her father. Yet even amid the chaos of their reunion, Flora discovers a passion for cooking -- and find herself restoring dusty little pink-fronted shop on the harbour: a café by the sea.

So on the one hand you have hot, muggy, dirty London - squashed into a tiny flat, eating food from a microwave and doing a small paralegal job. Or... you could be back home on a small Scottish island in the far north. That is the dilemma for Flora in The Cafe by the Sea.  She has escaped island life, her mother was always so keen for her to be educated and to go forth and experience the world, not the small world of the island.

However Flora finds herself back on the island when her work calls for someone who knows the local area well and some law as well. There we find her back with her family, in a tough hardworking family farming environment. They are a family who deeply mourn the loss of a wife and mother gone before her time. They've let things slide, and Flora isn't too sure of her welcome back - even for such a short time - because she may have gone too far in what she said at her mother's funeral.

I can only say I adored the setting of the island, the scenery described, the wildlife, the animals. If I were a travelling person its a place I'd love to visit. Joel, Flora's boss sees the beauty of the place and the way Flora handles herself in this environment. Unbeknown to him Flora has been carrying a torch for him for a long time. But Joel has issues of his own and is a little overpowered by the strong family environment he witnesses when he visits to check up on the case in hand.

I loved all the characters, Flora's Dad, her three brothers, her three year old niece and of course the dogs. And all the crusty people that make up the island, along with the wealthy new hotel owner - Colton, who wants to prevent a wind farm being built right in front of the hotel, but must woo these taciturn people to his way of thinking.

I was transported out of my own life into these islanders lives and I loved every moment of it. A very entertaining and delicious read!