Summer At Little Beach Strret Bakery by Jenny Colgan (Fiction, Food fiction, 10E/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

Neil!!!

 February 2015, Sphere, 448 pages, Ebook, Review copy & Personal copy

Content: baking, moderate romance, grief, humour

Summary from Ebooks by Sainsbury's 

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? 

Nayu's thoughts

Jenny has woven her magic in yet another book filled with rollercoaster of emotions, bread and Neil the puffling. I wanted to have a go at Jenny for the intensity of the emotions Polly goes through. The stakes seem even higher in this second book, with heartache at every turn in the later chapters. I was stunned by the various plot twists, and didn't know how the book could end happily. It does, with a bittersweet ending which made me cry and laugh at the same time.

Polly gets to bake...although there are a lot of obstacles which battles hard against, after a small pity party which is understandable. Her old friends are still with her, and she makes new ones, as well as a loathesome toad of a man as her nemesis who continually destroyed Polly's life for a while. There was a period of time when Huck was an utter moron, not seeing what Polly needed, so wasn't entirely bothered what happened to him but since I love Polly I guess I wanted him to be ok too. There's some laughter to be had, sometimes accompanied by tear as I read the mess Polly's life becomes. Karenza is on top form even when she's hit by tragedy too. I liked the different view of a eventful few hours near the end, since in the first book a different side of the story was examined. I really can't say much more without spoiling the story, it's a gem of a read the first time round, and it's also fun to listen to.

I received this book from Sainsbury's ebooks for review...that was after I'd forgotten I'd pre-ordered it to my Kindle (so it popped up on publication day), and also after I bought the audiobook version, which I dipped in and out of too. You can never have too many copies of Jenny's books! Polly and Neil's tale is a comfort read of mine, one which I hope will have another book, but if it doesn't I'm content with the two. 

Suggested Read

Also recently released is Jenny's first children's book which happens to be an alternate story about Polly and Neil! Polly and the Puffin (Children's, 5 years +, 10E/10E)