Saturday, 13 June 2015

A Seaside Affair by Fern Britton (Romance, Fiction, 4/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

 March 2015, HarperCollins, 448 pages, Ebook, Review copy

 Content: some adult romance, humour

Summary from eBooks by Sainsbury's (who provided the review copy)
When the residents of the Cornish seaside town of Trevay discover that their much-loved theatre is about to be taken over by coffee chain, Café au Lait, they are up in arms. It is up to Penny Leighton, hotshot producer and now happily married Cornish resident, to come up with a rescue plan. Armed with only her mobile phone and her contacts book, she starts to pull in some serious favours.

The town is soon deluged by actors, all keen to show their support and take part in a charity season at the theatre. One of the arrivals is Jess Tate, girlfriend to TV heartthrob Ryan Hearst. His career is on the rise while hers remains resolutely in the doldrums. But when opportunity comes calling, it isn’t just her career prospects that are about to change. Trevay is about to put on the show of its life – but can the villagers, and Jess, hold on to the thing they love the most?

Nayu's thoughts
It is extremely rare for me to stop reading a book and not continue. Usually it's because I find a book too scary or not a subject matter I'm comfy dealing about. The story started off as I'd expected, with humour and interesting circumstances. It was fun how different characters viewed the issue of the theatre closing, including points that I hadn't considered, and I dislike not knowin what happened in the end. 
However, the issue I had with the book started early on. I didn't mind the at first brief mentionings of famous people who I've heard of – sometimes it is plausible. However, as more details emerged of Penny seeing said famous people, and some situations were fabricated I had to stop reading. The odd vague mention is fine, but I have a huge dislike of heavy interaction/conversation characters may have with famous people who are in real life because it's like fictionalising them, when they are real, and making up what real people do feels a bit like a lie as only the people themselves know how they are to act. Using such a promiment figure as one of the current English princes felt wrong, so I stopped there. 

I'm all for writing what you know, but for me personally there's a line and this book crossed it. It won't stop me from reading more books by Fern, although if I find the same issue again I'll simply stop reading again, which is a shame as the characters are for the most part appealing and fun to read about.

Find out more on Fern's website.

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