Christmas at the Little Duck Pond Café by Rosie Green
Book 3
169 pages
Book Description:
Fen has always hated being the centre of attention.
She loves her new job, working behind the scenes at the Little Duck Pond Cafe and baking the scrumptious cakes that have helped its reputation soar. But frankly, she'd rather scrub the public toilet floor with a toothbrush than have to come out and talk to the customers.
She's always been happy to stay in the background as long as she has a good supply of books to escape into. That's her kind of romance - the fictional sort where she can read about other people taking a chance on love, but she doesn't have to risk her own heart.
But that was before Ethan Fox arrived in the village and turned her world upside down. Ethan is a leading light in the local amateur dramatics theatre company and Fen knows he's way out of her league.
But when the popular village Christmas pantomime hits a crisis, Fen and Ethan find themselves thrown together. Can Fen overcome her shyness and find the courage to step on stage and save the day?
She loves her new job, working behind the scenes at the Little Duck Pond Cafe and baking the scrumptious cakes that have helped its reputation soar. But frankly, she'd rather scrub the public toilet floor with a toothbrush than have to come out and talk to the customers.
She's always been happy to stay in the background as long as she has a good supply of books to escape into. That's her kind of romance - the fictional sort where she can read about other people taking a chance on love, but she doesn't have to risk her own heart.
But that was before Ethan Fox arrived in the village and turned her world upside down. Ethan is a leading light in the local amateur dramatics theatre company and Fen knows he's way out of her league.
But when the popular village Christmas pantomime hits a crisis, Fen and Ethan find themselves thrown together. Can Fen overcome her shyness and find the courage to step on stage and save the day?
My Review:
I loved previous novellas in this series so was delighted to receive an invitation from Rachel to read the Christmas instalment. We are thrown straight back into village life with Fen and her friend Ellie attending the local amateur dramatics group production of Pride and Prejudice. The gorgeous Ethan Fox who we were introduced to in earlier books is the star of the show, and Fen is rather smitten with him. Ellie however is less enamoured, an issue which sits uncomfortably between the girls. Is it just Ellie being jealous, or do her concerns have real foundations? In the meanwhile, Ellie's seemingly settled relationship with Zak is set on a shaky course with the arrival of daughter Maisie's mum Sophie. Fen is worried about her motives too, and with the issues the girls have with each other their friendship descends into an icy chill. With all this going on, their mutual friend Jaz feels very neglected especially as her boyfriend Harry is more interested in his social life than her, so she decides to put herself first and look for a different direction in life.
This is a book with a very real feel to it. The friendships between the girls and the problems they encounter are situations we have all found ourselves in over the years - do you keep schtum in order to keep your friend happy, knowing that if you do they are going to get hurt, or do you risk losing a friend and voice your concerns? It's never easy, but I felt the author put a great message across in the way she led the story to its conclusion (until the next novella at least!).
The characters are all great, whether they are nice or realistically not so likeable. I felt like I had come home to meet up with friends on reading this book, and went through a whole set of emotions for the various characters throughout the tale which I think is not easy to do in a shorter length book. I also felt Fen had moved on as a character by the end of this book and I am looking forward to seeing a new side to her in the next instalment of the series which I hear is due out not so far into the future.
If you haven't read any of these books by Rosie Green I strongly recommend that you do. I tend to avoid novellas and short story series however since reading this set I am more inclined to give others a chance as they have been so enjoyable.
Buy Your Copy Here:
About The Author:
Rosie
Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they
were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of
falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has
moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt
your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at
all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.
Rosie’s
brand new series of novellas is centred on life in a village café. The
first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe
and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.
Follow Rosie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988
No comments:
Post a Comment