Published by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter
Publication Date: 30th January 2022
Book Description:
St Aidan: a cosy Cornish village where friendships are made for life and it’s always cocktail hour somewhere…
The Little Cornish Kitchen is going on tour!
When internet sensation ‘Cressida Cupcake’ has a soggy bottomed TV fiasco and faces bake-off backlash she jumps at the chance to spend some time hiding out in St Aidan, dog sitting for her brother.
Picturesque Seaspray Cottage is meant to be Cressy Hobson’s port in the storm but with her blog sponsors having fled and her book deal gone sideways her funds are running low and she’s forced to turn to the locals for help. Soon her quiet weeks in Cornwall are filled with chasing sheep, saving the local retirement village, taking The Little Cornish Kitchen into people’s homes for baking nights…and keeping vigilant guard against romance.
The one and only time Cressy lost her head to love was over a decade ago while in St Aidan, and she won’t be making the same mistake again – a feat easier said than done when Ross Bradbury looks even better a decade on…and every step she takes seems to put him in her path!
My Thoughts:
First and foremost my thanks go to Rachel Gilbey for the opportunity to feature my review as part of the blog tour for this lovely book.
This book has all the ingredients you need to settle yourself in for a nice easy read: a seaside setting, a boisterous dog, lots of mouth watering cake and a group of girls you can only wish were your own friendship group. Charlie's sister Cressida however is not finding the prospect quite so enticing; she's there purely to hide away from the wrong kind of social media attention following her disaster on a hugely popular TV baking show and to house/dog sit for her brother and his wife Clemmie who have gone away for a couple of months as they pursue their dreams of becoming parents for the first time. As a London girl, Cressy isn't keen on the small town, close knit community where everyone knows each others business and just wants to shut the door on the world in order to concentrate on how to repair the damage to her career. Her furry friend Diesel has other ideas though making Cressy's worst nightmares come true as he takes an impromptu bound for freedom and hurtles straight into the one person who Cressy least wants to see on the entire planet: Ross Bradbury. Her ex-boyfriend who caused her world to come crashing down once before and was the one who made her so fiercely independent and determined to forge her own way in the world.
The book re-introduces us to Clemmie's group of close friends, known as The Mermaids, and follows their efforts to include Cressy into their world during her stay in St Aidan. Those of you who have read The Little Cornish Kitchen will be familiar with the group who are determined not to leave anyone feeling like an outsider in their community. Those who are joining for the first time will soon realise, as does Cressy, that this is a community that pulls together for the good of the town. It's not long before Cressy is busier than she ever was in London, with the TV disaster soon becoming old news and her Twitter feed changing dramatically from snide comments regarding soggy bottoms to posts praising her new-found fame in St Aidan.
But what about Ross? He's always there, lurking in close proximity and with The Mermaids signing him up to help them out at every opportunity it's not long before the former couple find themselves being forced to re-visit old ground and trying to make sense of what happened over a decade ago in their personal lives.
I loved the journey Cressy took, how she was forced to re-evaluate her whole life and what she wanted from it - all because her brother needed a house and pet sitter. The author has brought a heart warming story so vividly to life; it's all very relateable and peppered with some hilarious escapades for many of the characters. Not to mention a fabulous selection of recipes that are featured throughout the story included at the end of the book too. What's not to like?
Please can I move to St Aidan and become one of The Mermaids, complete with my own tail and make-up?
I must give credit and huge personal thanks to my daughter Jess who has assisted with the writing of this review. She has given up her personal time to proof-read and correct the grammar in the first draft I had managed to get scribbled down before a migraine ambushed me. It is all thanks to her that this review makes any sense at all and was ready in time for my stop on the tour today.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Purchase Links
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Little-Cornish-Kitchen-Book-ebook/dp/B09MH5L4SP/
US - https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Little-Cornish-Kitchen-Book-ebook/dp/B09MH5L4SP/
About the Author:
Jane Linfoot is a
best selling author, who lives in a cottage, up the steepest hill in
Derbyshire, with her family, their pets, and an astonishing number of spiders.
Although she loves seeing cow noses over the garden wall, she’s
happy she can walk to a supermarket. Jane grew up in North Yorkshire where she
spent a lot of her childhood avoiding horizontal gales blowing off the sea, and
wrote her first book by accident, while working as an architect, and renovating
country houses. While she loves to write feel good books that let readers
escape, she’s always surprised to hear her stories make people laugh, admits
to (occasionally) crying as she writes, and credits her characters for creating
their own story lines. Jane’s garden would be less brambly if she wasn’t on Facebook and Twitter
so often. On days when she wants to be really scared, she rides a tandem. She
has lots of Pinterest boards relating to her novels.
Social Media Links –
https://twitter.com/janelinfoot
Sandie, a huge thank you for reading the book, and to you and Jess for putting together such a wonderful and amazing review and getting it out int the world under such difficult circumstances. What a heroic effort and an epic achievement, I'm so grateful. I love the things you picked out to say, you describe the book perfectly to your followers. As a writer reviews like yours make my heart sing. Huge hugs for the lovely and memorable welcome to your blog, and thank you so much for all your efforts and support with the tour. Big love, Jane xx
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