Review: Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Wednesday 25 February 2015
Title: Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery
Author: Jenny Colgan
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Source: Review Copy
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780751558852
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon
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?

Jenny Colgan is one of my favourite authors, she creates the most perfect settings for her books, and I want to live in them all (though at different times of the year as each have their good and bad points throughout the seasons)! The latest is Mount Polbearne, where Polly lives in a lighthouse with her boyfriend, Huckle. A lighthouse! She runs the Little Beach Street Bakery, a place that makes the most delicious sounding bread, meaning this book is not to be read if you have an empty stomach. As much as I loved Little Beach Street Bakery, I did wonder where Polly's story could go in this sequel. I love that the book is about a bakery, and since reading these books I am definitely looking at bread differently, Polly wants to serve only the very best, which she does and it all just sounds so amazing. I'm practically drooling as I write (lovely).

In the beginning I was just far too happy to be back in this world again, Neil the puffin is back (I want one!) and the story involving him was just amazing, all the regulars are back and I was soon fully engrossed in the book. This time around there's a new arrival to the town. In Little Beach Street Bakery Polly had a short dalliance with a local fisherman, a married fisherman who died rather tragically in the novel. The town's new arrival is the fisherman's widow, Selina, and she moves to Mount Polbearne hoping that it will help her get over her grief and move on with her life. Also, the blurb doesn't mention it but something happens that turns Polly's life upside down, and I won't spoil it by saying what that is but it is something that adds a lot of drama to the book, and I didn't see it coming. I got fully involved with the book, feeling genuine anger at times and it completely endeared me to Polly and the people of Polbearne even more, I was really rooting for Polly and the residents, and I can't even say why! This is one of those books that will have you shouting out loud if you're anything like me, and feeling a little smug when it all goes wrong for certain individuals.

Jenny has such a wonderful writing style, her books just flow perfectly and it's far too easy to sit down to read a couple of chapters only to still be reading hours later. From the beginning to the beautiful, perfect ending I loved this book. It is now impossible for me to choose between Polly and Rosie Hopkins as my favourite character! I've purposely kept this short (-er than most of my reviews) because all I want to say is read this book! I don't think you will be disappointed. I cannot wait to see where Jenny takes us next and hope that she continues in the same vein as her last few books. Having brought us a cupcake cafe, a sweetshop, a chocolate shop and a bakery, there are surely some more culinary delights awaiting us somewhere else in the world. Cyprus, perhaps? (Wishful thinking!) Either way I will be at the front of the queue for her next book and anyway, the story of Polly and Huckle isn't fully complete so perhaps we will meet them again in the future?

4.5/5

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