Hi Guys,
Happy Halloween!!!! Hopefully, I’ll have a Halloween themed post later today–if not tomorrow morning.
So I was home sick the other day, fire roaring, tea and blanket on the couch kind of sick. If I wasn’t coughing it would have been really lovely. Anyway, figured I could use a light read so I decided to give another of Jenny Colgan’s books a try. I really liked The Bookshop on the Corner and sick days call for light reads.
Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan follows Polly who is looking to rebuild a broken life. Polly’s business and relationship goes under and instead of looking to her friends for help, she picks herself up and moves to a dilapidated apartment above an empty storefront on a tiny seaside town no one cares about.
Bankrupt and alone Polly does the only thing that makes her happy… she bakes. Polly has a knack for bread and soon she is making friends and enemies over her prowess as a bread baker. Polly comes to care for the tiny town of Polbearne and its inhabitants. She never thought her bread-making would amount to anything but soon her bread becomes a staple of the town and Polly forges herself a place in it.
But romantic entanglements, little old ladies, low funds and even the weather are determined to bring her down. Will Polly find herself on an island at the mercy of the tide? Will she find a man who understands and encourages her? Or will she be driven out of town, poor and alone?
Little Beach Street Bakery has a pretty familiar plot. I’m actually starting to wonder if all of Colgan’s books follow the same story line. Girl loses job. Girl loses man. Girl picks up and moves to the smallest out of the way town ever. Girl falls in love with town and wants to stay forever. Girl finds job/success doing a previously unrealized passion. Two men in girls life, one wrong, one right. Girl chooses wrong man first then ends up with right one. Annnd they all live happily ever after. This was literally the same plot as The Bookshop on the Corner and I had to love Bookshop more because a) it’s about books and b) hot Scottish men in kilts. Don’t judge.
Don’t get me wrong, the book was cute. It was a perfect sick day read. Quick, easy, makes you want to learn how to cook copious amounts of bread… carbs be damned! And I did. I tried making bread. Looks pretty… doesn’t taste so pretty.
Ultimately, this was a story about a little town that sticks together and one girl who shakes things up for the better. I shall label this one, easy reading.
3.5 stars from me. Not bad but not my favorite.
That’s all for now!
-M-