Book Review - Summer Nights at the Starfish Cafe by Jessica Redland

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Title: Summer Nights at the Starfish Cafe

Author: Jessica Redland

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 6th April 2023

Rating: 5 Stars

Welcome back to The Starfish Café for a glorious summer, but with a few dark clouds on the horizon...

A new beginning...

As her summer wedding to Jake approaches, Hollie is excited for their new beginning as a family. But when some unexpected news threatens the future she and Jake had hoped for, Hollie will need to find the strength to overcome heartache once more.

A fragile heart….

Single mum, Kerry, loves her job at The Starfish Café, but behind the brave smiles and laughter with customers there is a sadness deep within. So when someone from her past re-appears in her life, Kerry can either hide away or face her demons and try to finally move on from her heartbreak.

A summer to remember…

For Hollie and Kerry it promises to be an emotional rollercoaster of a summer, but the community at The Starfish Café will always be there to help them through - after all, with courage nothing is impossible…

Join top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for a wonderful summer at the seaside, full of love, friendship and community spirit.

Wow, what a way to end the Starfish Cafe trilogy, with a book filled with action, drama, emotions at all ends of the spectrum, blasts from the past, and new love too.  The blurb says emotional rollercoaster and that is 10000000% what this book is. 

I was on the verge of tears multiple times in the story, not necessarily at the big things, but just little touches written so beautifully, combined with my feelings towards the characters, adding up to emotion just causing me to have a lump in my throat.

At times throughout this story, I wanted to reach between the pages, and just give a great big squish hug to Hollie, Jake, Pickle, Kerry (and her 4 children), Angie and Artie.  Actually let's be honest I'd love to have been at the Starfish Cafe myself to be able to not only give the hugs in person, but also to see the artwork in Driftwood Dell, and to devour an ice-cream sundae too.  Plus I'd love to see the Seals too. 

It was great to see cameos of some of the Castle Street characters, no need to have read those books but for fans of the author, like me that devours every single word Jessica Redland writes as soon as it is available, then seeing familiar faces from elsewhere in her world is always a nice bonus. 

I believe you can probably read this as a standalone novel, but the whole trilogy is so fabulous, why deny yourself some great other books.  And just while I'm thinking it, can I just say kudos to the cover designer, that is simply stunning and really does give a great feeling for the book inside. 

I have to say that if Jessica Redland ever wanted to turn her hand to the dark side, she would be a success at that too, as her villainous characters both in this series and also Hedgehog Hollow are truly disturbing and despicable. She clearly is able to write fabulous people that we want to hate and despise, so so well. 

This is another completely amazing bit of storytelling from the author, which I just couldn't put down. I was hooked from the first chapter and didn't want it to end.  I'm incredibly excited and curious to see what the author will be writing next.  I can't wait, and know I'll be first in line to read it! 

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.