Monday 2 May 2016

Book Review - Summer at the Cornish Cafe by Phillipa Ashley - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #24

Amazon UK
Title: Summer at the Cornish Café (The Penwith Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Phillipa Ashley
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: 5th May 2016
Rating: 4.5 Stars

Demi doesn’t expect her summer in Cornwall to hold anything out of the ordinary. As a waitress, working all hours to make ends meet, washing dishes and serving ice creams seems to be as exciting as the holiday season is about to get.

That’s until she meets Cal Penwith. An outsider, like herself, Cal is persuaded to let Demi help him renovate his holiday resort, Kilhallon Park. Set above an idyllic Cornish cove, the once popular destination for tourists has now gone to rack and ruin. During the course of the Cornish summer, Demi makes new friends – and foes – as she helps the dashing and often infuriating Cal in his quest. Working side by side, the pair grow close, but Cal has complications in his past which make Demi wonder if he could ever truly be interested in her.

Demi realises that she has finally found a place she can call home. But as the summer draws to a close, and Demi’s own reputation as an up and coming café owner starts to spread, she is faced with a tough decision . . .

A gorgeous story exploring new beginnings, new love and new opportunities, set against the stunning background of the Cornish coast. Phillipa Ashley has written a feisty, compelling heroine who leaps off the page and encourages you to live your summer to the full.

I'm gutted, I have to wait absolutely ages for the next book in this series and that I have come to an end of Summer at the Cornish Cafe.  It is a delight to read, and is clearly the start of what promises to be a really special series. 

And yet surprisingly from the title of the book you may be expecting a fully functioning cafe to be at the heart of the story, well it is in a way, but a large part of the book it was purely an growing idea in Demi's head, which then took on a life of its own when she finally shared it with Cal. 

Cal had taken a leap of faith when he hired Demi, having saved her from sleeping rough, and is trying his hardest to renovate Kilhallon Park into the holiday resort it deserves to be, after his father let it rot. He faces a tough time in his personal life, and is clearly hiding whatever happened to him on his last stint of working abroad (which I'm hoping the next books will reveal). 

Summer at the Cornish Cafe is one of those books that had me saying "just one more chapter before bed" at least 5 times before I actually went to bed, and that was at the beginning of the book. It has such a nice writing style that kept me turning the pages. 

I loved Demi's character and her development during the book was a delight to see, she goes from being this girl who acts and feels very young, and slowly as her confidence grows shows just how intelligent she is, and what great plans she can come up with. 

This was the first book I have read by Phillipa Ashley and I'm so glad I allowed myself to be enticed by the pretty cover as its a very entertaining story. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Thank you to everyone that has voted for this book, last week. It was a clear winner, and for those of you that had said you had read it, I can see exactly why you chose this. It's brilliant. As always I am looking forward to seeing what your next choice for me will be. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm going to keep this book for my summer holiday read.

    ReplyDelete

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