Cafe By The Sea by Jenny Colgan

The Cafe By The Sea by Jenny Colgan
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062662972
Trade paperback, $15.99, 432 pages

I recently read my first Jenny Colgan book, The Bookshop On The Corner, (review here), and was utterly charmed by it. I recommended it to several people, and each one enjoyed it as well. When I heard that Jenny had a new book publishing, I was excited to be offered a spot on her TLC book tour.

Like The Bookshop On The Corner, The Cafe By The Sea is also set in a small town in Scotland. Flora is working as a paralegal for a law firm in London, having left her home in Mure and her fathers and brothers behind after her mother passed away.

She has a few friends in London, and a major crush on her boss at the firm, Joel, an enigmatic, hard-driving man who serially dates women but doesn't appear to have anyone serious in his life.

When one of Joel's biggest clients, Colton Rogers, buys up property in Flora's hometown, Flora is assigned the task of returning home to help Colton smooth over relations with the townspeople to get approval for his building plans.

Flora does not want to return home to face her family and friends. Something happened at her mother's funeral, and she is afraid of having to deal with everyone in that aftermath. Flora's brothers and her father don't appear to be too happy to see Flora either.

She is dismayed to find the family's home in disarray; the men don't keep it neat and tidy, and although they live on a farm, they seem to only eat takeout from the fish and chips place or eat food out of a can.

Flora finds her mother's old recipes and cooks up some family favorites. In order to schmooze the townpeople, Flora opens up a cafe in town in a building owned by Colton, and right away it is a hit. Cooking helps Flora feel alive in a way that her law work doesn't allow her.

I adored The Cafe By The Sea.  The setting of the Scottish town by the sea is so vivid, and the characters are so wonderful, I wanted to know them all- her brothers Fintan, Innes and Hamish, Colton, Joel, Flora's friend Lorna, even Bramble the dog- they were all so endearing.

There are romantic entanglements- Flora and Joel, Flora and Charlie the local hunk, and a sweet surprise romance for Fintan. (I confess that Fintan was my favorite character.) There are delicious food descriptions that will have your stomach growling (but fear not, Colgan includes recipes at the end of the book) and the setting is so enticing, you will want to book a ticket to Mure so you can eat at The Cafe By The Sea. I highly recommend this delightful novel.

Jenny Colgan's website is here.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Jenny Colgan's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, June 27th: Girl Who Reads

Thursday, June 29th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, July 3rd: A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, July 4th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Wednesday, July 5th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Thursday, July 6th: bookchickdi

Friday, July 7th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, July 10th: Tina Says…

Tuesday, July 11th: Vox Libris

Wednesday, July 12th: A Wondrous Bookshelf

Thursday, July 13th: Just Commonly

Friday, July 14th: StephTheBookworm

TBD: Book by Book