Jenny Colgan is a consummate storyteller who draws you into a world and keeps you engrossed within it from the first page to the last page of the tale. 'The Summer Seaside Kitchen' is another fabulous book that invites you to share a moment in the life of Flora, a harassed paralegal based in London, who is about to return to her roots on an island off the coast of Scotland.

Flora appears to like if not love her life she has made far away from the distant and remote hills of Mure, a small Scottish island. Yes, London is busy and expensive and she is somewhat lonely with a unrequited crush on her boss but it is all she dreamed of and eventually she will be lawyer.

A client of her firm has set up a rather exclusive hotel on Mure and is very opposed to a wind farm which is about to be set up in the ocean near his hotel - not the nicest of views. Flora is chosen to represent the client because her unique connection to Mure -she is going home. A home which is filled with memories. A home where her father and brothers still toil on the family farm. A home where her mother no longer exists except as a memory. A memory who created the most wonderful food to sustain her family and demonstrate her love for them.

Flora is about to find out that going home might not be easy but sometimes it is absolutely the right thing to do. She needs to come to terms with her mother's death, something she has avoided until now. Finding her mother's recipe book is the start of that journey and leads to all kinds of wonderful.

This story was filled with so many fantastic moments - it just built and built. All the characters had their place and you wanted to know everything about them. That was the really great part of this story is that it wasn't just Flora who you got to know but everyone who passed through the pages and into her life. Her mother's recipe book is a gift that keep on giving to everyone and is the heart of this story.

I loved every moment, every page and every character. A book not to be missed.

This is the first book that I have read by Jenny Colgan, a Sunday Times top ten bestselling author, and I found it immensely enjoyable. Flora is living in London, trying to cope with her job and city living and crushing on her boss, Joel. When she is asked to go back to Mure, the isolated Scottish island where she grew up and where people refuse to forget her past, she is uncertain but knows that she can’t refuse. Her firm’s rich client wants to stop a wind farm spoiling his view and her boss thinks that she can influence what happens on the island with her insider knowledge of people and their motivations.
Arriving back home, Flora has much to contend with – her father seems to have grown smaller and more introverted and her three brothers aren’t very happy. Soon she finds herself immersed in family life and the discovery of her mother’s recipe books leads to a love of cooking and also the opening of a little shop on the harbour.
Although essentially a romance, Colgan keeps the reader guessing about who Flora will end up with and the background of the island’s politics and personalities play an important part in Flora’s realisation of where she wants her future to lead.
The wonderful setting of a quiet Scottish island adds interest as its inhabitants struggle to keep their young people on the island and try to ensure that the millionaire building a resort actually employs some of the islanders.
This is a feel good book, peopled with relatable characters and events. Its warmth and uplifting plot made it very readable. I will certainly follow this author in the future when I want to enjoy a good escapist romance.

Flora MacKenzie is a single 26 year-old woman, who, although successful in her career as a paralegal, sadly doesn't have the same fortune in love. She has a crush on her lawyer boss, Joel Binder, but unfortunately, he barely acknowledges her existence.
Flora has a Scottish background but currently works in London after leaving her hometown of Mure a couple of years earlier following the death of her mother.
Joel originally hails from America, and when a fellow American client named Colton Rogers needs his assistance regarding the opposition of wind farms in Mure where he is currently restoring a popular landmark, he asks Joel for someone in his department with a Scottish background to help out his deal. Joel sees that Flora is the obvious choice, and appoints her as the candidate.
Flora is hesitant to return to her hometown, but eventually agrees to take the job.
She returns home to her brothers, Innes (who has an adorable young daughter named Agot), Fintan, and Hamish, and her father Eck.
Flora is shocked to see that the men have let not only the house, but their health, go downhill. She sets about fixing up the home and upon doing so, she comes across her mother's old recipe book.
She creates some of the dishes that her mother used to prepare for them all.
When Colton samples her food, he decides that he wants Flora to prepare food to sell at another premises that he owns in Mure, which is currently vacant.
Flora opens up 'The Summer Seaside Kitchen', which proves to be hugely popular amongst the locals. Despite its success, Flora vows that the shop will only be opened temporarily as she plans on returning to London.
But as family secrets are revealed, and local man Charlie shows his interest for Flora, her plans may be foiled yet..

This is a delightful story that I thoroughly enjoyed, particularly as I have been reading some fairly dark novels lately, and this was so refreshing.
The way in which the author describes the settings of Mure made me feel as though I was right there too. With lovely characters and a charming storyline, this story ticked a lot of boxes for me.
I also adored the recipes that Jenny shares as the end of the book. They sound very tempting indeed!

I love Jenny Colgan her books are always such a delight to read, so I was super excited to be able to get the chance to review this book. A huge thankyou to Netgalley and Hatchette Australia for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Flora has escaped her hometown Muir a beautiful little place in the Scottish Isle. She has moved to London to fulfill her dream of becoming a Lawyer but so far has only seen herself working as a Paralegal. Her life is far from perfect, her job isn't all that she thought it would be and Flora is madly in love with her boss who doesn't even know she exists!

Her boss takes on a new client who is doing work on Muir and Flora is sent home to try and get the locals on board with the client's ideas. Flora is faced with her past and having to finally deal with the grief of losing her Mother.

While home Flora discovers her mother's Recipe Book and in doing so she heals not only her wounds but her families and pulls Muir together as a community. She might even get herself her own happily ever after.

What wasn't there to love about this book! The characters were all delightful and Jenny has such a way with words when it comes to bringing them all to life. They all seem so realistic. I really enjoyed following along with Flora and learning about her past. She was such a sensitive soul who came across as being down to earth, honest and genuine.

It's so easy to get absorbed in the pages and i found myself not being to put this book down for very long at all.

Another great book by Jenny Colgan highly recommend reading.

Women's Fiction / Romance

As she was growing up, Flora dreamed of escaping her life as a farmer's daughter in a small village on Mure Island. Then when her mother died she railed against her well meaning neighbors and burnt all her bridges along the way. She left the island and moved to the city.

Three years later she is working as a paralegal for a prestigious law firm in London.

But life in the city is anything but perfect. Her job is a grind, her coworkers are hard and don't get her and she is secretly in love with a senior partner who treats women like disposable commodities.

Then Joel, the senior partner, takes on a new client who is building a resort on Mure Island and wants to stop a wind farm spoiling his views. Flora is sent home to try and bring the locals on board but in returning she is crashing into her past. Her grief for her mother. Her father who is barely holding onto the farm and her brothers who are bitter that she left.

After discovering her mother's journal, a hand written recipe book, she starts cooking and in doing so begins to heal the wounds of the past.
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The Summer Seaside Kitchen is one of those rare books that heals the heart. It's a gentle love story about broken people who somehow manage to patch things up and move forward. Everything about this book is 5 Stars.

A long time ago, and I do mean a long time ago, my grandfather’s family came from the Orkney Islands in Scotland. For some reason, many generations later I am blessed with the Scots colouring – red hair, pale skin. Probably great for a location where the average temperature for the year is in single digits. However when you’re in Australia it really just means an awful lot of freckles and painful, painful sunburn. Thanks, distant ancestors. Although the setting of this book is a construct of the author, it’s very much based on those northern islands of Scotland – the Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, etc. So I really wanted to read it to get a bit of an idea what life is like in those places.

And I think for that, it was really good. I loved learning about the lifestyles and traditions of Mure, the small island where Flora is from. There’s a large farming community and they face the same problems as farmers everywhere and considering Flora hasn’t been back for three years, left under difficult circumstances and is working for the rich American who is building a big resort but not using one scrap of local materials, labour or produce, she has her work cut out for her. Flora moved to London to become a lawyer and now she’s a small cog in a big wheel, crushing helplessly on a man who doesn’t even know she’s alive.

Back in Mure, it takes her a little while to find her feet. Her brothers are more reminiscent of teenagers, teasing her (occasionally it spills over into outright resentment) and letting the house go to ruin since she left, not bothering to cook proper meals or even tidy up. For something to do, Flora begins trying to prepare meals – at first she struggles, not finding the ingredients she requires at the local store to make the food she likes. But then she finds her mother’s recipe book and all of a sudden, Flora is in her element.

For the most part, I found Flora easy to relate to. The (very) country girl who moves to the big city, chasing a dream, something that is completely different to the life she left behind. And who hasn’t crushed on someone who doesn’t even know you exist, that person that is so unattainable? When she arrives back in Mure, Flora is so resentful even having to be there but slowly, slowly, her heritage starts creeping in. She becomes invested, reconnects with her mother through cooking her dishes and slowly begins to reconnect with her family as well. And even Mure itself. She keeps telling herself that it’s only temporary and that she’ll be going back to London as soon as she can but everyone soon wants her to stay and you can tell that she belongs on the island. I really enjoyed this journey of Flora’s, of finding herself….of finding her home.

There was one aspect of the story that didn’t work for me at all and that was the romance. There were two….options, for lack of a better word although I wouldn’t say it was a love triangle. I thought I had it pegged which way it was going to go (which for me, would’ve been the better way) but in the end the author went the other way and I just really couldn’t buy it. It just didn’t seem at all realistic and it felt very rushed and not something that unfolded naturally. I couldn’t see them as a couple and I really couldn’t see them lasting as a couple, building a life together. With the other option, I felt that I could see into the future, the kind of life they would have. It just felt quite at odds with the rest of the story.

6/10