Really enjoyed this book. Perfect blend of romance, beautiful setting and a little drama!
I would say there are some trigger warnings around coercive control in relationships but it is handled with care.
I loved her well the 2 love interest characters communicated and didn't hide behind their worries or feelings.

I've been stuck in a reading slump and this was the book to get me out. I've read books 1 and 2 in the series and loved them, so I couldn't wait to read book 3.

Another adventure in Starshine Cove - this time with Laura and her daughter Rose. 10 years ago, Laura escaped her marriage and ran to hide in the Irish countryside. She's been invited to her friend Ella's wedding in Starshine Cove, where she'll see her friends for the first time in 15 years. Will her 2 week holiday prove she doesn't need to hide anymore, or will she run again when her past comes back to haunt her?

I love the magic of Starshine Cove - everyone is friendly and it seems that there's something exciting every day. This time it's Ella's wedding (her story is in book 1) but we see Cally and Alfie, Connie, George and all the characters from books 1 and 2.

Debbie Johnson doesn't shy away from difficult subjects (e.g the whole excellent Comfort Food Cafe series!) - this one is no different. This time covering a controlling marriage and subsequent anxiety/panic attacks. This story is really well written and engrossing. This feels well-researched and written sensitively, it's just part of the wider story rather than for novelty.

This book doesn't end as definitively as books 1 and 2, there's some ambiguity about Laura's future plans. I really hope there's a book 4 where we see that Laura's got the happy end she deserves.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

I want to go to Starshine Cove, it is magical!
This is the third book based in the wonderful village of Starshine Cove, I hope there will be many more. Debbie Johnson has a wonderful gift of creating characters that are very believable and you become very invested in their story and what the outcome will be. We are allowed into the lives of Lucy and her daughter Rose when the go to the village for a wedding. Lucy has had a complicated marriage and is now a single mum and she is very wary of people. So coming to this wedding has been a big milestone for her.
The author deals with the issues that Lucy and Lyssa have had deal with very sensitively and you do feel how anxious they are, but among the serious issues we do still have humour which is good.
The backdrop to this story is all the villagers we have met in the previous books, and now their stories are starting to intertwine with the newcomers - this is good as it gives the book depth. But you can read this as a standalone story, (you will want to read the others after!).
Roll on book 4.

I loved this return to Starshine Cove and as always am impatiently waiting for the next instalment. A heartwarming tale not afraid to tackle hard issues, this is a gem of a book.

What a lovely book this was. It's the kind of story that I would read over and over again! I didn't realise at first it was part of a series but I will now look for the other books, that's how much I loved it!
Lucy is a single mum, who is simply.. lost. It was a joy to see her character development throughout the book, the way the demons from her past came to light and how she was able to overcome her insecurities. This book offers a great depiction of female friendship that lasts and morphs through the years, something a lot of adult women can relate to, I am sure.
The story is not all rainbows and butterflies either, important topics like domestic abuse were treated in a very delicate yet powerful way.
I would 10/10 recommend this book and the Starshine Cove series overall!

Love, love and love some more. This book was fantastic, loved the plot line and the characters. I wanted to jump into the setting of this story.

Lucy has stayed in Ireland in a remote location after separating with her husband, her daughter lives with her. She’s invited to an old friends wedding back in Dorset and she’s looking forward to it, but also hesitant. A mix of love, friendship and looking out for each other. 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I’ve loved reading the previous books in this series.

In this book, we meet Lucy, she’s attending her friend Ella’s wedding. What she loves to do when at an airport is make up different stories about the other people there. So when she meets Josh, she makes up a story about herself, portraying herself in a better way to reality.

But when she is in Starshine Cove, the last thing she expected was to see Josh, who is also attending the same wedding. Lucy apologises and slowly they begin to get to know each other.

Lucy is still trying to work through her insecurities after her marriage to Robert ended who was abusive.

Will Starshine Cove work its magic, will her daughter, her old friends and the ones she’s made in the cove help her to begin her life again, more so when her ex-husbands wife gets in touch for help in moving away with her children, knowing it’s going to bring him back into her life?

The story covers some hard topics, but there was lots of funny moments and a sense of hope.

I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A nice rom com with a bit of a twist, a recommended read.

Lucy Brown is sitting in an airport when a handsome man asked to sit beside her. Surprised, but agreeing, they began a conversation. Used to being quiet with little confidence, since her ex-husband had constantly belittled her during their marriage, Lucy decided to be a carefree, put together woman. After all, what could it possibly hurt?? She would never see this handsome stranger again. As Lucy regaled the stranger with her exploits and travels she began to enjoy herself. Something that she had not felt in years.
I hope you pickup this delightful book as you will be treated to a village of wonderful caring individuals of Starshine Cove. Friends with a need to help and to give before Lucy can even ask. But most of all, hope for long awaited happiness and a second chance at love. Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for an arc of this heartwarming book. This review is my honest opinion.

Lucy is travelling from her home in Ireland to reconnect with old university friends in the delightfully named Starshine Cove. At Dublin airport a chance encounter and a flirtatious conversation with a a handsome stranger sets the basis for an engaging and charming story.

Lucy is a single mum with a 16 year old daughter and had become estranged from her friends through a controlling husband. She left him 10 years earlier but still suffers anxiety from the experience. Her story unravels throughout the book as she meets and is welcomed by the villagers at Starshine Cove. New friendships are made and opportunities for exciting futures are created.

The characters are well developed and the detail of Starshine Cove and surrounding area is beautifully described giving it a real sense of place. Lucy’s challenges around moving on from her past and overcoming her insecurities are sympathetically dealt with. Also, her empathy with her ex husband’s wife is a strong element of the story.

A thoroughly enjoyable story. I’ve just found out that there are two earlier books in this series and I’m looking forward to reading those.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is a contemporary romance novel following Lucy, a forty-year-old single mother still healing from her abusive relationship with her former husband. When Lucy’s friend gets engaged, Lucy heads to Starshine Cove in the UK for the wedding when she meets Josh and claims she’s flying to New York instead, with the assumption that she is never going to see him again. Before the wedding, she meets the groom’s brother aka Josh.

The first third of the novel is Lucy reconnecting with her friends Ella, Priya, and Katie, while trying to strengthen her relationship with her daughter, Rose. The romance plays a smaller role to the female friendships and is used to explore certain parts of Lucy’s personality, particularly her compulsive lying. We also get a glimpse into her relationship with Lyssa, the woman who married Lucy’s ex-husband and their strained relationship despite Lucy trying to reach out.

After Josh and Lucy reunite, Lucy apologizes for lying to him and the two start a whirlwind relationship as they help Lyssa and her children flee from her husband. What I liked about how these two tied together was in how it showed Josh’s willingness to help others, including complete strangers, and gave Lucy a chance to further grow as a person and take back her life from her abusive ex.

Content warning for depictions of emotional and verbal abuse.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a contemporary romance with middle aged leads, fans of small town contemporary romances, and those looking for protagonists moving on from abusive relationships and finding love.

Lucy Brown has been hiding from the world for years, ever since she left her controlling husband. However, a visit to the magical Starshine Cove for her best friend’s wedding changes will be transformative.
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This was a really lovely book full of interesting, well fleshed out characters set in a special place that was came alive on the page, so much that I felt I was there and I yearned to go and visit it for myself. I was so sorry to finish the book and would love to see more books set there. In addition, the novel highlighted the important issue of coercive control and the damage it can do to partners and their families, without trivialising the subject, or making it seem contrived. If only one person recognises the signs and escapes the damage it is causing, highlighting the subject in this delightful book will have been worth it.

I am loving Starshine Cove so much, it really is a great place to be, and I think I would love to live their myself, if only it wasn't so hard to find, and that it wasn't fictional!

This time we are introduced to another newcomer to the cover Lucy, who is only there for Ella's wedding. Well unless the cove's innate charms rub off on her. But what she wasn't expecting was to bump into the man she had been flirting with at the airport, but using a false name!

Once again the community in Starshine Cove has blown me away, especially how close knit and special everyone seems to be.

It was great catching up with Ella again, but rest assured this could easily work as a standalone story.

It's just such an enjoyable story that I had a wonderful time reading. I am already hoping for another book in this series!

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

Reading any book in Debbie Johnson’s Starshine Cove series is like being wrapped up in a warm hug. It’s a magical place by the sea full of handmade, decorative fairies and a group of kind-hearted villagers who are like real fairy godmothers, coming together to support and protect the people they care about, even if they’re only visiting.

In this third installment, we are introduced to Lucy when she serendipitously meets Josh at the Dublin airport on her way to her college friend Ella’s wedding. (Ella and Jake are the couple from Book 1, Escape to Starshine Cove.) One of the things she loves to do while waiting for her flight is imagine scenarios for the people around her, so it’s little surprise that, when she meets the handsome Josh, she pretends to be the worldly, put-together security consultant Amelia on her way to New York, not plain old Lucy heading to Dorset by way of London. What she doesn’t expect is that Josh will be attending the same wedding. After an initial embarrassing and angry encounter (Josh hates liars), she apologizes, and they start to get to know each other.

Although just about everybody approaching their forties carries baggage, Lucy’s first marriage to the verbally and emotionally abusive Robert has left her with lingering trauma and insecurities a decade later. However, Starshine Cove has a way of casting a spell on the people who visit and are in need of a do-over. Will Lucy, with the support of her 16-year-old daughter Rose (who wants to move there permanently) and her old and newfound friends, be able to leave the safety of her isolated Irish home and find the courage to start over, especially after his 2nd wife reaches out to her on the day of the wedding, asking for her help in escaping with her children, thus putting her in Robert’s sights again?

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove can be read as a standalone, but there are many characters from the first two books who feature prominently, and knowing their back stories enhances the experience of reading this one. Although there is a closed-door, slow burn romance between Lucy and Josh, much of the focus is also on both Lucy’s friendship with her 3 college friends she lost touch with (thanks to Robert’s narcissistic abusive tactics), and the effects of that abuse on both Lucy and Lyssa, the second wife. Just reading about it caused my heart to start racing, so it’s definitely a trigger warning for those who’ve been in abusive relationships. Despite this, there is much humor, light-heartedness and hope for the future. Highly recommended!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Storm Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I couldn't wait to read this, and I wasn't disappointed!

Another visit to Starshine Cove. More brilliant characters, crazy japes and fresh starts. A brilliant read which is highly recommended.

Yet another wonderful visit to Starshine Cove. These books are so good to read, fantastic romances but with a tough story within them that is beautifully handled that stops them being saccharin sweet. It will have you racing to the end.

So good to be back in Starshine Cove again, for a third visit.
All the usual characters & residents of Startshine Bay feature to some extent in this book; however, it would be very easy to read as a stand alone book as prior knowledge isn’t required.
This time we follow Lucy & her teenage daughter as they visit Starshine Cove for a special wedding. Lucy’s backstory & to some extent her current story is rather heavy, but is handled well & sympathetically. Needless to say the magic of Starshine Cove, the patience & support of friends, old & new, and a dash of romance helps Lucy begin to take steps at starting life afresh.
A touching story set in a wonderful sounding place.

3.7 Stars
One Liner: Heartwarming but a bit heavy

Lucy Brown has been in hiding for a decade, thanks to her ex. However, she finally ventures out to meet her best friends and attend a wedding in the small town of Starshine Cove. The trip proved to be a great decision for her and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Rose.
But then, Lucy is stunned to see a man she impulsively flirted with at the airport and gave a fake name. They seem to have a connection, but Lucy is a long way from healing. With the past threatening to spill, Lucy has to decide what she needs from her life.
The story comes in Lucy’s first-person POV.

My Thoughts:
The book works well as a standalone despite the presence of recurring characters. They are the supporting cast and enhance the plotline.
This is a heavier book than it appears to be. It deals with psychological domestic abuse and its after-effects on the victims. Lucy has panic attacks, and there’s another character going through a similar phase. The book is not exactly a light read, though it has many sweet and humorous moments. It can be triggering to some readers.
Now, that’s done, I have to admit that the author writes teenagers very well. Rose is a doll! She is childish but mature, composed but dramatic, stable and reliable, but prone to sulking. In short, she is easy to love and relate to (though I haven’t been a teen for a while). Rose is my favorite character in the book.
Lucy’s narration takes some time to get used to. She is frantic and rambles, the result of living with a controlling spouse. However, we don’t know this at the beginning, and the first chapter has her monologue, which made my eyes glaze. NGL, I was worried about where it would go. Fortunately, there's a reason for it. We can get used to her thought process.
Starshive Cove is a beautiful place, and we are once again transported to an almost magical land with kind and helpful neighbors. This book is set in spring, so the flowers have started to bloom!
Josh is an adorable guy. The adults act like adults and can communicate, so that’s a big plus. Lucy and Rose also have meaningful conversations, which I like.
I knew there would be a third-act breakup, but it doesn’t happen until around 93%, which is too late, IMO. That leads to an HFN ending, which is okay since this is a series, and we’ll meet the characters again. However, I am disappointed that Lucy’s self-healing journey doesn’t come across clearly.
When the FMC calls herself a mess for most of the book in feel-good fiction, I have the right to hope she would realize and openly acknowledge that doesn’t define her. Circumstances forcing her to be stronger is not the same as self-healing, which Lucy needs. I don’t want to say more, as they’ll be spoilers.
The pacing is on the slower side due to the topics handled. Since these are important social aspects and are well-handled (as far as I know), I didn’t mind the slow pace much.

To summarize, Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is a heartwarming story with likable characters and a lovely setting. It has dogs and kids, too, so yay!
Thank you, NetGalley and Storm Publishing, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #FindingHopeInStarshineCove
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Extra:
I’d like to thank the author for handling the henna scene carefully. I appreciate the inclusion of the question about cultural appropriation.

What a magical place this is, and it is the 3rd book in this series. Reading this you will find that you really want to be there. Excellent writing and this book leaves you wanting more and more. 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for this ARC

My Thoughts /

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and author Debbie Johnson, for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for April 24, 2024.

The first thing I wanted to do when I finished this book was book a one-way ticket to Starshine Cove!

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is the book #3 in the Starshine Cove series by Debbie Johnson. If you haven't read any of this series before, have no fear, as neither did I and I had no trouble keeping up and I didn't feel like I was missing any back connections.

If there was a 'Feel Good' award, this book would take first prize. Relatively short at 257 pages (which was just the right length IMO) it's packed full of joy and 'feel good' vibes. Full Disclosure: I don't read a whole lot of books in this contemporary/romance genre, so maybe my thoughts might be a little skewed(??) but this was just a very enjoyable book and a really nice respite from heavier reads. Plus, the author dedicated the book to her readers, so, big 'ticks' all round from me.

Single mum, Lucy Brown is at the airport with her teenage daughter, Rose. Both are travelling to Starshine Cove where they are to attend the wedding of her friend, Ella. Lucy and Ella met when the two attended the same university, and together with a couple of other girls became a close-knit group of friends. When Lucy married, she dropped out of contact with her girlfriends, choosing to focus all her attentions on her husband, Robert. Sadly, the marriage ended when Lucy realised that her husband was emotionally coercive and controlling. Sixteen years later and Lucy is still dealing with the fallout of her abusive relationship. But putting her insecurities aside, Lucy is looking forward to reuniting with her friends again and having a wonderful vacation with her daughter.

Once the duo arrives in Starshine Cove, the mood lifts and it's all rainbows and unicorns. Starshine Cove is a place where the unusual happens; a place where magical things seem to occur; it's a place where someone might find a second chance.

Johnson has written a light and colourful story. The combination of wit and humour together with fun scenes and a little light romance hits the spot. The characters, on their face, are a little unbelievable, but when combined with the whole Starshine Cove magical element, suddenly become believable.

Themes of community, hope, and love burst from the pages of this story.

If you read this one, I guarantee you'll be wanting to book yourself a ticket to Starshine Cove too!

#NetGalley #FindingHopeinStarshineCove #DebbieJohnson