Little Beach Street Bakery: A Novel

This is my second Jenny Colgan novel, and it will probably be my last. It’s not that I don’t care for her stories, I just don’t seem to really connect with her characters. The first one I read was The Bookshop on the Corner where the woman had a traveling bookshop and used libraries just gave away their stock as the libraries were closing. This premise was not believeable - libraries don't give away stock, at least not in the states. The premise of Little Beach Street Bakery was better and I liked the idea of the protagonist struggling to reclaim her life after the downfall of not only her relationship, but also the business and what she shared with her boyfriend. But there were just a few things that went off track for me.

Firstly, I have to comment on the best friends name, Kerensa. I realize that Colgan is a British author and I realize there some different names over across the pond (like Hermione which many of us pronounced wrong over here in the states until we actually saw Harry Potter in film), but her name was just reaching. I actually did a little research to figure out if this is a common name over there like Jennifer or Katie here in the states, and it isn't. It means "forever exotic" and that just isn't the vibe I got from Kerensa..."forever annoying" was more like it. I know harsh...and I’m not one to comment on weird names because, let’s face it my name is Cresta and it sounds like a toothpaste, but it’s phonetically sound. The name just really irked me and her personality was so brash - and I’m not talking Lorelai Gilmore in your face brash - I’m talking rude. And I know there’s the old adage that your meanest friend is probably your best friend, but I swear she wasn’t really anybody I would put in the "friend" category. She was not supportive and she droned on and on about the mistakes Polly was making and then in the end it was all "I knew you could do it." Really? Because it sure didn’t seem like that as we were going through the pages.

Secondly, I must comment on the protagonist Polly's random mid-book affair with Tarnie. Really? You’ve been with one guy for five years in a deeply committed relationship and after what seemed like a few weeks (it may have been longer but it didn’t seem like longer) on this island and flirting with the fisherman here or there you’re off on some sort of romantic getaway and you haven’t even questioned his past or what he’s doing, and then you sleep with him?!?! Then come to find out he’s married? And has a kid? AND FURTHERMORE the whole town finds out and everyone is still best-buds with Tarnie?!??! Come on. I know this is supposed to be women’s fiction and it was all about her finding herself and letting herself go after being in a relationship that held her back for so long but ladies do we really need to jump into bed with the first eligible bachelor that we seem to come across? I mean the guy actually wasn’t even eligible. That really frustrated me and then when she found out he was married she just forgave him like the rest of the town for what he did (and they did) as if it was no big deal that he was married because he was unhappy. So that’s the standard? Good to know. It's okay to sleep with a married man as long as he’s not happily married. I'm sure Ms. Post would agree.

So admittedly those two things bothered me the most. But there are still other little things that just didn’t set right: the American beekeeper, Huckle, was just so wishy-washy. And when he finally puts the moves on Polly at the funeral for Tarnie (sad - yes. And she is still pining for the married man -also sad - yes) and it isn't well received, he takes it as an end all be all to everything they could’ve been and just packs it up and moves on back across the pond. And the super super rich guy flaunting his money everywhere - also not really attractive.

HOWEVER - The premise of the novel was good. It met every cliché of women's fiction that is supposed to be there. Relationship goes south - check. Business goes under - check. Struggles and has to live in a dumpy apartment that she has to fix up and make livable - check. I mean it’s all there; the list is perfection – the story just wasn’t. I didn’t really feel sympathy for the main character and the people she surrounded herself with just seemed so tragic and not in a good way. Mrs. Manse was the only character that I really felt a genuine connection with; the way she was as a result of her tragic story, and then her ability to learn to let that go. She was the only character that I felt really developed growth over the course of the novel that I could applaud.

And now for the best part of the book, the baking. I’ve never wanted bread so much in my life and I’m a big bread eater, if there’s bread available I will eat it. But it has to be good bread, and Polly baked good bread (I can pass on a plain white loaf). The passion Polly had for baking and the way that she use that as a medium to regain her life was excellent. I appreciated that she left a job that she did not love in order (by force basically) to pursue a job that she did love and in turn created a life for herself that she didn’t even know she wanted until she had it. That was good, that was really really good. So in the end it’s a pretty standard women’s fiction novel about overcoming your circumstances and learning to stand on your own two feet - which is exactly what anyone reading a women’s fiction novel is craving.

I give this a solid 🍷🍷🍷for the premise, finding passion, and the scenery. The lack of depth in characters and the surface-level relationships of not only the protagonist, but also the supporting characters left me wanting more from not only the novel itself but from the people involved.

Was about 100 pages too long. Sweet read but a bit frustrating with the back and forth, and dammit when will people learn to say what they're thinking.