Kelly's Review: coffee, tea, The Caribbean & me by Caroline James

Reviewed by Kelly Spillane

From Cumbria to the Caribbean... 

Flying solo again in their middle years, can life really begin again for Jo and Hattie? Is there hope for the newly single baby boomers and can romance happen? 

Continuing the Coffee Tea... series, join Jo and Hattie as they romp into their future and prove that anything is possible! 

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Jo is in her fifties and has recently closed her hotel after the sudden and shocking death of her husband.  Her best friend, Hattie, having also suffered a relationship breakdown feels that what the two women need is a holiday.  With this in mind, they head off to the Caribbean to visit Jo’s son, Jimmy, who runs a bar.  Meanwhile, Jo’s other son, Zach, is the next big thing and is an up and coming chef trying to find his way in London.  Pete has recently lost his wife and has always had a soft spot for Jo. Now that they are both single, Pete wonders if he can have a second chance at love with Jo.  But with Jo considering selling up the business and moving away, it’s up to Hattie and Pete to convince to her to stay.

I had heard a lot about this book on social media so I jumped at the chance when I was asked to review it. This book was exactly what I thought it would be.  It was funny, heartwarming and I couldn’t get enough of it.  It was only after I had it read that I realised that it is the second book in a series, the first one being, Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy and Me.  Had I known this before I read it, I probably would have read that first but this book works brilliantly as a stand alone and I’m sure that a lot of what happened in the first book was covered in this one, which meant that I didn’t have fill in the gaps to the story that I had missed.

Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me is a beautiful book about love and friendship.  It shows that you are never too old to have fun.  What I liked most about this book was that fact that the main characters, Jo and Hattie, are in their fifties and not the usual kind of characters that you find in many books in this genre.  I loved how the characters interacted with each other throughout the book.

This book is a light-hearted, easy read and I read it in a matter if hours.  I loved how the story moved between the characters of Jo, Hattie, Jimmy, Zach and Pete.  I enjoyed being able to see the story from the point of view if the various characters.  The pages seemed to turn themselves, and this was definitely a “one more chapter” kind of book.  The characters are what makes this book and I adored all of them.

Caroline James has transported me to the Caribbean with this book and I can see this book accompanying many readers to the beach this summer.  Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me, made me laugh out loud and put a huge smile on my face throughout.  It also made me shed a tear or two towards the end.  My only regret is that I didn’t read the first book in the series first, because now I feel that I have lost out on time with these characters.  I am so looking forward to meeting Jo and Hattie again and I am really looking forward to digging into Caroline’s other books, while I wait for the sequel to this one.  This is a must read and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  With a great storyline, beautiful imagery of beaches and fantastic characters, this is shaping up to be the perfect summer read.