Books Read: The Lemon Tree Cafe by Cathy Bramley

When Rosie Featherstone finds herself unexpectedly jobless, the offer to help her beloved Italian grandmother out at the Lemon Tree Cafe – a little slice of Italy nestled in the rolling hills of Derbyshire – feels like the perfect way to keep busy.

Surrounded by the rich scent of espresso, delicious biscotti and juicy village gossip, Rosie soon finds herself falling for her new way of life. But she is haunted by a terrible secret, one that even the appearance of a handsome new face can't quite help her move on from. 

Then disaster looms and the cafe’s fortunes are threatened . . . and Rosie discovers that her nonna has been hiding a dark past of her own. With surprises, betrayal and more than one secret brewing, can she find a way to save the Lemon Tree Cafe and help both herself and Nonna achieve the happy endings they deserve?

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I'm not a fan of serials so even though I have loved everything Cathy Bramley has written I waited patiently until the complete version of her latest series The Lemon Tree Cafe was published before I immersed myself into this tale of Rosie and her family and friends in Barnaby.  And it was so worth the wait as I loved every single second of it as I found myself rooting for Rosie in her endeavours to help out her Nonna Maria to save the family cafe when faced with a challenge or two.

I loved Rosie from the first moment we're introduced to her in her corporate job at a marketing agency where she's asked to do something she absolutely despises, to airbrush a young model's photo for a campaign.  Sticking to her principles she refuses to do so and decides to resign from her job instead even though it's a rash decision as she has no back up plan other than to return to her family home in Derbyshire whilst searching for a new job.  It's only when she returns home that she discovers that her beloved Nonna is struggling to keep on top of things at the cafe so she steps in to help out little knowing that Maria has been hiding a dark secret from the family.

As I've found in her previous books a familiar face or two crop up and in this instance it's when Gabe and his son Noah, who we met in The Plumberry School of Comfort Food, arrive on their narrowboat that things get interesting. Gabe has decided that it's finally time to set up roots somewhere permanent as Noah is ready to start school, and their mutual friend Verity has rung Rosie to ask her to keep an eye on them.

Once again Cathy Bramley has created a wonderful community of characters who are there for each other in the good times and the bad, you can't help smile at poor Stanley's attempts to woo Maria, have a chuckle or two when you discover what Rosie's dad Alec is up to, and gasp when you discover secrets from both Maria and Rosie's pasts that connect them.

But it's the wonderful descriptive writing that really brings this story to life as I could imagine myself walking round the village green during the Spring fair visiting each of the local trades stalls, found myself salivating at the dishes Lia creates when Rosie asks her sister to help out at the cafe, and picturing the beauty of Sorrento as Rosie and her Nonna take a trip back to her hometown in Italy to put the past to rest.

The Lemon Tree Cafe was another hit with me and shows what a remarkable storyteller Cathy Bramley is as she pulls you in and doesn't let you go until you've reached the final page.  But the good news is that she is spoiling us again next year with two more stories, a new serial A Match Made in Devon and a standalone Hetty's Farmhouse Kitchen in March  

I'd like to thank Hannah at Transworld for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and sending me a proof copy of the book to review.