Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Ollie Spencer has started a new life in the idyllic Cornish seaside town of Port Karadow. Throwing herself into her job at the town’s bookshop, A New Chapter, is one way to make friends. The shop is glitzing up for first Christmas and Ollie hopes her inspired ideas will give the shop the edge it needs to dazzle the town.
But far from being the Sugar Plum fairy the place needs, Ollie is fast becoming its Christmas pudding. With the bookshop’s success at stake, Ollie turns to twinkly-eyed café owner Max for help. Can he help Ollie to turn the page, and put the sparkle back into her Cornish dream?
Many thanks to Harper Collins UK via NetGalley for my copy of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Straight away I’ll admit that the first few books in Cressida McLaughlin’s Cornish Cream Tea series I adored and then I found I didn’t enjoy the books midway through the series as much. But with these last two books, books six and seven, I feel the series has returned to its earlier form and I can’t get enough of it. I was gutted to finish The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday back in the summer as it was a book that had me hooked from the first word and to reach the end was just heart-breaking. I wish it could have gone on and on forever as it just had the most magical setting and a brilliant main character in Thea but nearing the end I sensed that that wouldn’t be the last we would hear from Thea and her plans for a new bookshop in Port Kadow and thankfully I wasn’t wrong.
After only several short months of a wait, along has come The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop and as soon as it landed on my Kindle I just had to read it. I didn’t care that it was October and Halloween mode was in full swing. No give me everything Christmas and even better if it is centred around a bookshop. Cressida delivered on every level with this book and at the time of writing this review in November I have since read several Christmas books but this has to be my favourite. The magic and essence of the most favourite time of year was here in abundance and combined with a new character Ollie and some heart-warming and at times nerve wracking storylines this made for the perfect Christmas read that everyone should have firmly on their Christmas TBR this year.
Ollie Spencer hasn’t been able to work for several months at her dream job in Grady’s books in London due to an accident but thanks to a significant pay out from said accident, and the fact her boss hasn’t been best pleased that she has not been at work, Ollie has taken the bull by the horns and decided to move to Cornwall. Her best friend Melissa’s granddad lives in the village of Port Kadow and he has asked will she type up his life story for him. Ollie views this opportunity as a much needed fresh start and she is looking forward to a slower pace of life and to enjoy the seaside vibe. Port Kadow will be familiar to long time readers of this series but new readers will immediately feel right at home.
Cressida does such a fantastic job of describing the setting and through rich vivid imagery you can easily establish a clear picture in your head. With its curved harbour, cobbled streets and lush green countryside it’s a complete change for Ollie but it’s providing her with a chance to hit the reset button on her life especially after a recent messy breakup with her boyfriend Guy. She wants a peaceful, more fulfilling life but at the same time her love of books and her rock solid work ethic is still there burning strong. So when she sees that Thea has opened a new bookshop located in the old post office which overlooks the village and staff are wanted of course she jumps at the chance and gets the job.
Ollie is a whirlwind of energy and never seems to stop. She is always bursting with ideas and enthusiasm and she can never sit back and relax and just ease herself into her new job. It’s like she is always trying to prove herself and continually goes the extra miles to achieve her goals. She wants to impress Thea and put A New Chapter on the map as the bookshop to go to. I felt Thea did want Ollie working for her but she was apprehensive that Ollie was trying to do much to soon and was perhaps too aspirational in what she was trying to achieve. When we last left Thea she has just purchased the shop and nothing had been done to it but now the renovations are complete and from the descriptions it really did sound like a slice of bookshop heaven. I just wondered, due to the boisterous and over exuberant nature of Ollie, would her plans for events and promoting the shop just be too much? Would things spill over into disaster rather than success?
Being away from London gives Ollie time to think about in which direction she wishes her life to go in but her reckless side often over rules the more sensible side and really she needed to find that balance without offending people or worst of all losing the job she really was perfect for. Even Becky who works at the bookshop is not reluctant to show Ollie how she feels about her and all the plans she has but Ollie is determined to prove Becky and Thea wrong. That she can show them what potential there is with the bookshop and that doing things a little outside the norm may be good after all. Ollie gets to plan and as well as typing up Liam’s life story she is full of energy and plotting and planning lots of events and promotions and you can’t but admire her spirit and wish that you had as much drive as she did.
Ollie wants to feel less alone and to build a life in the town and above all else to make a difference at the bookshop and with her can do attitude and her bucketful of ideas in the run up to Christmas she is determined to prove her harshest critics wrong. It sounds awful to say but I almost was turned against Ollie at some points because of the attitudes of others especially Becky and I shouldn’t have felt that way and the further I read the more I felt ashamed for feeling like this. It sounds ridiculous to say that about a fictional character but it just shows how deeply invested I had become in Ollie’s story but also I was still so caught up in Thea’s dream of having a successful bookshop that I didn’t want Ollie to up scuttle things with over the top suggestions that could potentially go very wrong. But the more Ollie starts to instigate changes in the bookshop and come up with promotional ideas such as the cookery demonstration, the Christmas workshops and an event with a big author the more I really started to root for her. She shows she has a creative side, is productive and generous and is someone who never shies away from a challenge.
I have to say I loved the strand of the story that revolved around a set of books that Ollie came across by an author who wrote about the local area in a series of mystery books. It was like Ollie became a super sleuth and wanted to know more about this person when there was scant information about them and working the legends of the area into the story was just brilliant and had me glued to the pages dying to know more. I had a sneaking suspicion as to who it could be and I was proven right but the way this all came about was just so magical and apt and it brings a smile to your face. I can’t fail to mention Max, owner of the local cafe. He was such a support and so reassuring to Ollie and the reader can see that their friendship grows very strong and you become desperate for it to develop into something more. The adventures they go on and the help he gives Ollie were a joy to read about and I loved how this strand of the story was just so beautifully and naturally developed with a constant will they won’t they feeling throughout.
The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop was a fabulous festive read packed full of unforgettable characters, Christmas magic and sparkle and will certainly get you in the mood for the most exciting and wonderful time of year. You can tell just how much Cressida is enjoying writing this series and her love for the characters and the setting just spills off every page. I devoured this book in short order and know many readers will too. It’s the perfect book to read at this time of year so make sure you sit back and relax with a glass of something nice or even some Christmas chocolate and savour every moment of this wonderful story as you journey with a determined Ollie as she navigates a rocky path to both professional and personal happiness and fulfilment. Thankfully, this isn’t the last in the series as From Cornwall With Love will be published in June 2023. Not that I am wishing my life away or anything but I’m already looking forward to what in store for us with this new book.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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