Reviewed by Emma Crowley
All Freya has ever wanted to do is paint. So when she fails her Master’s Degree in Art, on the same day that her boyfriend decides he needs a ‘more serious’ partner, to Freya it feels like the end of the world.
Luckily, she has a saviour in the shape of best friend Lola, who invites her to the sleepy Cornish village of Polcarrow, to work in her café. With nothing keeping her in London, Freya jumps at the chance of a summer by the sea.
Freya needs time to focus on herself. But then dark and mysterious biker Angelo blows into town on a stormy afternoon, with his own artistic dreams and a secretive past, and Freya’s plans of a romance-free summer fly straight out of the window…
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for my copy of The Cornish Hideaway to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Cornish Hideaway by Jennifer Bibby is a delightful read from start to finish and I enjoyed it immensely. It tells the story of Freya whose ambition in life was to paint. Art and painting mean absolutely everything to her, she feels it’s her calling. So when she fails her masters degree in art her world comes crashing down. Now she has no money and no job and everything she had put into the degree was pointless and all her efforts were in vain. The one thing she does have whom she believes is a true constant is her boyfriend Matt but that element of her life is swept from under her feet just as quickly. She arrives home to his announcement that things are over. He says they have opposing personalities and whist he wants to get ahead in his work as a graphic designer, Freya just drifts along aimlessly pursuing her art thinking things will all fall into place and financial stability will become a reality for her. Frankly, he has had enough of supporting Freya and she needs to get a proper job and take some responsibility for herself.
All this happens within the first chapter or so, so to say life for Freya has imploded would be an understatement and instantly the reader feels pity for her. But as the book develops you can see that everything does happen for a reason and maybe the stars or in this case thanks to her friend Lola, the cards are aligning and the long-term plan for Freya has been set in stone. Yes, there will be many challenges ahead of her but the journey to reach her final destination proved to be an interesting, enjoyable and heart warming read. Freya feels like an epic failure. Her life has collapsed and the thing she loves most in the world- her art, well, she has more or less been told she is not good enough through her failing the degree. But maybe she was trying to conform to a form of art that was not for her? Perhaps her talents and love lay in another aspect of art? It’s clear she needs space and perspective to think about what her next move should be and that comes in the form of one of her best friends Lola. She is like Freya’s saviour as she provides her with a job in her new café in the tiny Cornish village of Polcarrow.
Lola had been like an itinerant travelling here there and everywhere. She is free spirited but has made the decision to settle down and run the café in the seaside village which is far from anywhere. I found Lola to be such a great support to Freya. She gave her a lifeline when she desperately needed one. The descriptions of the village were just beautiful and the jetty and the sea go on to play such a pivotal role in what I would call Freya’s recovery and finding herself again. I could visualise the sea, whitewashed cottages, waves, gulls, harbour and the beach and Lola’s café where some regular characters appear. I loved Alf and his dog Scruff not to mention the handsome vicar Tristan who catches someone’s eye. All of these characters add charm to the story. When Freya arrives in Polcarrow she has lost her spirit and sense of self worth but over time despite being tested she starts to believe in her art and her self once again and that’s all thanks to the friends she makes - one in particular although they too have their own emotional issues and instabilities to deal with.
When Lola reads Freya’s fortune cards they certainly throw up a surprise. They predict a man who is troubled. Yet a true soul connection is there despite the many challenges but there is a chance of love and happiness of she can trust him. For Freya, this sounds like a load of rubbish and really why would she want to be connected with someone who is troubled when she herself is trying to come to terms with what has just occurred in her life? At times you think Freya should just lay low, do her work in the café and engage with the people she meets but apart from that she should just reassess what has happened to her and try and figure out what she really wants to do in life despite how everything has fallen apart around her. Freya is angry with herself that she hadn’t the sense to see that her relationship had been dying for some time but now that she is by the sea she feels safe and secure. The friends she makes over time provide her with an internal calmness and she starts to think maybe she could stay in Polcarrow long term and pick up the brushes once again and see what springs forth from then.
But then the man of the cards arrives and things are changing once again for Freya. But is she too fragile to deal with what’s around the corner or will this person give her the strength she needs to make future decisions? Angelo arrives with the storm and is very elusive in what he gives away about himself. He lets the flat above the café and on the first night drinks himself into oblivion. Freya has a funny feeling she recognises him from somewhere and it soon clicks with her that Angelo once and still could be the biggest thing in the modern art world. He had it all and then he disappeared vanishing into obscurity. It remains one of the art world’s biggest mysteries. No doubt about it Angelo is definitely hiding something and he certainly lives up to his dark and brooding reputation. He can be mean, moody, volatile and snappy but you can see that that’s only because something is eating away at him and he can’t come to terms with it. Perhaps, Polcarrow would allow him to escape everything and he wouldn’t have to think about what is torturing him but the little village and Freya in particular will get under his skin and he won’t be allowed to wallow.
Angelo starts to help Alf restore his old boat for the Fisherman’s Fair and slowly he starts to reveal to Freya what has been troubling him. It’s a sad tale which he weaves but at times I just couldn’t help thinking is it just the troubled tortured artist reputation living up to its hype? Did he overact too much? Was it all in his head or were his fears and anxiety genuine? I felt with Freya everything that had happened to her was genuine but perhaps Angelo given his reputation and success as an artist just put far too much pressure on himself and it resulted in him acting in ways he had never imagined. You definitely feel the connection between the pair and the fortune cards are living up to what they have predicted but things aren’t always smooth sailing. As the mural for the church which was commissioned by Tristan and carried out by Angelo with some help from Freya is revealed at the fair things take an unsettling turn and Freya has to make some tough decisions.
Angelo really needed to drop his guard and show his true self to Freya. You could see from a mile off that they were perfect for each other. They complimented each other and their love of art united them. But Angelo is a very frustrating character and I felt this time and time again, Honestly, I just wanted to give him a big shake and say cop yourself on. I hated what he did in the last quarter or so of the book and he didn’t seem to have any redeeming features at all. Freya felt lost and afraid once again and whether she finds that elusive happiness or not that she has been searching for both in her personal and professional life you need to read this little gem of a book to discover the answers. I really hope Jennifer Bibby decides to write more stories set in Polcarrow because this really was a fabulous read and an impressive debut. You’ll be swept up in Freya’s story and will be sad to leave once you have read the final word.
No comments:
Post a Comment