Reviewed by Emma Crowley
It’s summer in Mulberry-on-Sea and with the arrival of warm, sunny evenings and happy tourists full of candy floss and ice cream, Bridget’s Bicycle Bakery has gone from strength-to-strength. There’s only one small croissant-shaped problem – her cosy kitchen isn’t big enough for all her delicious bakes!
The seaside-town’s old, boarded-up bakery would be perfect for Bridget’s scrumptious sausage rolls and sourdough loaves but she’ll have to breathe life and love into it, just the way she did with the local community. With the help of the her local friends and her gorgeous beau Jack, could Bridget’s Bakery dream be coming true, or is she about to wake up to a new surprise?
Many thanks to Harper Collins UK via NetGalley for my copy of A Summer Holiday at Bridget’s Bicycle Bakery to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Ever since I finished reading A Cosy Christmas at Bridget’s Bicycle Bakery when it was published around Christmas of 2021 and subsequently discovering that there would be a follow up I was absolutely delighted as I loved the first book so much. Fast forward to summer 2023 and now we have A Summer Holiday at Bridget’s Bakery. I’ll be 100% honest and say I was disappointed to discover that it was only a short story and given the long wait to continue reading Bridget’s adventures you couldn’t really blame me when I found out how short it was at under 90 pages. But look pushing this aside, hopefully there will be more from Bridget in the future and I found this to be a short and sweet story which I sped through and did enjoy even if it did leave me hankering for more.
Bridget has been back in her hometown of Mulberry on Sea with her young family for quite some time. She returned after the sudden death of her husband and financial pressures grew and grew. Luckily, her husband’s parents stepped in and offered her a small beach house in the town and she has resided there ever since. The bicycle bakery she set up has gone from strength to strength and Bridget is renowned for her bakes and cakes leading to demand outstripping supply. The business has long outgrown the beach house just like her children twins Olly and Oscar and daughter Freya. People come from miles around for her breads, pastries and delicious cakes, cookies and so much more. So when an opportunity appears to buy the derelict bakery in Mulberry on Sea she jumps at it with the backing of her family and boyfriend Jack.
With so many memories of the bakery from her childhood when it was run by Jilly, Bridget hopes she can recreate those and add her own touch of magic. The only problem is the council do not know who owns the building so it can’t be used for commercial gain. That doesn’t stop Bridget and I adored her idea of a community space to be run alongside the bakery. Given the short length of this story there wasn’t much room for extensive character development or really much to happen in terms of events but Alex Brown does manage to fit in what she can. Bridget is a fantastic character who came from the depths of grief and followed her dreams and made a new life for herself and her children and she did this all through her passion of baking and along the way she met some incredible characters. I loved the little side plot with herself and Jack even if I could guess straightaway what was going and yes it was predictable. As for the owner of the building well that brought a smile to my face for sure.
For me, A Summer Holiday at Bridget’s Bicycle Bakery was a tantalising teaser returning to Bridget’s world for the briefest of times. It’s a lovely, easy, super quick read but that feeling of wanting much more lingered once I had read the final word. Fingers crossed Alex Brown will be bringing us more from Bridget in the near future.
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