Monday, November 14, 2016

The Little Village Bakery by Tilly Tennant

3 Star

Help yourself to a generous slice of Victoria sponge, a perfect cup of tea and a big dollop of romance. Welcome to the Little Village Bakery.

Meet Millie. Heartbreak has forced her to make a new start and when she arrives at the old bakery in the little village of Honeybourne she is determined that this will be her home sweet home. Her imagination has been captured by the tumbledown bakery but with no running water and dust everywhere, her cosy idea of making cakes in a rural idyll quickly crumbles.

Luckily the locals are a friendly bunch and step in to help Millie. One in particular, Dylan, a laid-back lothario, soon captures her attention.

But just as Millie is beginning to settle in, an unexpected visitor from her past suddenly turns up determined to ruin everything for her. It’s time for Millie to face the skeletons in her closet if she’s going to live the dream of running her little village bakery, and her blossoming romance with Dylan.

Kathryn - 3 Star

The Little Village Bakery (Honeybourne#1) drew me in immediately because I was instantly enamoured with Jasmine and her chaotic self. I found myself charging through the pages and loving the way the light romantic plot unfolded.

Perhaps the sweetest aspect of the novel was Dylan and his desire to reform his playboy ways and win over the un-wooable Millie. I was pleased by Dylan and Jasmine’s sibling relationship and their history had obviously cemented their bond into adulthood, which was touching- the fact that they lived in the same village was obviously not by accident.   Ruth was also a wonderful character- busybody but lonely neighbour in the village who just wanted to get into everybody’s business…she was a perfect caricature of herself.

I did have some trouble warming to Millie though. She didn’t bring with her a lot of information except to imply that she was on the run from her past. While her past is eventually explained I didn’t really glean enough from it to explain why she was in hiding- even with the appearance of her ex-sister in law. There was also some hinting at supernatural powers with Millie (and not simply an in depth knowledge about herbal medicine) and I was confused as to why this never played out in the story.
   
I enjoyed the novel and am eager to read the next one- hopefully having set the scene in the village the next novel will have a bit more impact for me on all the characters rather than just the few I felt from the first novel.  I feel perhaps I should go back and read other prior novels that may include Millie and her past? But I’m really eager to find out if Millie makes a success of her bakery in the next book.

Thank you to Bookouture for our review copy.  All opinions are our own.


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