A dream home
Beca Valentino is ready to escape the city. When she sees the perfect house for sale in her hometown, it seems like fate. Is this her chance to build the foster family she dreams of, on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast?
A big mistake?
Returning home isn't as easy as she thought, however. Her family's beloved ice cream café is gone - turned into a soulless wine bar by her hateful ex-boyfriend. Reconnecting with her oldest friend, fisherman Griff, isn't straightforward either. And when, instead of the children she expected to take in, two wary teenage boys appear on her doorstep, Beca fears she's made a terrible mistake.
A recipe for change
But an old family recipe book is just the inspiration she needs. Soon, with a little help from friends old and new, Beca is selling mouth-watering homemade gelato from a pop-up café on the beach.
Then disaster strikes. Will the Valentino family legacy be lost forever? Or can Beca create a new recipe for happiness?
I always look forward to a new Jo Thomas novel and I love
any books that feature a foodie business so when I saw Summer at the Ice Cream Café
I was full of excitement and wasted no time in diving straight in to meet our
protagonist Beca Valentino who is returning to her hometown after fleeing many
years ago.
So much has changed since she has left but the biggest
change of all is in her families old Ice Cream shop but one thing sure hasn’t changed,
the village gossip!
As Beca attempts to set her roots back down she battles with
that fine line of being a local and at the same time feeling like an outsider
but as she begins to try and help others to have a better life she soon finds
the comfort of friends are their to give their support.
As ever Jo Thomas is going to play havoc with those taste
buds as she teases us with mouth watering hand made gelato in a whole range of
flavours. We don’t have an exotic location to explore this time as we come to
expect from this author but instead we have a home comfort in our setting set
along the coast of Wales and for the storyline that is explored in this book
this setting was perfect as it provides distraction, familiarity and a safe
place, essentially a place to call home.
We have a great mix of personalities in this book and a mix
of generations too with characters who will touch your heart. Beca really had a
heart of gold and was a selfless character who does so much for others so you
can only wish for a happy ending for her too. Joe and Blake were both great
characters and I loved watching their barriers come down and see their trust
and enjoyment begin to blossom. I haven’t read many books that feature
fostering as a main subject matter in a book so I found this was a great
insight into the world of fostering from both sides of the coin, the thoughts
of the children as well as the nerves of the foster carer.
This really was a delightful novel from Jo Thomas, a little
different from her usual books but still full of delicious delights but added
to that a bucket full of love, nurturing. Hope and new beginnings.
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