Monthly Archives: May 2024

My Not So Perfect Summer By Phoebe MacLeod

Autumn’s summer is off to a smashing start… sort of.

Earlier this year, Autumn’s life looked great: she had a great relationship with her brilliant teenage daughter Chloe and from September she was all set to be Deputy Head at the London school where she works. And with a pay rise on the cards, she was excited for her and her long-term boyfriend Marc to buy their first home.

But Autumn’s barely opened the estate agent’s website when Marc vanishes with half their savings, leaving her no choice but to move into grandma’s rural home in Kent. And things go from bad to worse when Autumn is involved in an accident during the move, leaving the village’s dashing new baker Jake in plaster cast, and making her a local outcast before she’s even unpacked her bags.

Determined to put things right, Autumn offers to help Jake in the bakery over the summer holidays. But as things heat up in the kitchen, Autumn can’t help noticing that Jake is a lot more Paul Hollywood and a lot less Mr Kipling than she originally thought.

Maybe this summer isn’t such a write off after all?

The Goddesses Of Kitchen Avenue By Barbara O’Neal

A loving wife and a mother of three accomplished children, forty-six-year-old Trudy Marino has an uncomplicated life—until she’s blindsided by her husband’s affair. But in Trudy’s close-knit neighborhood, she’s not alone in navigating the sudden surprises in a woman’s life.

Her neighbor Roberta has just lost her husband of sixty-two years and struggles with bittersweet memories and grief. Roberta’s granddaughter Jade is a divorcée who has taken up a cathartic new hobby to get over her cheating ex. And there’s Shannelle, whose creative aspirations are fracturing her marriage.

Then Trudy meets Angel, a sensual young man with the vulnerable heart of a poet who awakens her to invigorating new sensations. With a bracing confidence and three dear friends coming together in confusion, anger, and hope, Trudy is encouraged to take control of her life, to reflect on the choices she didn’t make, and to fulfill the youthful dreams she abandoned. As a new world opens up, Trudy can only marvel at where to go from here.

Sisters In Paradise By Carolyn Brown

Sometimes the only way to find true happiness is to go back home.

Ophelia Simmons is back home at the Paradise—the former brothel where her mom raised her and six sisters—contemplating her next career move and dodging Great Aunt Bernie’s matchmaking attempts. She is about to meet her match in Jake Brennan, the ruggedly handsome owner of a local winery where Aunt Bernie convinces her to take a job for the summer. At first Ophelia and Jake’s personalities clash, but soon enough sparks start flying.

Meanwhile, older sister Tertia Simmons also returns home to look for a new job. Tertia never thought she’d work for, let alone fall for, Noah Sullivan—the boy who once taunted her when they were kids. But when he offers her the job of her dreams in his new café, Tertia finds herself torn between her head and her heart.

As the sisters navigate the ups and downs of love and career with the help of their outrageous great aunt and the rest of the close-knit family, they learn that love can be found in the most unexpected of places—including their own hometown.