As you may know, I am doing a reading challenge this year – and whilst some of the categories are easy – others are slightly more tricky! The first one is ‘A book recommended to you by a librarian’ – now, I rarely go to the library (not because of germs – which was the reason my Nan wouldn’t let my Dad borrow books when he was younger) but because I use my Kindle, or books friends have lent me, so there isn’t much reading space left to justify borrowing any. Anyway, one of my friend’s used to be a librarian (I initially typed Libran, which isn’t correct, she’s a Scorpio) and is a big Jill Mansell fan – so I’m shoe-horning this into that category. I downloaded it after Jill Mansell herself highlighted on Twitter that it was only 99p (in fact, it still is – but today is the last day so you need to move quickly!) – and with my credits from accepting Amazon Prime deliveries later than the next day – it was FREE!
Here is the Amazon blurb:
“Jill Mansell’s bestseller THE UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE is an unforgettable tale of sunny days on the beach, Cornwall in the summer and secrets about to be revealed. Perfect for readers of Lucy Diamond and Veronica Henry.
In the idyllic seaside town of St Carys, Sophie is putting the past firmly behind her.
When Josh arrives in St Carys to run the family hotel, he can’t understand why Sophie has zero interest in letting any man into her life. He also can’t understand how he’s been duped into employing Sophie’s impulsive friend Tula, whose crush on him is decidedly unrequited.
St Carys has more than its fair share of characters, including the charming but utterly feckless surfer Riley Bryant, who has a massive crush on Tula. Riley’s aunt is superstar author Marguerite Marshall. And Marguerite has designs on Josh’s grandfather…who in turn still adores his glamorous ex-wife, Dot…
Just how many secrets can one seaside town keep?”
This is a lovely easy read, following the lives and loves of a number of main characters all based around St Carys in Cornwall.
Excitingly (I know, I need to get out more!) some of the initial part of the book is set in Birmingham, where I live – although actually in Aston, which is definitely not where I live – but it’s still nice for Brum to get a name check, even if Tula can’t escape it quickly enough!!
I liked all of the characters, and you were rooting for there to be happy endings throughout the twists and turns of the storylines.
The setting in Cornwall is great – you really get the feel of the place.
It was also very poignant that I read this the same night as Rio Ferdinand’s documentary on ‘Being Mum and Dad’ was on – not a major storyline in the book, but still seemed a spooky coincidence.
This isn’t high brow literature – but is a perfect, escapist read which I devoured in less than 24 hours in my sick bed (I was asleep for quite a lot of those 24 hours too!).
I was excited to see Jill’s next book was also set in St Carys – and so thought it might carry on where this one left off – as it would be fabulous to see how the characters developed – but it looks like the new book is based around new people, so guessing the old guard may only get a fleeting mention rather than being a full sequel. But I will definitely be reading more Jill Mansell in the future – so thank you ex-librarian friend for the top tip!!
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