Can Fay find the strength to make a life-changing decision - even if it means giving up the thing she loves the most? Life, love and family are about to collide in The Cake Shop in the Garden.
Slow, old fashioned summer read with good sub-characters.
Very much outside of my comfort zone, but I really wanted to try and read something light and summery as my brain was overloaded with other bits and pieces. I loved the idea and decided that this would be a nice one to read in the sunshine.
I didn't mind that Matthews had created a really twee concept - Fay runs a cafe in her home by the canal and sells cakes from the narrowboat that she inherited from her late father. I thought that maybe there would have been more emphasis on the baking, sights and smells of the cafe. It would have been nice for recipes to be inserted into the novel as you read through it, particularly as Mary Berry has left her endorsement on the front cover. However, despite the lack of description, we still get a feel for the idyllic surroundings that Fay is tied down to.
The issue that I had with this book was that the main protagonists were really weak and fairly one dimensional. Fay is a very naive 44 year old who is going on 70 and thinks that her life is over - and the man that's caught her eye - Danny - is much younger than her, has left his busy business lifestyle and friends for the quiet life of the canal (for a reason not really explained properly) and it just isn't believable.
The sub-characters were more interesting and were much more well rounded, which was nice. I enjoyed reading about Stan, and even Anthony (who is supposed to be a dull character) had more to him than Fay which I'm sure wasn't intentional.
In all it was a slow, easy summer read without much to it which was what I expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment