Jenny Colgan - Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery

Summer has arrived in the Cornish town of Mount Polbearne and Polly Waterford couldn't be happier.
Because Polly is in love: she's in love with the beautiful seaside town she calls home, she's in love with running the bakery on Beach Street, and she's in love with her boyfriend, Huckle.
And yet there's something unsettling about the gentle summer breeze that's floating through town. Selina, recently widowed, hopes that moving to Mount Polbearne will ease her grief, but Polly has a secret that could destroy her friend's fragile recovery. Responsibilities that Huckle thought he'd left behind are back and Polly finds it hard to cope with his increasingly long periods of absence.
Polly sifts flour, kneads dough and bakes bread, but nothing can calm the storm she knows is coming: is Polly about to lose everything she loves?

Comment: This is the second installment in the Little Beach Street Bakery series. I've enjoyed reading the first book and, of course, now I'll have to finish the series.

In this second story, Polly and Huckle and everyone on Mount Polbearne is settled in just as we've seen the previous book, but then news come which change everything. Polly's landlady and owner of the building where her beloved bakery is has died and now Polly worries how things will be, for who is taking charge is one of her nephews, whom Polly meets at the funeral and he doesn't seem too keen on how Polly is doing things... at the same time, Selina, the widow of one of the fishermen who was so well liked by the population, is back.  Polly doesn't know what to do, since she still carries the secret of her unknowingly affair with that fishermen, before she learned he was married. Now he is dead but his widow is back and, it turns out, maybe she can be someone Polly could be friends with... then Huckle's brother shows up and he is told things aren't going well back home, and what can Huckle do?

Problems seem to pile up in Polly and Huckle's lives, but will Mount Polbearne help those in need?

In terms of writing and "voice" nothing to point out at this novel, the reading experience is as satisfying as it was in regards to pretty much all the books by the author I've read so far, and since the events here start almost immediately after what happened in the first book, it is quite easy to go back to the same place one was while reading that other story.

However, I must say that things here had, for a large amount of the book, a decidedly depressing flavor and it seemed as if the problems or the negativity of the worse case scenarios were led to quite a peak. I suppose I can accept that reality rarely goes as smoothly and cheerily as found in cozy romances, but it was still a little joyless to read through certain chapters, especially because it is a given things would improve., but the road leading there not that fun, no.

Polly and Huckle got together and now live in the lighthouse which needs a lot of work. The idea was quite romantic at first and putting an offer on it was validation Polly could and would be rewarded all her efforts in the first book. But now reality intruded and it is a lot more difficult to manage than what she imagined. Nevertheless, this small issue isn't so much of a problem because everything else goes smoothly. Of course, more trouble arises and it felt as if the author wanted to show how adversity could be conquered and all that, but to me it was a bit too much, perhaps.

The success of the Little Beach Street Bakery was established in the first book, even though it didn't originate a lot of profit, but now the owner passed away and her sister passes down ownership to her son Malcolm, who we immediately realize won't go that well. I thought the purpose of this situation would be to compare what is with what that strange man would attempt, but he would fail and Polly would prove dedication and talent and friendliness do count more than profit schemes. Well, I guess this is what we can grasp at the very end, but the process was way harsher on Polly than what i'd imagine.

Again, reality is far from what we see in books but it seemed Polly had to face all the bad things possible and I should confess that the final change of mind of Malcolm didn't feel something organic, meaning something he would have realized on his own, but was the consequence of another natural disaster which affected Mount Polbearne. I feel a little irritated by this, not that serious issues should not be discussed - and how I have complained about precisely this about so many novels - but to achieve balance well can be the hardest part.

Both Polly and Huckle see themselves in need to solve the problems in their lives and this also creates a division between them, more so when Huckle needs to travel back to America. This does make sense, who might not need to makes sacrifices for an achievable goal? But, obviously, this exacerbates the tension and the distance doesn't help, so this is yet another issue. Then they decide to invest in a van when Polly's job at the bakery is over and there's also Selina, there's Huckle's brother not meeting his responsibilities... all piles up. Even Neil the puffin goes through some problems! It did feel as if all the bad things were happening to Polly and I felt a bit stressed and sad reading some passages.

Then, closer to the end, things start to improve as one would expect and I'm definitely glad things end up in a good vibe, but I would say the majority of this novel has a somber tone to it and while I can appreciate the ideas and the consideration regarding what really means to face adversity and trust oneself and all that, my enjoyment of the story line wasn't that great. This does not lower the author's ability for storytelling nor writing skill, but... yes, for me this was not as fulfilling as the previous book.

Grade: 7/10