Retreating further and further from normal life, she moves to the end of the earth--the remote tidal island of Mount Polbearne, at the foot of Cornwall, hoping for peace and solitude, whilst carrying on her job as a registrar, dealing with births, weddings, and deaths, even as she feels life is passing her by.
Unfortunately--or fortunately?--the solitude she craves proves elusive. Between her noisy Russian piano-teaching neighbor, the bustle and community spirit of the tiny village struggling back to life after the quarantine, and the pressing need to help save the local bakery, can Marisa find her joy again at the end of the world?
Comment: This is the fourth installment in the Little Beach Street Bakery series by Jenny Colgan. I assume the idea was to have had the series as a trilogy only, and then this book was planned, featuring a different heroine, and not Polly, who was the focus of the previous stories.
This book presents us Marisa Rossi, a competent woman who has been dealing with depression for a while, being the death of her grandfather the obvious trigger. Marisa doesn't feel like doing much beyond the basics and at work this has been tricky to deal with. One day, her roommate convinces her to move to Mount Polbearne, claiming it was a quieter place, where she could be in peace, instead of in their busy apartment, since he has plenty of guests all the time. Marisa decides to go thinking precisely about that, the supposed silence and quietness, but when she bravely travels and arrives at the cottage assigned to her, she finds out she has a very close neighbor, who happens to be a composer and a piano teacher! Silence isn't exactly what she is getting, but can this be a way to bring her out of her shell?
Thinking about the previous books in the series, focused mostly on Polly, I've realized the first was quite engaging and the following two a little less, because they seemed to be about Polly dealing with worries and problems. This made the books realistic, kind of, but not as positive as I imagined. Due to this, my expectations weren't as high regarding this one, even more so when the cover is so cute and happy looking...
Well, my expectations proved right for the most part. The book is divided into two parts, and in the first Marisa (and Polly and Huckle too in a different way) isn't at her best, she is dealing with her depression and although this is not easy to read - certain things did resonate with me, not to the extend Marisa shows, but some of her "thoughts"... who hasn't had them once or twice in life - Marisa was still able to cope and she had to have some interactions, which means she wasn't at her limit. Since she had to deal with her neighbor, a few situations were clearly plot devised, but I also liked she could talk to her grandmother via SKYPE and this helped her more than she could imagine.
Personally, I felt the time taken to set up the situation Marisa is in, and her feelings was both good and bad. Good because then her going from that to something more positive is believable, and bad because it does suggest a certain vibe, and it isn't always that comfortable to read about something like this, especially if, as I've said, a few things might resonate with things the reader might have thought too. Despite this, the author did try to change things and from the second part on, Marisa starts being more active, she starts doing more things and a few situations were even funny.
Polly and Huckle and the others are always around, but this time as definitely secondary characters. I'd say that, besides Marisa, another key character is Alexei, a Russian who is there to be a piano teacher but mainly to work on his own music. Alexei is described as a"bear of a man" and the author tried to make him come across as quirky and a little clumsy, which was mostly well done, I think. There is always this hint that he and Marisa might be a couple, but the idea only gains power closer to the end. Evidently, those looking for a sweet charming romance might feel they got it, but it's not a quick situation, at all.
The same way it happened in the previous books, there is also a key plot moment here to advance things along. This time, it is a storm which is going to affect almost everyone and, of course, the community joins efforts to help, and Marisa also helps, which finally makes her feel part of something. More or less at the same time, having Italian roots and enjoying cooking, it was to be foreseen that Marisa would help Polly with food somehow. Obviously, this works out well...
There are a couple more strong situations to deal with before the end of the novel, where we get to see the evolution of the relationships between some characters and where a few decisive scenes take place, but I will say that, despite the book ending in a happy tone and with a cute epilogue, my feelings about it never really abated from the initial one. This doesn't have to be bad, but yes, it can be as depressing as Marisa's emotions at times.
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