TBR Challenge: Debbie Johnson - Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe

Becca Fletcher has always hated Christmas but she has her reasons for being Little Miss Grinch. Now, though, she can’t avoid her version of ho-ho-hell – because she’s travelling to the Comfort Food Cafe to spend the festive season with her sister Laura and her family. She’s expecting mulled wine, 24-hour Christmas movie marathons and all kinds of very merry torture.
Little does Becca know that the Comfort Food Cafe is like no other place on earth. Perched on a snow-covered hill, it’s a place full of friendship where broken hearts can heal, new love can blossom and where Becca’s Christmas miracle really could happen – if only she can let it…

Comment: It's December and time for the last TBR Challenge review post. Well, I'm also including a last one with a summary in the following days but when it comes to the themes picked by month, this is the last one. For December the theme has been Holidays, which can encompass so many times of the year but, as usual, it's a lot easier to pick Christmas, even considering the amount of publications out there fitting the season. I also chose a Christmas read I had in the pile since last year.

In this cozy little romance, we have the story of Becca Fletcher, sister to heroine from book #1, which I've read last year.

Becca hasn't liked Christmas since she was a child, mostly because of the negative experiences she still remembers and how she was made to feel. After so many years, she still doesn't like the season and wishes for it to go away quickly but she is a little eager to be with her sister Laura and their parents in Dorset, where Laura now lives and is rebuilding her life.

Becca has seen how Laura suffered after her husband died but she is now moving on, so Becca wants to see how things are and she hopes she can absorb a bit of the holiday cheer and, perhaps, heal herself a little further too.

Although she hoped for the usual little things she knows people - in her opinion - endure during Christmas, she can't help but genuinely enjoying spending time with the Cafe's clients and she comes to care about them for the little while she's there. Of course, there is also the good looking guy her sister sent her photos of, but Becca has given up on all her vices... can she give in just for this one, though?

I've read the first book in this series back in the beginning of January of last year since that book was a Christmas gift. Despite not being the best book ever, I liked it enough to feel interested in getting this one and since it would be set during Christmas I thought it would be perfect for this month's theme.

This is a book with a very basic plot: Becca is one of those people who doesn't like Christmas and all the cheering that usually follows and her reasons are based on her past experiences, she has always had some negative memory of the time while her sister seemed to have loved it. Another detail that doesn't help is a traumatic situation she still hasn't fully processed so she went on to live a life of risks and vices, always sabotaging herself when it came to healing.

However, her views on everything changed when her sister dealt with her husband's death and we get to see how that affected Becca's attitudes and why she chose to become a different person but she doesn't other to notice so she hasn't explained not given indications she is not as wild as in her youth years.

Of course, this has all the hints to be one of those stories where true love and a cozy community are problem solvers. I don't usually mind the way some challenges are so easily solved by love in these types of books but in this story, even though we get Becca's version of events at some point, I felt the situation shouldn't have been that simple to solve or for Becca to come to terms with it so quickly.

I also think it's another one of those cases where a first person narrator didn't help. I didn't think Becca was easy to engage with, she was not such a captivating narrator that would make me feel commiseration for her woes. I mean, I feel sorry for her and I could imagine how heartbreaking her view on life was but that's because I can imagine, not because the writing sold me on that.

I'd also say the development of the story is as basic as it can get and none of the characters really seemed to have evolved from one point to another. I think it was a little too much of telling, quick moving on the plot's moments but for me there was not enough depth in how those situations were developed nor in how the characters were made to interact. The plot has all the bones to be a more emotional and complex story but I don't think that was achieved beyond the superficial.

Becca does share things, she does seem to come to terms with some of her past choices and consequences, she seems to become lighter as she stays near those who love her and those new friends she makes while around the cafe, just like we would expect from stories like this one, where setting and simply likable people make a good contrast to what was before.

However, part of the story also focuses on a romantic interest which, in my opinion, was not well done. I think the love interest never passed basics, just because they talked and went on walks together and were attracted is not enough reason for them to be in love. I could buy the idea they have a connection and they could exploit it and when the book ended, that was the feel I still had.

Regardless of this, though, the romantic relationship didn't convince me, and their I love yous at the end even less. I don't think there was enough development between them for the romance to be convincing and with Becca's "healing" in progress, the way the author chose to end things felt like everything happened too quickly and too convenient but I don't think they even spent enough time together on the page for it to be as sweet and special as I'm certain the intention was.

Thinking about the story in global terms, I liked some parts and some cute scenes, some moments when Becca understands and deals with emotions she was reluctant to face and I liked seeing where Laura from the first book is at now (emotionally speaking). But the story doesn't feel as balanced as it could, the romance was not convincing and I think the emotional situations regarding Becca could have been better developed.

Grade: 6/10

Debbie Johnson - Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe

The brand new book from best-selling author Debbie Johnson will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you raid the pantry in the middle of the night…
The Comfort Food Cafe is perched on a windswept clifftop at what feels like the edge of the world, serving up the most delicious cream teas; beautifully baked breads, and carefully crafted cupcakes. For tourists and locals alike, the ramshackle cafe overlooking the beach is a beacon of laughter, companionship, and security – a place like no other; a place that offers friendship as a daily special, and where a hearty welcome is always on the menu.
For widowed mum-of-two Laura Walker, the decision to uproot her teenaged children and make the trek from Manchester to Dorset for the summer isn’t one she takes lightly, and it’s certainly not winning her any awards from her kids, Nate and Lizzie. Even her own parents think she’s gone mad.
Her new job at the cafe, and the hilarious people she meets there, give Laura the chance she needs to make new friends; to learn to be herself again, and – just possibly – to learn to love again as well.
For her, the Comfort Food Cafe doesn’t just serve food – it serves a second chance to live her life to the full…

Comment: This book was a Christmas' gift and since I didn't want it to linger for too long in the pile - also to make the person who gave it to me realize I was serious about reading it - I decided to read it already. Yes, a bit unfair for all those other poor books in the TBR list...

In this book we meet widow Laura and her two children and how they decide to keep up with the holiday tradition of their family even after the death of David, Laura's husband. Although all miss him a lot, they know it's necessary to move on. 

Laura replies to a want notice for a job cooking in a cafe in Dorset and she is the one chosen, so Laura plans to go from Manchester to Dorset to work there for the summer and to allow her children to have a different time. The people they all find, however, do make a lasting impression and it seems Laura realizes she is ready to live again. But will the little things let her be herself again?

This is a sweet contemporary about moving on with one's life after a tragedy. I liked the slow way things were happening for Laura, when it comes to personal change, but the small community vibe and the holiday romance-turned serious didn't seem to be as balanced as I would hope for.

Laura is a widow and from her initial presentation we learn she and her husband were childhood sweethearts, they loved each other deeply and it's no shock to know after two years Laura is still mourning but she is also starting to smile more, laugh more, enjoy her children's antics and life around her differently. I liked there's no rush here, both for Laura's inner self and for her dealing with those around her. In a completely weird way, I actually would have liked her to delve more into her feelings of loss, her husband did seem to be too perfect and I wanted to hear more about their life together. I suppose this is why her subtle romance felt a bit off, I can't see how her feelings were changed enough for her to accept a new person even if she does say that, even with rational logic behind it.

The book is certainly more about Laura discovering herself again, mainly by working in a place where people know each other and where the small community seems to have a huge impact on the way things are done around there. It was sweet to meet the "regulars" and to know a bit about each one. However, I also can't ignore that the descriptions and interactions between characters did feel a bit too impersonal, too detached from the narrator's voice to the page. Perhaps the author intended this but for me there's some emotional impact missing from the characters' themselves. Nevertheless, I must say some situations in which everyone sees themselves being were interesting to read about and sad to the point of meaning something. 

The story is predictable but the author has managed to insert situations and details that are unique enough to give the reader the impression of more fulfilling things.  In the end, there are some surprises happening, which is great but it seemed they came out of nowhere and that seemed a bit fake. Still, this was a story with good scenes, even if some weren't as seamlessly inserted as they could.

At the end of the book we also have Laura doing something that isn't a surprise but I kind of liked how there's a feel of HFN more than a solid HEA. Maybe the next book will show news when it comes to these characters, even when they aren't the focus.

Grade: 7/10