FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE #1 BESTSELLING THE CORNER SHOP IN COCKLEBERRY BAYMILLY JOHNSON SAYS: ‘A SUNNY, FUNNY, LOVELY STORY GUARANTEED TO WARM THE COCKLES OF YOUR HEART’ “This book is so addictive that you will literally lose 3 hours of your life, and you won’t care!” Cara’s Book Boudoir“It’s one of my favourite books of this year so far.” That Thing She Reads“Incredibly well written, this book has … written, this book has completely got under my skin, highly recommended.” Top 500 reviewer
“I found this to be an enjoyable, fun, edgy and not your normal light and fluffy chick lit read – more please!!!” Goodreads
The cast of the runaway bestseller, The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay, are back – including Rosa, Josh, Mary, Jacob, Sheila, new mum Titch and, last but by no means least, Hot, the adorable dachshund.
Newly wed, and with her inherited corner shop successfully up and running, Rosa Smith seems to have all that anyone could wish for. But the course of true love never did run smooth and Rosa’s suspicions that her husband is having an affair have dire consequences.
Reaching rock bottom before she can climb back up to the top, fragile Rosa is forced to face her fears, addiction and jealousy head on.
With a selection of meddling locals still at large, a mystery fire and Titch’s frantic search for the real father of her sick baby, the second book in this enchanting series will take you on a further unpredictable journey of self-discovery.
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I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.
This book is the second in the Cockleberry series. It is a standalone book but it has numerous references to events which I presume occurred in the first book. I have not read the first book and had no trouble immersing myself in the small village and its quirky characters.
In order to like this book, you will have to empathize, sympathize, and accept the main character Rosa – with all her trust, abandonment and self-loathing issues. She is a completely well rounded character with very deep flaws and a very fragile exterior who has to learn how to navigate through life without constantly getting in her owm way and thereby sabotaging her own happiness. This is a wonderful story of self-discovery and self-love with lots of humor thrown in for balance. My only drawback, and this is likely because I haven’t read the first book, was that Josh was a bit one-note to me and he basically disappears for half the book – which I understood but which added to my assessment of him being flat while all the other characters were so vibrant in comparison.
The narrator, Danielle Cohen, was great. She did a wonderful job in conveying Rosa’s pain, anger and jealousy through her voice.
DIFFERENT GOOD SYORY
My Rating:
4.5
Favorite Quotes:
‘… how does a blind date grab you?’ ‘You’re talking to someone who hasn’t been grabbed for years.’
Just as love isn’t an emotion, it isn’t ruled by a stopwatch either.
My Review:
Nicola May has a keen sense of humor and I revel in her wicked clever wit and wry levity. The storylines were engaging and relatable and cast with a small village full of odd and quirky characters. The scene-stealer and real star of the show was, of course, the precious and precocious Hot, Rosa’s rescued dachshund who was cleverly dubbed Hot Dog as he was technically stolen from an abusive owner.
Rosa keeps messing up with her new marriage to the patient and perfect Josh. She keeps messing up because she is messed up, and then her extreme and self-destructive behaviors mess everything up, big time. Apparently, Rosa doesn’t do anything by halves. Yet she has a good heart and a commitment to self-improvement; it would extremely difficult not to appreciate her as a whole despite her self-sabotage, runaway mouth, and serious issues with wine. Hmm, come to think of it, Rosa and I could be related…
This is another great read by Nicola May!!! She has given us a fantastic rom com that isn’t superficial…it’s really an in-depth story of self-discovery!
All the charming and not-so-charming characters are back! Rosa is a newlywed, married to the sweet and sexy Josh. Titch is now a new mother but without a partner to help raise her sweet baby boy!
The chapters in the beginning and some throughout the book are told in different POVs, but mostly it is told by Rosa. As we all found out in the first book, Rosa has some baggage that she has brought into her new marriage. She has a lot of self-doubt and serious trust issues which greatly affects her marriage to Josh. They come to find out that each one of them isn’t perfect. That is what I like about Rosa’s character. She is flawed. At times, I like her, and at times, I want to slap her for her bad decisions. Yet, I can understand why she is acting the way she is. She has to find a way to fix her own life before fixing her life with Josh. She is incredibly lucky to have Josh by her side. The man had patience I’m not sure I would have. They will have to work hard to keep their marriage on track.
I loved when the book began being divided into seven life lessons Rosa had to learn. She had to learn to have some “self-esteem” and learn to like herself. She had to face her “fear” of abandonment. She needed to find her own “identity.” She had some issues with “motherhood,” dealing with her past and the children she and Josh might have in the future. She needed to deal with her “jealousy” which came out of her trust issues. Finally, she had to learn to “love” herself before loving Josh. It was an incredible journey of self-discovery for her.
Titch also had some soul-searching to do. She was a new mother with no partner to help her. She had to find Theo’s father because he was sick. Some of Rosa’s past partners show up to create havoc, and then there is the mystery fire…what you get is an incredible read!!!!