Sarah Bennett makes her first appearance at the blog today with the first in her Lavender Bay series: set on the British Coast. Please read on for my review of
Spring at Lavender Bay
Beth is having a rough month: missing her friends back in Lavender Bay, frustrated with work and a dotard for a boss, a depressing bed-sit that takes much of her salary and still wondering how to explain to her absent but very overly critical mother that she’s not got the ‘boyfriend of her mother’s dreams’ after all. And then, the biggest hit: Eleanor, the woman who took her in as a teen and provided her with love, acceptance and security has died, and left her a shop and apartment on the towns promenade. Hating her job, and dreaming just a little bit, she thinks that perhaps she can run the shop and be among friends in the only place that ever felt like home to her, despite disappointing her mother now a charter member of the botox-bridge club in Florida where she lives with her new-ish husband.
Coming home where her best friend Libby is running the Fish & Chip shop with her father, next door to her other best friend Eliza’s parents’ pub, where her brother Sam has stepped in as his father is ill, with plenty of skype time (and several visits from Eliza – now married and living ‘away’, and not really happy) she’s back home with a mountain of decisions to make, and plenty to learn. And when you add Sam into the mix, Eliza’s older brother who always looked out for her, but now is looking out for her and causing all sorts of unsettling feelings – she’s certain he’s only wanting to be a friend, despite the lingering looks and a mad kiss….
Bennett takes readers through the changes for Beth: her fears about being able to run the shop, all she needs to learn, her worries about ‘failing’ and even her moments of utter despair when she discovers her ex is marrying and her mother, never supportive in the best of times, will lose her mind when she learns that Beth wants to stay in Lavender Bay. With a penchant for running when the going gets tough, it takes Sam to drag her back and show her that home, or the home she wants, is in her grasp, and while she mightn’t have the family she hoped for growing up – she has a chance to build her life in ways that she had only dreamed of growing up – if only she’d take it. This was a story that was full of friendship, support, caring and a solid sense of place and home: allowing readers to cheer on Beth, sigh over Sam’s loving care for her, enjoy her friends and yearn for the support that the community brings to one of their own.
Title: Spring at Lavender Bay
Author: Sarah Bennett
Series: Lavender Bay #1
Also in this series: Summer at Lavender Bay, Snowflakes at Lavender Bay
Genre: Contemporary Woman's Fiction, Setting: Britain
Published by: HQ Digital
ISBN: 9780008281328
Published on: 2 February, 2018
Format:eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Pages: 205
Audio Length: 7 Hours: 45 minutes
Rated:
Heat:
Get Your Copy: Amazon ♦ Barnes&Noble ♦ iTunes ♦ Kobo ♦ Google ♦Audible A season for change…?Beth Reynolds loved growing up close to Eleanor’s Emporium – a bric-a-brac shop full of wonders on Lavender Bay. Devastated to learn that Eleanor has died, she returns home from London immediately and is shocked to discover that the elderly lady has left the shop to her!
Vowing to restore it to its former glory, she only intends to stay until the end of the season. Although the longer she spends in the colourful seaside town, the more she falls back in love with everything she left behind…and quite possibly, with her best friend Eliza’s older brother, local chef Sam Barnes!
Why didn’t she notice he was quite this gorgeous before? And will their spring fling be enough to convince her to stay?
A copy of this title was provided via Publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
4 responses to “Spring at Lavender Bay: Lavender Bay #1 by Sarah Bennett”
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What a lovely review – I’m so pleased you enjoyed Spring at Lavender Bay – thank you!
A lovely coming home story – thank you for the opportunity!
This sounds like the perfect story on a day when it looks like spring will never come. We had sleet and hail on Easter Sunday. We’re getting warmer, now, but it’s still gloomy and rainy.
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It’s windy and blowy outside here today – no snow but the pollen has come out with a vengeance here in Georgia…. so it was a perfect hide from the yellow plague book for sure – and I love the whole lavender tie in – it’s a favorite scent / scenery for me only slightly edged out by heather.
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