BLURB:

After trials, tears and a torturous break-up, Kitty Appleby has finally found where she’s meant to be. Tumbledown Sandcastle Cottage, in the delightful seaside village of Firefly Common, is home, and Kitty’s eccentric band of friends and neighbours are enjoying a glorious summer.

There’s just one tiny little problem. Sandcastle Cottage doesn’t belong to them. And Mavis Mullholland, Kitty’s landlord, is on her way home from her round-the-world cruise . . .

Kitty can’t bear to lose the communitythat’s welcomed her in. But secretly, she can’t bear to leave Sandcastle Cottage without finding out more about the mysterious and enigmatic Vinny . . . Why can’t she stop thinking about him, when she’s faced with losing everything?

MY THOUGHTS:

Thanks to Secret Readers, Quantified Reading, and Headline Accent for letting me read this book prior to its publication.

I started reading this book thinking I was going to find a light, feel-good summer read. And yes, the story is cute, but also disappointing.

The beginning of the book was too slow, so slow that it started to feel boring. I was tempted to quit reading, but I persevered just in case something would start happening. But no. Zero action, zero real suspense, and the story was so predictable that it was hard to stay focused on the book.

As for the characters, Kitty is one of the most annoying main characters I have read about in quite a while. The rest of the characters were either too cliché or too cartoonish. I understand the idea was to make the reader laugh, but it was too over the top.

And the ending was predictable, too convenient, and not realistic at all. I know it is fiction, but it was too much. I just don’t like it when everything gets sorted out as by magic and in the most convenient manner.

I guess as a book to read at the beach is not too bad, but I just found it too boring.

So, for all of that, I give this book… 3 TEA CUPS!