2 Stars from me.

This is the first book in the series Porthmellow Harbour.

Sam Lovell lives in the small town of Porthmellow in Cornwall, and organizing the annual summer festival is her biggest job, apart from running her own mobile bakery. This particular year the organizers run into some trouble when their celebrity chef pulls out because of personal issues. Sam’s friend, Chloe, and fellow committee member, contacts Gabe Matthias and he agrees to be the celebrity chef instead. But Chloe is blissfully unaware of the history between Sam and Gabe. Despite their unpleasant parting of ways many years before, the two of them decide that they are perfectly capable of behaving reasonably in each other’s presence for the duration of the festival. Except that once they do lay eyes on each other, they secretly start wondering whether they can get their old magic back.

The festival and the need for a replacement chef, orchestrated by an ignorant Chloe, worked quite well to bring Sam and Gabe back into each other’s lives. I just feel that there wasn’t enough interaction between the two of them. A whole lot of time is dedicated to the festival, some pitfalls and other organizational issues. And while it is necessary for the plot to include these, I think it was maybe a bit too much. I would have liked to see more of Sam and Gabe together before they finally decided to bury the hatchet. And couldn’t her brother have talked to Sam himself once he had pulled his life back together and explained everything to her?

I wasn’t all that invested in Sam and Gabe getting back together. The story with Chloe and her daughter was a bit more interesting.

Sadly, I have to say this wasn’t the most exciting read, though I did enjoy reading some of the (what I assume are) local Cornish colloquialisms.

I received an advanced copy of the book from Netgalley to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Was I hooked by this book? A little bit.

Genre: Contemporary Romance