Having read the first book in this series I thought I would give the second book a try. This was just not for me. Caroline and Jonathan were both terrible characters. Their lack of romance was very strange and I'm still not sure how they ended up in a relationship. This book seems to follow the same formula as the first in the series. Woman meets man in a meet cute way, they kind of like each other and start to get intimate, man gets angry or withdraws from speaking to the woman for weeks, woman wonders what she's done wrong, man realizes he wants the woman back and grovels, and they end up married.

Throw in some poorly written sex scenes and a strange drug dealer and that's the book in a nutshell. I did not find this romantic or cosy or sexy, mostly confusing. I did enjoy reading the updates on Anna and Matthew from the first book

Caroline Hemingway has a one-night stand with her sister-in-law Anna's new brother-in-law Johnathan Carter at Anna's wedding to Matthew. Unfortunately the next day he offers her a job managing the new restaurant which the family is building to showcase their cider and local produce. I have to say I was a little confused by that because Caroline's experience was in organising events, not running a restaurant.

Caroline's reasons for leaving her old job are very mysterious and involve a man - the reader is left to speculate what happened. As the restaurant opens Johnathan and Caroline dance around each other - but he has commitment issues and she thinks it would be tacky to be having an affair with the boss.

I liked this book but I didn't love it. It is clearly a sequel to Anna and Matthew's story, which I have not read, whilst it could be read as a stand-alone easily, there was a lot of typing up loose ends for Anna and Matthew in this book. I think the characters didn't really jump out of the page at me and I couldn't really see why Caroline and Johnathan thought they were in love with each other, they didn't seem to even know each other very well. Maybe if I had read the first book I would have got more of an insight into their characters.

Review will be up on my blog 01/01/18 - thecosiestcorner.blogspot.com

This is the first novel I've read by Fay Keenan - and I absolutely loved it. I hadn't actually read the first one in the series, but that didn't matter at all because even though some of the characters from the first one are in this one, it's based on someone completely different and is about their story, so it's easy to read and understand - not confusing at all.

What drew me in to this story was indeed the cover. I absolutely love the colours used - I've always loved the colours pink and green together - and together they make such a stunning and vibrant cover. I also really fell in love with the blurb of the book, I love stories about cafes and restaurants in the country so this seemed like the perfect book for me. I wasn't proved wrong. I just really enjoyed the whole storyline.

The second Little Somerby novel in the series follows main character Caroline - after she moved to the village to manage the new restaurant The Cider Kitchen. Along the way, Caroline thinks part of her past has followed her back to the village in order to make her new life there hell. Caroline does everything she can to stop this from happening but it proves difficult. Then main hero and Carolines boss, Jonathan steps in and helps put things right again.

Caroline and Jonathan hit it off from the beginning of the novel, but decided to keep things professional between them - however this obviously proves difficult as it's clear from the story that they are both falling in love with each other and they have a deep passion for each other and you desperately want them to put their differences aside and get together. This is a really lovely story, although sometimes I found it a bit difficult to relate to Caroline, I really felt for her and what she was going through and I just wanted to see her with a happy ending. She'd gone through so much in her life that you can understand why she done what she did.

Overall, a brilliant novel by Fay Kennan. I will definitely be reading more of her novels. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for a chance to read this novel, which I have reviewed honestly.