A real feel-good book, based around a farm trying, and succeeding, to diversify after Rachel’s father dies. This has some lovely recipes that I must try, particularly as Christmas is coming, which is when the book is set. A lovely story based in Northumberland, snow, Christmas, presents, food, drink and love - what more could you want?

Loved this seasonal, cosy read. The story was good and the characters were great. Loved the idea of having recipes in the book and I can't wait to try the Irish cream cheesecake!
Will be looking forward to catch up with Rachel and her family again soon.
A perfect feel good book, to curl up in front of a lot fire!

The first thing coming to mind is the main character, Rachel. She's 24, mom and owner of a farm. I'm 27, mom and can hardly handle my own household? You bet your asses I looked up to her from the start, haha. In a way, it was weird reading about such a young character. Especially since I expected it to be all about the romance, but looking back.. it didn't really influence my reading experience.

The baking-aspect! Boy! There are several recipes throughout the book. Apart from getting me motivated to start baking again, they also caused me to get hungry at the most random moments. I even skipped some because I just.. couldn't cope with getting all focused on "needing food" at times, haha.

I liked the baking aspect, I liked the recipes even more, but.. I sometimes got annoyed by how often people talked about baking stuff. It started to feel a bit over the top at some point and once I focused on it.. Yup, ruined. It was worst during the first fifth of the book or something. It felt like it was better after that.

Writing-wise, this book wasn't really my cup of tea. The conversations often felt forced and unnatural which made it harder for me to pick it back up. It should flow, right? Well.. It didn't. To top things off, everything was described in a very detailed way. Sometimes it helped the story, but at other times it backfired completely by being unnecessary. Some conversations could've easily been edited out as well since they added nothing to the story or relationships.

Then there's the romantic aspect. Instead of seeing characters deal with everything, you get a whole lot of baking and farm stuff and I really expected a beautiful budding romance. I mean, if you read the synopsis, that's what you'd anticipate, right? Wrong. Let's summarize: New flame, certain event raises questions, characters do nothing about it for weeks, then finally talk about it. And they're on neighboring farms. How do you even do that? How do you cope? How is this realistic? It's not.

This, then, ties together with Rachel's being. She knows things are off with certain people, she mulls it over in her head to then.. do nothing. I'm more the "let's talk about it right now"-kind of person, so I got frustrated a lot.. I repeat, a lot.

2 / 5

Unable to give feedback as issues with this and several other titles and unable to download another copy

Rachel is trying to do it all, run a farm, run a new business and be a full time single mum. But financially things have become a bit of a strain. While trying to bring new trade to the Pudding Pantry, Rachel dreams up a new idea. What if people were to come along to the cafe and learn how to make desserts and have a chat about their favourite recipes?

Along with everything that is happening at home, Rachel is navigating a new relationship with the neighbouring farmer Tom. With all the juggling Rachel is finding it difficult to spend time with Tom, and now his ex wife has just turned up again.

Christmas is sure to be one to remember.

There were a few aspects of the book that didn’t have a natural conclusion, therefore I thought there were a few loose ends that needed to be tied up. However this book was a sweet read. I haven’t read the first in the series, but I think this stands alone and it was full of recipes that I have noted down for the future.

Another lovely read. Great characters and I love the idyllic setting they live in. It’s a hard life though, and I enjoyed finding out what had happened since we last met them. It was realistic- no sailing off into the sunset for Rachel and Tom, just hard work and life getting in the way. The writing annoyed me at times, I guess in that part of the country they do say “petal” all the time, but how annoying. A lot of repetitive writing, repeating what we already knew, but it didn’t spoil the lovely story. The scene setting was great, and the feeling that you’re part of this lovely family. I did feel that the story with Tom’s ex was left hanging, hopefully that will be cleared up in the next book. A real laugh out loud moment with Maisy on the phone to her dad on Christmas Day. And as for the recipes- I can’t wait to try them. I am looking forward to the next one.

I do love a Christmas story, this one is about Rachel and her daughter, mum and grandmother.

We meet Rachel, who’s dad died suddenly a couple of years earlier struggling with all of the responsibilities of running a farm and cafe. They are getting towards the end of her first summer running the cafe with her mum & business is starting to slow down. There is a worry about the finances of the farm.
Rachel has also started seeing Tom, the farmer who owns the farm next door.

A lovely feel good book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher who allowed me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely to meet the ladies at the Pudding Pantry again! Sweet story with a liberal sprinkling of spice and the recipes included look delicious but would definitely not fit well with my healthy eating regime but......well it is nearly Christmas eh?! Family relationships and coming to terms with the loss of a loved one are strong themes running through the story , I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I liked this book and think it's a nice follow-up to the first one in the series. I see there's going to be a third book too, and I can't help but wish that there was one longer book which felt finished, rather than two stories so far which felt unfinished. This is getting to be more and more of a trend with publishers', and I don't like it.

There's a lot of good stuff in this book though. I loved learning more about life on the farm, and how the new baking venture was going. It was also good to see Jill starting to move on, but I think a flaw in this book was Rachel's relationship with Tom. It was very strange, the way they barely saw each other. And when conflict grew, and Rachel went to visit Tom late at night to find him gone, they didn't talk about it for a month! Weeks seemed to go by without contact, or at least, there was no mention of it.

Tom's character didn't seem all that developed in this book, certainly I felt he was different in this book to how he was in the last one.

Rachel's language was a bit repetitive, using 'petal' a lot - perhaps a bit old-fashioned too. And I think too much time was spent on Rachel's dad in this book. I couldn't help feeling some of the memories being shared were padding in order to make the second book a reasonable length.

It is a nice festive read, and if you're looking for something light, this will fit the bill.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

We are back at Primrose farm, catching up with Rachel and her mother Jill at the pudding pantry. With summer season over and buisness at the cafe dwindling, the ladies need to come up with ideas to put the cafe back on the map. Rachel is juggling being a lone parent,running the farm and pantry whilst also trying to establish her new found relationship with Tom, the farmer next door. A delightful story, plus lots of extremely delicious sounding recipes to try out.

This book is a snuggle down in front of the fire read. Rachel, a single mum, lives with her mother Jill on their farm. Both are coming to terms with the tragic loss of Rachel's father and are struggling to make ends meet. Their plan to start a pudding club in the evening soon becomes a popular decision. Add to this potential romance for both Rachel and Jill, a snowy farmyard setting with Christmas approaching and this book quickly evolves into a festive winner. If that wasn't enough for you then the Christmas recipes that are interspersed between the chapters will get that christmassy feeling growing. A really nice, feel good read

I loved the first book in this series and was trilled I got the chance to read and review the second one. Such w feel good Christmas book with lots of recipes in too. Really got my in the Christmas spirit already. I hope there will be a third in this series as I would jump at the chance to read it

This book was really sweet and full on yummy recipes. I loved how Rachel and Tom’s relationship developed and how Jill featured more.

I would, on the other hand, have liked to hear more about Tom’s ex-wife as that part of the story seemed to be unconcluded.

Looking forward to the next adventures at the farm and pudding pantry.

A really cosy winter read. The book has a bit of everything, family, friendship, romance and food. What more could you ask for.
I liked the idea of including the recipes in the book and will definitely be trying to make the Christmas pudding.
A good story about Rachel and her mother trying to keep the pudding pantry afloat whilst running a farm and Rachel being a single mum. Throw in a handsome guy from the next door farm and you add live to the mix.
The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the side story of the return of Tom’s ex-wife. Apart from a slight rift in his and Rachel’s relationship I didn’t really see the point of her return. That part of the story wasn’t developed and there was no conclusion to her reason for returning. Unless this will be addressed in a sequel.
Still a four star read and I would certainly recommend it to friends.

I loved this return to Primrose Farm and the pudding pantry. The family of strong women are trying to keep the café attached to the farm bringing in the customers and friends.
Rachel comes up with the lovely idea of starting a pudding club, where friends can meet fortnightly to sample delicious puddings and share their ideas and generally just chat. I loved this idea and would love to find a similar club.
Ruby, the grandma, has a recipe for a Christmas pudding that proves very popular and helps them organise some great evenings.
There is the romance running through the book with Tom, from the neighbouring farm, but will the pressure of keeping the farm afloat cause problems.

I can't wait to read more in this series

This was one I did not want to put down. It is totally heartwarming and totally festive. I loved the whole set up and the Christmas recipes are a great touch. Family values and ties are a strong part as the generations stand together, united through their nurturing and love for each other. It is totally feelgood reading, full of festive touches and with such likeable charcaters (mostly).

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book.

This is a lovely Christmas book to read. It’s easy to read and it has some really funny parts in it that will make you laugh out loud, no matter where your reading it. I haven’t read the first book in the series, but you really don’t need to.


Meet Rachel Swinton of Primrose Farm, single mother, farmer and brains to her new enterprise the “Pudding Pantry”. Which Rachel and her mother Jill opened earlier in the year in hope of getting their family farm back in the black, as it’s was running very much in the red.

During the summer months the pudding pantry did a roaring trade, with passing holiday makers, hikers and the locals. But over the last couple of months the passing trade has dropped off and the only customers coming to the pudding pantry now are loyal locals.

So Rachel needs to come up with a way to keep the farm out of the red, and get people in to the pudding pantry. One afternoon while she was picking up her daughter and friend, from the after school gymnastics club. Rachel found she had an idea brewing, she just needed to discuss it with her mother Jill, as it would be Jill who the extra baking would fall on.

Rachel’s idea was to hold a pudding club every fortnight, where people could talk about baking, swap ideas and recipes, as well as a tasting session. They could then also purchase some of the puddings that the pantry already made and sold.

After both of them decided that it was a good idea to try, Rachel worked on a flyer and asked the local deli if they minded handing them out for her. As they already sold some of their puddings on a regular basis.

Rachel also took a pudding into the local newspaper as a bribe, so they would hopefully print a small feature about the new pudding club and boost interest with the locals.

After the first pudding club things get busy on the farm, as a snow storm hits them and they have to rescue their sheep out in the fields due to the snow drifts that the sheep would be trapped in. As the snow melts Rachel finds herself busier and busier leaving he no spare time to see Tom.

Tom owns the next farm to Rachel’s. Their relationship is still quite new and fragile and with Rachel’s time so limited things are looking rocky. Can Rachel rescue the farm and the pudding pantry, as well as her new relationship with Tom?

As I’ve already said this is an easy funny read, which also has some wonderful Christmas pudding recipes in it. I know that I will be trying out some of these recipes at Christmas and I’m sure I won’t be the only one either.

Light, frothy easy read. Is a sequel but worked as a stand alone read. The story was ok but it lacked any real writing talent. Think it had been shoddily edited too - After Reading the ‘aw’ of Rachel’s response several times I was heartily sick of it. The best thing about it was the inclusion of the recipes - several of which I intend to try!

Having read the first book, I was excited to read the second book and it didn’t disappoint. Rachel’s story continues with the pudding pantry set up and now trying to maintain its momentum along with the winter arriving. It was an enjoyable story although there were times when it felt quite repetitive. I liked all the recipes mixed in along with a couple of brief stories. A fun festive read

A lovely light romantic read ideal for the Christmas holidays.or a winter snuggle. A feel good tale which is a little predictable with some slight repetition of phraseology. This is the second book in the series which I think would stand on it's own despite having read the first book myself. As the title suggests there are scrumptious sounding pudding recipes dotted throughout the narrative all with a seasonal twist and I am quite tempted to try the infamous award winning Christmas Pudding recipe being an enthusiastic home baker looking for inspiration. There are a few twists and turns along the way and a few issues addressed, rural crime (living in a farming community there is a lot of it returning time and again), elderly illness. Rachel, the main character, is a little annoying at times but doesn't take away from a light cosy read.