What a great read this book is. It’s well written, funny, totally relateable but also had me teary too. So many funny good bits with a bit of raw emotion thrown into the mix. Loved it, would highly recommend it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t wait to read the next one to see what happens next!

Loved this engaging,, snuggle-up-with book. I also love Dorset and warm cafes so I knew it would be a winner read. Thanks to Net Galley and publisher. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

I started reading this book and despite the background story of the young widow and her two young teenage children it felt like it was going to be a light, feel-good summer read. Feel-good, yes. Light, not. It's a well crafted story set in one of my favourite places, Dorset. Durdle Door gets a mention, and I also fell in love with that special place, in the half light, with a special man by my side. The story is about the family, not just the widowed mum Laura. It's a tale of friendship, loneliness, need, comfort and healing. It will probably make your eyes leak. And it finishes with recipes. I do love a book with recipes!

When I first started to read it I didn't know if I would enjoy it as it wasn't the kind of book that I usually read but ended up loving it. It follows the life of a widowed young woman trying to cope and bring up her family without her husband after he died. She applies to work in a cafe for the summer hoping that a different scene will be good fro them all and when she gets the job she moves her family there.
She soon makes friends and starts to have feelings for someone again. This book will make you laugh and cry so be prepared for it.

Review: An enjoyable feel-good novel:
The first in a series by Debbie Johnson featuring The Comfort Food Café, "Summer ..." introduces us to the mode of life, food and personalities which makes the Comfort Food Café in Dorset what it is. We meet Laura, mother to Nate and Lizzie, who applies for, and (unexpectedly) gets, a summer job at the Comfort Food Café in Dorset. Initially Nate and Lizzie are none too thrilled at leaving Manchester for Dorset which has none of the retail and social high life of Manchester. Effectively they expect Dorset to be a dull and boring place. Even Laura has her doubts. But things start to look up when Laura meets Matt within moments of arriving at her summer accommodation. Laura, still grieving the loss of her husband and life partner, David, who died of a head injury only two years earlier has experienced a miserable two years since his death. The summer job promises a breath of fresh air in the family's life. And it delivers. Laura's kids are quick to appreciate the quality of country life.
Laura really quite fancies Matt (a Vet on sabbatical from London), but can she put to rest the memory of her husband, David? As the story progresses, we puzzle as to how the Laura/Matt relationship will end. (Or even start.)
Featuring lots of lively and colourful characters this is a feel-good book with quiet emotion and wry humour along the way. A simple story with a sincere message. Written I suspected with an eye on readers who have culinary skills and countryside living high on their priority list, I enjoyed this novel nonetheless(!).

Laura Walker is the widowed mother of two teenagers. After her childhood sweetheart and husband dies after falling off a ladder she falls into a pit of gloom and despair. As she tries to rebuild her life she answers a quirky advert for a summer cook at a Dorset seaside cafe with a TMI letter spewing all her anxiety and family traumas.

Cherie is the hipy dippy owner of the Comfort Food Cafe and a holiday village of small cottages, quirkily named after 1970s rock legends. She offers Laura and her children a home for the summer together with a job.

If you love the idea of a misfit group of individuals being brought together by an elderly hippy mother earth figure who runs her cafe like a community drop in centre, preparing their favourite dishes for her regular local customers, an annual fancy dress party involving half the village for an octogenarian farmer, elderly labradors and ice-creams galore then this is the novel for you. This is like all your memories of holidays when you were a child rolled into one, sunny days, sparkling water, cake and ice-cream every day.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have read numerous books by the author before and they have been of the 'I can't put it down until I finish' but this one was the total opposite. I really struggled to get into the book and found myself more skim reading than being engrossed by the storyline. I've started the follow up book and I'm hooked (thankfully) into it already!

Oh deary me. I thought this was going to be a fun light hearted easy read and i ended up bawling my eyes out.

Laura and David had met at 7 and were in love instantly and got married at 20 and had 2 children, Lizzie and Nate. David falls off a ladder and hits his head and dies and Laura is devastasted. Every year they all went on a family holiday and David used to put together photo albums of their trips as memories. Laura decides she is going to take the children away for the summer, but she also needs a job so she applies to be a cook for the summer at the comfort food cafe in Budbury in Dorset. The kids dont want to go, and Laura has a battle on her hands to begin with.

Life starts to settle down and they stay in a lovely cottage and both kids make friends and Laura settles in at the cafe. It is all light and fluffy and lovely and then at the end there is a party and Laura does something for people that had me crying my eyes out in bed, and not just silent tears, but ugly crying tears. I cannot remember the last time i cried over a book and i certainly didnt expect to cry at this one, but i got so emotional and couldnt sleep after so i went and bought the other 3 books in the series.

Grab your tissues.

I lovely fee-good read. Great for by the pool, or to make you feel better in miserable weather

Let’s go on holiday!
This is just the book to be reading on a cold, miserable, wet winter’s day. As long as you are indoors and warm!
It reminds you that England can have warm days with a shining sun, and that there is no coastline to match the Jurassic Coast. And having been there many times myself, and just back from the (supposedly) prettiest part of Ireland, I am more than ever convinced. Cornwall is over-rated for the distance you need to travel and the traffic you need to battle to get there. And the weather is wetter too!
These books about the Sunshine (Comfort) Cafe are a like a warm hug with hot chocolate, cream and marshmallows. Which they seem to drink a lot of in the Cafe. They somehow just stop short of being too sweet, even though you know that there will be a happy ending (for the romance at least).
I even liked the dogs in them. Though the author doesn’t mention just how much hair a Labrador sheds - boatloads as I have had recent experience of!

A delightful novel based in beautiful Dorset which in described in such a great way made you wish you were there Laura and her children having suffered the loss of their loved one start on a journey for a few weeks of a working holiday and in turn with the help of new friends they finally find happiness and eventually start the healing process in a beautifully written novel which I think would appeal to all ages a lovely read

Didn’t know how emotional I could get reading a holiday book. I expected a light chic lit Christmas book. Instead I read a well written novel of life, loss, sadness, happiness, hope, sillyness, jealously and generosity all rolled up into this book that takes place during a Christmas season. Not going to give synopsis of the book. Just say if you pass over not to read, you aren’t worthy. I cried with sad tears, happy tears, silly tears, regretted tears. But in the end, I give this story 5 stars. Now, I must go back and read other Debbie Johnson books. Oh, I wish there was a Comfort Cafe I could stop into.

Laura Walker has been existing, going through the motions since the unexpected death of her husband David, functioning for the sake of her children and nothing else. That is until she spots an advert looking for Summer help at a café in Dorset, miles away from her home in Manchester. Knowing there is no way she can afford to take the kids away on a holiday like they used to before David’s died, Laura decides to apply hoping to combine a Summer of work with a much-needed holiday.

Having poured her heart out in her application letter Laura is stunned when she is offered the position at The Comfort Food Café in Budbury. Still unsure if she is doing the right thing she up’s sticks for the Summer heading into the great unknown – despite the protests from the kids!

The Comfort Food Café though isn’t a run of the mill place, run by the slightly eccentric Cherie it offers much more than good food to its customers. Offering it’s VIP customers their every own menu fulfilling their comfort food needs and a place of sanctuary for locals and tourists alike Laura soon realises how special the café is. It’s not just a place to gain a full belly, but a place that helps nourish the soul too.

Given the opportunity to be themselves away from home and those who know their history Laura and the children thrive. Meeting new friends and learning about themselves and each other the Comfort Food Café helps them start to imagine a future even with the absence of David, but does that include a new love interest too?

Summer at the Comfort Food Café is the first in the series however I have already read and reviewed the latest instalment, Sunshine at the Comfort Food Café – I hadn’t realised I had read them out of order until I had finished it! Both books can easily be read as standalone novels, however reading this book definitely filled in some of the detail about the characters. It works both ways though as I felt I knew Willow, one of the café workers, really well as the fourth book tells her story, despite having only been featured as a small part in this book.

I loved this book it’s full of quirky, yet believable characters and I especially loved the relationship between Laura and her teenage daughter Lizzie - I’m guessing that Debbie has perhaps had some first-hand experience of teenage behaviour as I could completely relate!

The book deals with the subject of grief and loss in such a real way it is at times heart-breaking. Despite this the overriding themes of the book are that of friendship, love, family, community and healing which mixed together make for a wonderfully up-lifting and light-hearted read.

Even though I have never visited Dorset myself the descriptions of the area and scenery are so well written I could vividly picture it in my mind, almost able to feel the sea breeze on my face! Set during a lovely warm Summer this book would make the perfect holiday read – one for the beach perhaps when you don’t have to imagine the sea breeze and she sunshine on your face!

I now have the other two books in the Comfort Food Café series firmly on my ‘to be read’ list and I can’t wait to find out more about some of the character’s I have already been introduced to. I do hope that Debbie adds more books to this series as with so many character’s each with their own story to tell there is so much more as a reader I would like to discover.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the book in exchange for an honest review.
I love reading the Comfort Food series of books, you have it all in a book; romance, friendships, holiday time, well cooked food, ice cream and animals. It is a time to snuggle down and read a cosy, well thought out and well written book and enjoy yourself.
Highly recommended.

A lovely, entertaining read. Written with warmth and with likeable characters, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a nice story. And I really love the sound of that cafe.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about Laura and her kids and an introduction to the wacky world where there exists a cafe meant to cater to your whimsical life needs. The Comfort Food Cafe lives up to its name and exists to provide solace and a shoulder to cry on and anything else to prop anyone with an emotional burden to bear. Laura is only thirty-five and has been a widow for two years, she has teenage children (married very young, that part of the story was the quaintest) and they are all still living in auto-mode. She applies for a temporary position at the cafe and hauls her family to live on the Dorset Coast. It is summer season and there are enough tourists and other unforeseen scenarios which will keep Laura on her toes and her hair frazzled. It lives up to its genre with its happily ever after (with more to come). It is about community and family beyond blood and the resilience of people if they just have the right environment. There are a few sarcastic quips thrown in for comic effect as well as people who are weird by themselves and need no further arsenal to make you laugh. I cried more than laughed with this one. I then began the next book almost immediately.

This book was wonderful, and once I had read it, had to read the others in the series by the same author. Would recommend it to anyone. Perfect book for taking on holiday!

Loved it and definitely recommend it for others to enjoy.

Well that's it. I'm moving to Dorset. What a wonderful, moving story set in an idyllic backdrop. I cannot wait to start reading the next installment. Thank you.

The story is of a young grieving widow and her two children who have found a job for the summer season as a cook for a sea side cafe complete with accommodation. It proves to be a therapeutic experience for the family to live in peaceful rural Dorset with its iconic scenery and genial country folk. The children blossom forth in their holiday home with new friends and finding jobs in the local village. The mother in her job gets to know the regular customers from the village while also serving all the tourists that descend on her. The story has some interesting twists and turns with tragic events and the possibility of new beginnings, altogether a most enjoyable tale with an interesting cast of well drawn characters.