I feel that as we are now living in a small town with a teeny library which is only open nine hours a week that I really must borrow books from it, just so that the ‘high heid yins’ can’t say that nobody uses the place and decide to shut it down completely. But it’s slim pickings most times I visit and the last time I was getting sort of desperate when I saw this book The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe.

Anyway, the book is the first one by Mary Simses who grew up in Darien, Connecticut. It’s not my usual sort of reading, I’m not a big reader of romances as I find them too predictable but this one does feature a bit of a mystery and it was nice to be in coastal Maine for a while.

Ellen is a high-flying lawyer and her beloved gran asks her to deliver a last letter to an old flame of hers, with her dying breath. Ellen feels she has to carry out her gran’s last wish, so she leaves Manhattan where she and her fiance live and sets off for Beacon, Maine. Beacon is the small coastal town where her gran grew up and it’s a bit like stepping back in time compared with life in Manhattan.

Ellen’s also a keen photographer and as soon as she reaches Beacon a mishap whilst framing a shot turns her into a bit of a local talking point, much to her embarassment. Out of her comfort zone she turns into a bit of a nincompoop.

It’s all light hearted reading, good for travelling or a summer beach read, not that I ever read on a beach, never having sunbathed in my life – but you know what I mean.

I still prefer vintage crime for comfort reading but this was a nice wee change, and I got to live in Maine for a while too. There is so much mention of food in this book that it put me in mind of one of those books which were written during World War II in Britain when rationing was still ongoing, and authors indulged themselves writing about all of the food which couldn’t be obtained for years. I think a few actual recipes at the end of the book might have been a good idea, well a blueberry muffin recipe anyway. But I might just be thinking along those lines because I’ve recently finished reading the Clarissa Dickson Wright book which had a recipe at the end of every chapter. I still have not tasted blueberries, I must give them a go soon.

The blurb on the front says: ‘If you liked the Nicholas Sparks novels, you will devour this book’ James Patterson. I’ve never read anything by Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson for that matter.