The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café (Cherry Pie Island #1)

 

When Annie White steps back onto Cherry Pie Island, it’s safe to say her newly inherited Dandelion Café has seen better days! And while her childhood home on the Thames-side island idyll is exactly the same retreat from the urban bustle of London she remembers, Annie’s not convinced that Owner of The Dandelion Cafe is a title she’ll be keeping for long. Not that she can bear the idea of letting her dedicated, if endearingly disorganized staff lose their jobs. Plus café life does also have the added bonus of working a stone’s throw away from millionaire Matt and his disarmingly charming smile!

One (shoestring budget) café makeover, a few delightful additions to the somewhat retro menu and a lot of cherry pie tastings later, The Dandelion Café is ready for its grand reopening! But once she’s brought the dilapidated old café back to life, Annie finds herself wishing her stay on the island was just a bit longer. She always intended to go back to the big city…but could island living finally have lured her back home for good?

The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café is Book 1 in The Cherry Pie Island series. Each part of Cherry Pie Island can be read and enjoyed as a standalone story – or as part of the utterly delightful series

~ Goodreads

My review............4 stars

Sometimes you just want a good chick-lit type book, and this fit the bill very nicely! I have read this author before (The Little Christmas Kitchen), and enjoyed her writing immensely. I remember after reading the first book, that I was craving Greek food, and with this one I was dying for cherry pie.....and I don't even LIKE cherry pie 🙂 Although her books are not really about the food, Oliver has such a way of describing it, and fitting it in to the story, that it just adds to the already captivating plot. Most of what occurs in the book are things you can see coming a mile away, but it's ok because you are rooting for all of them to happen. There is nothing really earth shattering that happens, no world problems are solved, and yet you just can't help but get sucked in by the characters and their daily happenings. It just makes you want to hang out with them, and if Dandelion Cafe were a real place, I'd be going there for certain. I might even try the cherry pie!! I'm definitely looking forward to the next books in the series. Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy to read and review.

Pick this one up for a quick read (could read it in a few hours), great cast of characters, lovely setting, and did I mention the food descriptions?