The Lemon Tree Café: The Heart-warming Sunday Times Bestseller

Cathy Bramley

Aug 2017 · Random House

About this ebook

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

'Delightful' Katie Fforde
'Full of joy and fun' Milly Johnson
'Uplifting . . . Books by Cathy Bramley are brilliantly life affirming' Good Housekeeping

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Rich espresso, delicious biscotti and juicy village gossip - will Rosie fall for this new way of life?

When Rosie Featherstone finds herself unexpectedly jobless, the offer to help her beloved Italian grandmother out at the Lemon Tree Cafe - a little slice of Italy nestled in the rolling hills of Derbyshire - feels like the perfect way to keep busy.

But Rosie is haunted by a terrible secret, one that even the appearance of a handsome new face can't quite help her move on from.

Then disaster looms and the cafe's fortunes are threatened . . . and Rosie discovers that her nonna has been hiding a dark past of her own. With surprises, betrayal and more than one secret brewing, can she find a way to save the Lemon Tree Cafe and help both herself and Nonna achieve the happy endings they deserve?

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Readers are falling in love with The Lemon Tree Café:
***** 'A treat! . . . It will tickle your taste buds, squeeze your heart and refresh your soul.'
***** 'A charming and heart-warming story that will make you laugh but that will surprise you too'
***** 'What a fabulous read . . . a lovely story about family and love and community spirit.'

Ratings and reviews

There was much about this book that should have annoyed me, lots of things that just didn't add up when exposed to rational thought but somehow the author overcame my objections and made me fall in love with Rosie and her family. I have a tendency to get annoyed with pro-feminist characters as they are always written as self-righteous and a bit screechy (probably because all the ardent feminists I've met in real life are both these things) and there is a bit of that with Rosie. She jumps to knee jerk conclusions but at least she has the courage to admit when she gets something wrong, she also admits to being a little bit self-absorbed which is unusual in this genre - usually our heroine can do no worng. The business side of things is more than a little cringeworthy as much is glossed over - for instance, we never find out how she wriggles out of the tax situation, it just disappears. In fact there are a lot of little things that just seem to resolve themselves quietly in the background with no explanation. Somehow though I found myself overlooking the inconsistencies and the threads picked up and left dangling with no resolution and thoroughly enjoying myself. So much so I was perilously close to being late for work thanks to the "just one more chapter" syndrome. I do love a good rom-com novel and there is romance and comedy in abundance in this book and I found myself being drawn further and further in to this world and even though Nonna's big reveal was no such thing (fairly clear what that was going to be from the outset really) it was more fully fleshed than I anticipated. The family dynamics in the book are realistic and made for fun reading - no family is perfect and no family life runs smoothly and this is very true here. No big misunderstandings between characters just the normal, every day niggles that get blown out of all proportion when you know people so well. This is probably the best bit of the book, the characters - every person in the book is distinct and a whole person no matter how little time we have to get to know them and how peripheral they are to the plot. This is a decadent read because it will lead you to miss doing the laundry, make you ring out for takeout because you forgot to cook anything for dinner, make you miss your stop on the commute. Fun and joyous and whilst I didn't laugh out loud I did smile an awful lot and that just can't be bad.

Lovely book great author

About the author

Cathy Bramley is the Sunday Times bestselling author of romantic comedies including Wickham Hall, The Lemon Tree Café, Hetty's Farmhouse Bakery and A Match Made in Devon. She lives in a Nottinghamshire village with her family.

Her recent career as a full-time writer of light-hearted, romantic fiction has come as somewhat of a lovely surprise after spending eighteen years running her own marketing agency. However, she has been always an avid reader, never without a book on the go and now thinks she may have found her dream job!

Cathy loves to hear from her readers. You can get in touch via her website or on social media.