Title: A Home In Sunset Bay
Author: Rebecca Pugh
Publisher: Carina
Date: February 9th, 2016
Format: eARC
Source: from Publisher for a review
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
There’s no place like home…
Enough is enough! The always perfect Laurie Chapman had jumped in her car and raced as fast as she could from London heading to Sunset Bay and (she hopes!) the open arms of her estranged sister…
Mia Chapman loves running Dolly’s Diner in the picture-perfect coastal Cornish town of Sunset Bay. Now that her and Grandma Dolly’s dream is finally a reality Mia has never been prouder! Until Laurie suddenly turns up on her doorstep… How can she forgive the sister who walked away?
Once upon a time Mia and Laurie were best friends. Back together after so long, the time has come for the sisters to figure out what went so wrong all those years ago – and whether they can ever put it right!
Review:
I had Rebecca Pugh on my radar for quite some time. Ever since my friends read and loved her debut novel Return to Bluebell Hill, I just knew I had to check her out.
I’m not gonna lie to you: I went into this story with pretty high expectations.
Reading this book was like watching the life go by trough the mist. I could see things happening, but I never got involved enough to gasp, swoon, wonder what’s going to happen or even feel, to be perfectly honest with you.
The writing style is pretty good and it do keeps you interested, but at the same time it does not sort itself out with it’s beauty or uniqueness. Unfortunately, in my copy of this book, I didn’t underline any sentences from this novel. Not because I was lazy to take notes, but because I didn’t find any that appealed to me.
I would say that Pugh’s style is detailed, but not too detailed. I think she managed to handle some situations in this book really good (like the cheating scene, where her character doesn’t know how to react, and the writer makes us sympathise with the character but at the same time there is still that chick-lit feeling to it).
I also need to emphasize how perfectly the writer described the surrounding of the story. I think the scenes were captured pretty well and it almost felt like I was there at some moments (my favorite was how Dolly’s Diner was described. Trust me, I am not lying when saying I wanted to be there).
Characters were likeable but not one of them made me care enough.
Still, there was one character that I didn’t like, who was also a love interes tin the story. I think he was a shitty boyfriend to his girlfriend and emotional cheater, so of course I wasn’t satisfied that he was the only candidate for one of our main characters.
The story plot was predictable and, although I don’t mind it in some cases, it felt like there wasn’t enough drama or action trough the story to keep me satisfied. Some things that supposed to be issues between characters weren’t that big of the deal in my eyes. Plus, I questioned the law aspect of this story, but since I am not from the same country as characters of the book, I don’t think I am in the position to judge.
All in all, since this is only the second novel written by Rebecca Pugh, I think she has a lot of time to grow as a writer and I do believe she will only get better with time. I am looking forward to see where her writing career will take her and read more stories by her.
Book Dust Magic 