Suzie has always been the wild one. While her siblings settled happily into village life, she roamed the world – chasing adventures, collecting stories and running from that horrible day, sixteen years ago. But when it's finally time to return to the tiny Dorset village of Starshine Cove, Suzie must face everything – and everyone – she left behind.
There's her dad George, still the beloved heart of the village at almost ninety. Her sister-in-law Connie, who runs the irresistible Cove Café, where the scent of sugar and vanilla drifts on the sea breeze and the red velvet cake is to die for. And then there's Guy, a brooding stranger with secrets of his own who arrives in the village on the very same day…
As the summer unfolds and old wounds begin to heal, Suzie discovers that sometimes the bravest adventure isn't running away – it's finally coming home.
Review: This is the fifth book in the Starshine Cove series from Debbie Johnson, one of my must-read authors. Starshine Cove is a small, practically self-contained, village in Dorset. So small is it that it doesn’t even appear on a map and people often find it by sheer chance or as if pulled there by some kind of magic. It is a truly magical community where people all look out for one another and very rarely want to leave.
The central character in this story, Suzie, is the exception in that she just couldn’t wait to leave the village behind and see the world outside. Having left as a teenager and now in her forties, before this she had returned only for her mother’s funeral and then her sister’s wedding. Although unsure how long she will stay, she has finally felt that she should go back and visit her family, including her father, who will soon be ninety. On the day that she creeps back into the village, she encounters Guy, who is also arriving unexpectedly, looking for his daughter and unsure of his welcome. They seem like opposites to start with, as she flirts with him and he remains introspective. However, as they settle into life in the community, they become close and when Suzie reveals her secret she begins to rely on him and they can both see that perhaps their future is here in Starshine Cove.
This was a wonderful story, filled with drama, humour and also grief. I found myself laughing out loud at some points and sobbing into my tissue at others - typical of a Debbie Johnson book. The characters were absolutely marvellous. Having read the other books in the series, I was familiar with most of them, and I can see that Suzie and Guy will settle nicely into the village. I enjoyed watching as the pair began to change from the people who arrived in the village on that afternoon and relaxed into the atmosphere around them. I can highly recommend this book; it will have you coming back for more each time you put it down and leave you with a warm feeling long after it’s finished.
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