Alice Rose is a foundling, abandoned on the moors near Haworth on the eve of her birth. Adopted but later rejected by her horrible mother upon the death of her much-loved father, Alice struggles to find somewhere she can truly call home.
A tragic accident sees her heading back to where her story began and impulsively buying a run-down café in the village of Haworth, with the intention of setting up an afternoon tea emporium.
Juggling the renovations along with writing her dark fairy tales to deadline for her scary publisher is proving to be no small task. Luckily Alice quickly makes friends who help her set up her home and discover her past, including the deliciously handsome Nile who owns the antiques shop opposite the teashop.
Will Alice find her happy ending or will her life be more befitting of her own twisted stories?
When I received this ARC, I was really looking forward to snuggling down over the rainy weekend and losing myself in a little feel good chick lit. Unfortunately, I often found myself becoming bored and ended up stretching it out over a whole week.
Told from two points of view, one being Alice’s and the other through journal entries of her birth Mother, I felt this worked nicely. As the reader, we found out a lot earlier who Alice’s biological parents were then she did, this did take away a little shock value. The bits I most struggled with, and thought were highly unnecessary, were the captions of the current novel Alice herself was working on. They bore absolutely no resemblance to her current situation and I considered them to be nothing more than page fillers.
The characters themselves were extremely likable, especially the warm and welcoming Giddings family.
I remember enthusiastically devouring Ashley’s previous novels and was quite saddened that this didn’t stand up to its predecessors.
** Thank you to Random House, via NetGalley, for this ARC **