The Beachside Sweet Shop by Karen Clarke is a very sweet, heartwarming, and totally lovely book with a cute book cover. It was a quick lighthearted read with interesting characters. This is my first novel from this author and will check her other books. Recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this book.

Delightfully sweet story without being cloying. I very much enjoyed the themes of family ties and self knowledge and the descriptions of old fashioned sweets had my mouth watering - after all a little of what you fancy does indeed do you good! I'm very much looking forward to reading about more of the inhabitants of this sleepy seaside town.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of this title.
I was drawn immediately to it being set in a "sweet shop," to which I am addicted!!! That said, what a charming book. It was a nice read on this rainy weekend. The characters were well done and likeable, and few people were exactly as they seemed. This community is ripe with characters that beg for a series, and I hope we see more of this community by Clarke.

Marnie is determined to get away from the village she grew up in. Trouble is there is a lot that is keeping her there.

Her grandmother Celia, having fallen and broken a leg needs looking after.

Her best friend Beth, soon to have a baby.

Her grandfather's inheritance - the sweet shop of the title.

Despite all of this Marnie is determined to get away. Others think differently.

When The Beachside Sweet Shop wins a local business award and is then thrust into a debate that sugar is poison, it seems that Marnie cannot leave her grandfather's shop until she has preserved his legacy.

The task is going to be harder than she first thought, when she has to deal with protests, graffiti and some failed attempts at sugar-free sweets.

Marnie is rather indecisive and I was rather frustrated by her as a character, however the humour she had with her grandmother, beth and Josh the shop helper made her slightly more warm and friendly as the book went on. Though I did wonder why she just did not leave - she seemed to be so determined to prove that life in Shipley on the Jurassic Coast was the end of life for her.

Beth was fantastically funny as she waddled around helping Marnie in the shop, writing her thesis on Katherine Parr and incubating the baby that she was convinced was going to kill her.

Josh who arrives in Marnie's life and into the sweet shop just at the right time, seems to be the answer to her prayers in sorting out the future of the shop. Trouble is he is rather evasive as to his surname, his address and even his bank details for his wages. Josh has a kind heart and they worked well as a team i the shop, but it was not meant to be because Marnie was determined to leave.

As events take a different turn, Celia gets better, Beth goes into labour, Marnie's mother reappears, as does her ex boyfriend, it seems that Marnie needs to start listening to those that care about her.

The book lacked a bit of substance on occasions, to make it an excellent read for me. The animosity between Beth's husband and Marnie, perhaps needed to have been set up differently from the beginning so at least we were aware there was a background to it as opposed to this automatic dislike he had of Marnie. More background on Isabella Sinclair would have given her campaign against the sweet shop more reality than it was shown as. It was these areas that I think the book began to lack reality as if the reasons for their behaviour only came to the author as the book was written.

However, despite my observations it is an entertaining read and makes your mouth water with the thought of all those delicious sweets that we all remember from our childhood, the author painted the picture of the sweet shop well to hold my attention.

When Marnie Appleton inherits her granfather’s candy shop in the seaside village of Shipley, she’s determined to make a success of it. This may not be the future she dreamed of, but she knows how much the shop means to Shipley and its residents, so she hires handsome Josh to help her refurbish the shop. Of course she has to fight an ongoing battle with her neighbor, who blogs about the evils of sugar, deal with a convalescing grandmother, pregnant best friend and her ex boyfriend showing up in town at the same time. A delightful British love story

Brilliant! Such a beautiful, heart warming story! Loved every word! So well written. A magical, feel good tale. Loved, loved, loved. Highly recommend it to everyone.

I really loved this! It was like a breath of fresh air.

The constant descriptions of the sweets made me crave sweets so bad.

Marnie the main character she is a kind hearted woman that has inherited a sweet shop from her grandfather, it was his pride and joy. She gave up travelling and her ex to come back and run the sweet shop and everything is going smoothly until one day a woman sees ruining her business to boost her blog ratings and starts protesting and bring bad headlines to the sweet shop. This puts a lot of strain on Marnie and the sweet shop and we see her fight to try and save the sweet shop.

Along with the sweet shop we see Marnie face her ex who has moved on and is returning home with a new girlfriend. But not all is as it seems.

Theres a good mixture of character's in this book all so well described.

I may also point out the bright bold and beautiful cover for this book. Its absoultely stunning and from the minute I saw it I wanted to read this book.