I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Enjoyed catching up on Village life again in this series. A reminder of the importance of family and friends

The Archers meets The Great British Bake Off in Cathy Lake’s delightful new novel, The Country Village Summer Fete.

Emma Patrick’s entire life revolves around her work. Her job is her number one priority, but as her 50th birthday approaches, she realises that her obsession with her career has come at a great cost. Emma feels as if she has left her work consume her and this has been detrimental to her family and friends. Her relationships have all suffered greatly and she had been too blind to notice, but could a return to Little Bramble help her fill the ever-growing void within?

With her father ill, Emma decides to go back home to spend some time with him and look after him in the beautiful rural village. However, Little Bramble is full of memories and people she would much rather avoid – but that quickly proves easier said than done. Emma was apprehensive when she had decided to go back home, but as she begins to feel more comfortable with each passing day, she wonders whether Little Bramble might just provide her with the happiness and fulfillment which she has been seeking for so long.

As she finds herself organizing the annual summer fete, nobody is more surprised than Emma when she finds herself enjoying all the jam-making and cake-baking and when Cupid’s arrow strikes her in the most inopportune of moments, will Emma realise that Little Bramble is the only place of her? Or will the lure of the big city prove to be too hard to resist?

Cathy Lake’s The Country Village Summer Fete redefines feel-good escapism! I absolutely adored this witty, whimsical and heart-warming romantic tale and I absolutely didn’t want this book to end. The Country Village Summer Fete is a wonderful story about life’s unexpected surprises, second chances and falling in love when you least expect it that sparkles with warmth and heart – not to mention delicious descriptions of cakes and bakes that will make your mouth water!

A lovely read that is the perfect summertime treat, The Country Village Summer Fete is not to be missed!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Lovely feel good book to read. It was a joy to read. Lovely characters. Great plot. The book was charming. Very well written. I’d definitely recommend this book

Ah, this is such a lovely story! I adored the setting, the characters and the drama. There is always something comforting about a novel set in a small village and it's even better when it's part of a series. A sweet, easy read by one of my favourite authors.

A pleasant read, lovely story and nice characters, maybe a bit over descriptive at points, but a nice bit of escapism

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was a very light-hearted, feel good type of summer read. I loved being in Bramble with so many wonderful characters.

The Country Village Summer Fete by Cathy Lake was a great feel good book, I was hooked from the first few pages. I loved it. I loved being transported into Little Bramble and felt I lived there with all the characters.

This is just the sort of book I love to read and totally escape in.
Set in a village called Little Bramble it offers the reader a heartwarming story. Although you know exactly what track the story is on it still provides a page turning easy read. It was lovely to read a book that has more ‘mature’ characters than the usual younger generation.
This is the first book of Cathy Lake I have read and certainly won’t be the last.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I really enjoyed this book, in particular that it featured a more mature main character rather than the 20-something this genre tends to favour. This added a greater depth to the story and more interest to the backstory … especially as she returns to her home town for the first time since she ran out on her engagement party several decades earlier, to the village where her ex-fiancé, the ‘one’ who turned out to be the love of her life, still lives.
A great book, full of interesting storylines and characters. I had no idea this was part of a series, it is easy to read as a stand-alone as no knowledge of the village or other characters is needed to enjoy this book. However, I will definitely be looking for the other book set in the village & looking forward to reading any others that might follow.
A really enjoyable read. Perfect for the summer & autumn months.

Little Bramble Village is the childhood home of Emma and since she has left, she has hardly returned for more than a few days if that. But on the edge of her forties and with her fifties looming fast, she suddenly feels that perhaps she has achieved nothing and certainly doesn’t have anything to show for it.

Returning to Little Bramble, with the reason to look after her widowed father who seems to have lost his way is Emma’s excuse to perhaps take stock of where she is in life and where she wants to go next.

However going back means she needs to face what she left behind in the village all those years ago – her first love. Confronting her actions from the past and the villagers who have long memories too, means that perhaps Emma needs to stop and reassess what she was really running away from. Can the answer be found in her mother’s workshop, full of jams and chutney? Can the answer be found in making friends and catching up with old ones? Can the answer be watching your dad deal with the widowhood? Can the answer be in the past?

Clear, really from the start where and how this book was going to pan out, it was a pleasant diversion and was great to return a place I have visited before, in the first novel. They work well as standalone books and there is no need for any prior knowledge. I would have like a bit more intrigue, ‘will they, won’t they’ jeopardy before the happy ending. It was just a bit too neat for me.

A book to while away the hours, but for me perhaps a series I would not return to, when there are perhaps stronger books out there.

ake no mistake, it’s very clear after the first 50 or so pages where the plot of The Country Village Summer Fete is going, but it’s a nice ride getting there. Emma is full of regrets but is burying them in her hectic publishing job. Although working from home, her life is still full of deadlines and commitments. Sleep doesn’t come easy to her, and her late-night supermarket visits emphasise that. No matter her hard-earned wealth and privilege, Emma is not in a good place. A sudden call about her father’s health concerns forces her to take a break. But while Emma is eager to help and support her father, there’s a past in the village of Little Bramble that she’s not keen on revisiting.

Within the novel exists some well thought out characterisation, especially concerning Emma’s interactions with her dad Greg. Their relationship feels genuine – the situations they find themselves in are familiar to many finding themselves caring for older parents. Emma herself is portrayed well, and the changes she goes through, while heavily romanticised, come across naturally and unforced. Connor is very much a mirror image of Emma but very much a ‘village boy’ at heart. His narrative I felt had less impact and his treatment of his ex-wife Sadie came across as a little cruel. Her daughter Grace tells it to him straight and makes him reassess his actions. I just wish she’d done it sooner. Connor’s intentions may have been good, but the treatment of Sadie just comes across as gutless. Ultimately this didn’t make me warm to him as I think was intended. In fact, I just thought he was a bit wet.

While the novel brings a few hours of light escapism, there are issues that jarred for me at times. Lake has a tendency to expound on subjects regularly interrupting the narrative flow. This is especially prevalent towards the end of the novel. It is ok for a writer to state that a character got into a car. However, it isn’t necessary to state the make, model and colour. When discussing rehoming greyhounds, a potted history of how the dogs are treated doesn’t add anything to the plot. The novel also suffers from repetition; I lost count of how many times at the beginning of the story Emma placed on her ‘big sunglasses.

The Country Village Summer Fete is a gentle countryside based romance that touches on many issues. Lost opportunities, grief and fear of overwhelming change drive a cosy narrative that hits all the right spots for this genre. A satisfying ending awaits you in Little Bramble, and I’m sure it won’t be the last one.

This was a really good read. Easy story to follow, charming setting and great characters. Really enjoyed it.

My Thoughts: this is such a heartwarming read of someone on the cusp of turning 50 who feels like she should have her life in order and to be fair Emma is doing really well with that, a job that she’s happy with in a place that she loves with a great group of friends around her.

But then life throws her a curve ball, her dad is poorly, he’s getting forgetful and his neighbours aren’t sure he’s safe to be living on his own anymore, they’re doing what they can but Emma decides it’s time to uproot her life for a few weeks to make sure he’s ok, she just didn’t expect her past to be waiting for her when she got there, will she be sucked back into the simple idyllic life that Little Bramble has to offer or will she return to the busy life she had in London?

This book has a lot of different elements to it but the main theme is that you can’t change the past only learn from it and move on and that when a little village pulls together even things that seem impossible become possible!

I really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it to my reader friends 😊

Here we are back in Little Bramble the second in this series of books the first being The country village Christmas show.

So, coming up to 50 Emma Patrick finds herself returning to her family home Little Bramble after 20 years of being away, she is needed to support her father who is in the early stages of dementia. She is only going to stay for a short while whilst her dad has some tests, then she is planning to return to London to continue her life as an editor in publishing. But as we know things never quite run like that. The characters are warm and friendly but Emma wants to remain noticed so she doesn't resurrect old ghosts.

I loved everything about this book, the descriptions of the village and characters were made really believable with a cosy feel about the whole book.

I really recommend this book as an enjoyable escape.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this lovely book.

The Country Village Summer Fete follows the story of Emma Patrick, who returns to the village of Little Bramble to look after her elderly father when he gets ill. She left the village behind years ago for a successful career in London and coming back is full of bittersweet memories, especially when it comes to an old flame of hers.

This story was just a delightful read with plenty of sweet and heartwarming moments. I also enjoyed the fact it was a second chance for romance novel, focusing on older characters who are proud to be older, as they should be!

This is the second in the Little Bramble series but works perfectly well as a standalone. I only noticed when I went looking for more books by Cathy Lake and found the first book.

The characters are all so likable and sweet, I really enjoyed meeting them. I felt for Emma, she's burnt out and a bit isolated when we first meet her, trying to keep up with her freelance editing work and running herself into the ground. On top of all that, she gets the dreaded news about her father who might have dementia then having to face up to her old heartbreak... I just wanted to give her a hug!

The Country Village Summer Fete is a combination of gentle humour and sweet romance that is the perfect summer read. I'm looking forward to more books from Cathy Lake!

This is one of those books that I could tell by the cover I would enjoy. It struck a chord with me too as a family member has recently had a diagnosis of dementia. The book is a lovely summery read. Thank you Cathy.

This book had me hooked from the get go; the super pretty and summery cover, the village being called Little Bramble and the fact it was written by Cathy Lake. Yes, yes and yes please! I have just discovered (as is always the case with me) that this is in fact book 2 in a series... The Country Village Christmas Show (which I now NEED to read) is book 1 and I do believe there is going to be a third one to look forward to as well...

Anywho, we start this book in a tentative dream state, Emma is doing some shopping, at 2am, in her pyjamas. This isn't the normal behaviour of a 49 year-old editor in London... At first I was a bit confused at this start but it soon all made sense and this scene actually forms the catalyst (partially) for Emma's visit to Little Bramble.

Once Emma gets back to Little Bramble it is clear that she's trying to keep her head low and not bump into any of the ghosts from her past. Which we soon find out is much easier said than done and it doesn't take too long at all for her to notice a few familiar faces.

I really liked the relationship between Emma and her dad, the way that simply being there for each other helps bring them both out of their shells. It's a really uplifting part of the book and I loved hearing Greg's little quirks and bantering comments to Emma. It is clear though that Greg isn't the only one who holds Emma close to his heart and you really feel that she grows to be a true member of the community.

There wasn't a single character that I didn't like, ok Sadie maybe, but we'll forget about her ;) I think as with all books set in little villages, this just oozes cozy vibes and made me want to get snuggly with a hot chocolate and a big blanket. Although I would have been a runny mess (even worse than Emma's hob) with the heat that we've been having lately!

I'm so glad I got the chance to read this book and like I've said, I'm going to try and get my hands on books 1 - maybe a little bit of Christmas cheer will cool me down a bit?!

This is the second book in a series set in the charming village of Little Bramble. The first was set in the winter and covered a Christmas theme. It was lovely to return for the summer and catch up with some new characters, and some from the previous book.
Emma is finding her work life balance is spiralling out of control as she tries to manage her life as a self-employed editor. She’s great at what she does, but fear of failure has driven her to over commit. Meanwhile, her aging father is dealing with signs of dementia, which leads to a tough call and a return to her childhood home.
This is a delightful story which reminds us that there really is such a thing as water under the bridge. Emma is protecting herself from the guilt she feels after dumping boyfriend Connor nearly 30 years ago. Whilst the support of her friends, old and new, encourages her to rediscover the charms of village life, Emma struggles to understand how she can still feel such chemistry for Connor and, more importantly, how he can ever forgive her.
Emma and Connor are lovely characters and a wonderful addition to Little Bramble. If you’ve not read the first one, this is easily enjoyed as a standalone story. You are guaranteed everything that you would expect from a village fete, including jam, pickle, crafts and a large helping of happiness.
In particular, I loved Greg. His love for his daughter helps bring his sparkle back. The introduction of rescue greyhound, Harmony, is an added bonus. If you did read the first one, there’s a welcome development for Sam and Clare!