Member Reviews

Yet another superb book from Jo Thomas, her books always hit the spot. I absolutely love this author and her writing style. Beautifully written, idyllic setting and perfect summer read.

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What a truly stunning summer read this book is and Jo never fails to disappoint. Heart warming and beautifully written.

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Another wonderful book from Jo Thomas, she never fails to hit the spot! Beca returns to her hometown after a glittering career but is horrified at the changes to her family’s ice cream parlour. Determined to bring back some traditional Italian charms she establishes a rival business and finds love in the process. Delightful.

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A great summer read with beaches, sun and ice cream.

Beca moves back to the town she was brought up in and finds her grandparents gelato shop has been turned into a horrible ice cream cafe. She starts a plan. Beca knows what she wants and sets about getting it. Lovely read with great characters and a fantastic location.

Summery reading at its best.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

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Summer at the Ice Cream Cafe by Jo Thomas

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Random Things Tours and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

It's time for a fresh start... After a decade of building her career in the city, Beca is ready to escape the humdrum. When she sees her dream home for sale in her hometown, it starts to seem like fate. But when she arrives and visits her grandparents' ice cream parlour, Beca is horrified to find out that the new owner, her ex-boyfriend Ed, has stripped the heart out of it. Determined to honour her family's legacy, Beca decides to follow in their footsteps and make delicious ice cream with the help of a long-forgotten recipe book and boat house. As a fierce rivalry develops, Beca must rely on her oldest friend, Griff, to help her make the parlour a success. But when disaster strikes, is Beca about to discover that true happiness has been right in front of her the whole time?

My Opinion

This is a lovely summer read but make sure you have ice cream or gelato on hand as you will need some whilst reading this. After ten years in city, Beca is ready to return home and would like to foster children. She is shocked to find out hat her grandparents gelato shop is not as she remembers and she would like to recreate it if possible.

I really enjoyed reading this, although I am not surprised as I have also enjoyed the previous books I have read by Jo Thomas. An easy book to read about starting again.

Rating 4/5

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Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

A perfect summer read.

The story is about Becca, she wants to leave the city, and spots a house, her dream house for sale, back in her hometown,

Her dream is to have the ideal foster family, but will going home be easy as she thinks, as both the place and people have changed and now she’s thinking if she’s made the wrong choice.

But then, two children arrive, and she’s intent on making a go of the life she wants to live, as well as re-establishing her friendship with Griff.

Whilst sorting out stuff in the house, she comes across her grandparents old gelato recipe book, an ideas start to take shape.

The story had lovely characters, lots of drama and one that you’ll enjoy reading again.

I highly recommend this book.

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Summer At The Ice Cream Café was a wonderful, family orientated story and i really enjoyed getting involved in all the goodness!

Becca decides it is time to return back home but when she gets there she doesn’t like what she finds. So to cut a long story short she begins to make her own ice cream following a family recipe book and so the story unfolds…

This was a perfect Summer read but please know this - you will crave ice cream during and after reading this book!!

I loved the author’s style of writing and she really knows how to set a scene and i really felt as though i was there, fully immersed in all the yummy goodness - perfect…..

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I really enjoyed this book, didn't think I was going to at the start but it really picked up and turned into a page turner, the characters were well written and very likable, the story was really interesting and there was just enough description. Sit in the sun and enjoy this book.

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A lovely summer romance from this accomplished author sees 40-something Beca Valentino return to Welsh seaside town of Swn Y Mor which she left in disgrace over 20 years ago. Having sold her cleaning business she has bought the local farmhouse manor and looks forward to fulfilling her dream of filling it with foster children and offering them her childhood experiences of sunshine, swimming and ice-cream from Valentinos, the ice-cream parlour her grandparents owned. But though some things in the town are the same - especially the gossip - others have changed, particularly the ice-cream parlour, now owned by the man who once broke Beca's heart.
With the help of her old friend Grif, and her first pair of foster children, Beca sets out to turn things around for herself and the town, but there are a lot of challenges to overcome along the way.
This book has a gorgeous setting - you can feel the summer breeze on your face, taste the salt water and hear the gentle moo-ing of the small dairy herd that Beca now owns. The narrative flows beautifully, the romantic elements strengthened and underpinned by the fostering element of the story, which adds depth to the story.
The characters are strong and sympathetic - Joe, the younger foster boy will win over your heart - and there are a few twists along the way to keep you guessing the outcome.
And finally there's the food - a hallmark of Jo Thomas's stories. She knows how to tantalise the tastebuds, and this time she does it with ice-cream, home=made in so many flavours. I want to try them all!
I'd definitely recommend this summer read.

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Jo Thomas’s last few summer books have seen us visiting sunny climes in places such as Spain, Italy and France. This time we are rather closer to home as the ice-cream café of the title is situated on a beach on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. Beca has returned to her small hometown and bought Ty Mawr, the big house, with great plans for it. Some of the locals aren’t too pleased thinking it’s been bought by a London type, pricing out the locals and out to develop it into expensive housing or a hotel. Others are annoyed that that’s not what she’s planning to do!

Beca’s plans are the focus for the book. She intends to foster and give children the chance to experience life in the countryside even if only for a short time. I loved that her memories of happy family times, particularly with her beloved Nonna, were what inspired her to want to create happy memories for the children who would be in her care. When she is asked to give emergency care to two boys, older than she was expecting, she is determined that she will make a difference in their lives, the way her parents and grandparents had done for her. Through the boys, eager Joe and truculent Blake, Jo Thomas shows that foster parenting can certainly bring its challenges. Joe is someone it is easy to warm to with his enthusiasm and open nature. My heart went out to Blake, even though he was more difficult, as he just expected to be let down as he had been so many times before.

A key theme of the book is about being brave, taking the plunge (literally in the case of the wild swimmers) and how sometimes going back can be the only way to move forward. Beca learned that life wasn’t all about being faultless and providing perfect experiences for Joe and Blake but about being there and showing love, about embracing imperfections and differences.

And then of course, there is the ice-cream. Or, I should say, the gelato! Although the gelateria of her childhood was no longer in the town but was a trendy and expensive restaurant, Beca found through using her Nonna’s old recipe book that she too could make wonderful tasting gelato that was all the more wonderful because it was made with love. Some of the flavours sounded wonderful but some of them. particularly those suggested by Joe sounded awful! I loved the idea of running a gelateria from an old beach hut – now that does sound perfect to me.

This is such a lovely, lovely book. I was captivated by Beca’s determination to do her best for the boys in her care and also to become part of the community again which meant so much to her. There’s a lovely touch of romance in the book too of course which added to my enjoyment. Jo Thomas has done it again with a heart-warming story which left me with a big smile on my face.

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I loved this warm hearted, feel good summer read.
The characters were so easy to visualise, and the description of the cove and Sun Y Mor made it tempting to visit and holiday in that area.
This is a truly happy read with a great feel good factor, just right if you are in need of a pick me up on a cloudy day.

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This is the perfect summer read in the sunshine. Great characters, a beautiful Welsh setting and gelato - what more could a girl ask for ?
Jo Thomas is one of my go to authors and this one is another cracker. Beca’s journey is written so beautifully and I was full of admiration for her bravery in coming home. Her home sounded wonderful and was obviously just the place to heal old wounds and become a haven to anyone who needed it.
I loved how most of the community welcomed her back and the idea of the swim group, The Mermaids and their attitude to life was one I’d love to be involved with.
If you’re after a fun in the sun read but with all the emotions of a Jo Thomas story, then this one will definitely hit the spot and oh, that gelato sounded amazing.

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I absolutely loved this novel and could not put it down and for the first time in a long time finished a book in a day. The novel is brilliantly heartwarming and features the return of main character Beca to her hometown by the sea from her escape to the big city as a teen. We follow Beca's journey as she tries to find her place in the small town full of gossips and where outsiders are looked on unfavourably. Change was always going to be inevitable on her return and we watch admirably as she struggles to understand and make peace with some of these changes. Some unexpected visitors also throw a bit of a spanner into the works for Beca but watching their relationship grow and develop was truly wonderful. A summer read to melt your heart, I loved every last bit of the story

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Oh what a fab book,I was sitting outside while the sun was shining reading about gelato ! What could be better ? Apart from having an ice cream myself !
Beca has gone back home after buying the old farm but can’t believe the changes since she has gone, the worst being her old family ice cream parlour has gone, sold and changed into a posh wine bar come restaurant and not for the better
As she tries to settle in and meets up with the people she left behind can she make it work or is it a mistake ?

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Summer at the Ice Cream Café - Jo Thomas

We follow Beca as she returns home to start over again. Yes the story line was predictable but that is what I have come to like and enjoy from this type of book. Jo Thomas does an epic job of just the right amount of description when it comes to the the setting of a story, and the gelato sounded amazing. It is so easy to picture yourself inside one of this authors books. Thank you Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and Jo Thomas for the E-arc in return for my honest thoughts and opinions.

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When Becca returns to her native seaside village on the Pembrokeshire coast, the villagers don’t know what to make of her. As she rekindles some old friendships, the locals wait to see what she’ll do with the big house she’s bought. None of them could have predicted that she’d end up fostering,or that she’d resurrect the old family ice cream business.

This is a fairly predictable, summer romance. I enjoyed the story but found the timeline somewhat unrealistic. When the boys first arrived there was no mention of school but the events spanned a lot more than six weeks so couldn’t have taken place within the summer holidays.

I also think the speed with which the boys, in particular Blake, settled into his new home was unlikely.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Gelato on the brain
Beca Valentino wanted nothing more than to get away from the Welsh seaside town she grew up in. As a teenager she flees to London to find her fortune. But when her life falls apart she realises that home really is where the heart is. So Beca returns to the town she used to call home. On returning she bumps into the man who broke her heart - and discovers that things can’t always stay the same. The ice cream shop her grandparents once owned has been taken over by none other than Ed - the man who broke her heart - and most definitely is not the same. We join Beca as she makes a fresh start in an old place, as she takes on a herd of dairy cows and two foster children and works out what she was running away from and what exactly she’s running to.
As like all of Jo’s books the setting was idyllic, I can picture the seaside town, the cove and the beach hut and I can taste the fresh gelato. A wonderful summer read.

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Beca Valentine returns home to find things aren't as she remembers. People reappear into her life as rebuilds it. Her goal to foster and to create gelato like her grandparents made. However the shop is taken by Ed.
Is there room for 2 gelato shops? A perfect summer easy read.

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I absolutely loved this book, couldn't put it down. Read it in two days. Prodigal girl returns to home town after building a successful business wanting to provide a home for kids who need a foster parent. I loved the characters, very realistic and believable, especially the two boys who came into Beca's care. Her long ago ex Ed has taken over Beca's old family cafe but changed it beyond recognition. Griff, her best friend, supports her in fostering boys with differing needs and personalities. This is a lovely book, ideal for summer and a feel good read. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

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When Beca Valentino was a child in a village on the Pembrokeshire coast she fell in love with a house in the village. Years later, seeing the house up for sale and having sold her successful cleaning business, Beca buys it and moves back to the place she grew up in. A place she ran from to escape gossip as a young woman.
She knew things would have changed but she wasn’t expecting to see the gelato café her family had run for years turned into a café / wine bar by non-other than the ex-boyfriend who caused the gossip she had run from.
But going back isn’t always a good thing. So much has changed and people have moved on, can Beca have the life she is hoping for. Fostering 2 teenage boys sets village tongues wagging again but she is determined to show both the boys and the gossips that she is her own woman and that she will not run away again. Can Beca help the boys and herself in the process?
A story about family in all its unconventional forms set in a beautiful part of Wales. It’s lovely, moving and will leave you with a warm glow.

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