The Grand Reopening Of Dandelion Cafe

I only blogged about this in Book News the other day, and I was around halfway through then. Well, I couldn't leave it there and let the deliciousness hover. I needed to read it and know what happens. So here I am, back here sharing with you just how bloody brilliant it is!

I love Jenny Oliver and didn't think she she'd be able to top The Parisian Christmas Bake Off - I love that back so much - but I should have more faith in Jenny, and Jenny I promise you, I do now! I know that Jenny is uber talented and will continue for a long time to provide us book lovers and fans with delicious, fun, laugh-out-loud and romantic stories to come.

So, Cherry Pie Island... is swoon worthy, and reading the description of the Island make me want to visit there... and the sweet little cafe, Dandelion Cafe (Could the name get any cuter...? Seriously??? I think not!), is truly the perfect setting for this new series. I love how Annie really didn't think she could renovate the cafe on such a small budget, but the locals are like family and they all dig in with the renovations.

I have to say that I found this book to be the perfect blend of; Carole Matthews' Cake Shop in the Garden, mixed with Rebecca Raisin's Gingerbread Cafe, and true Jenny Oliver, Parisian Bake Off - yet with a NEW, DELICIOUS taste to it. So, if you're a fan of any or all of those books... YOU - NEED - TO - READ - THIS!!!

The characters are fun, beleivable and realistic, and the dishy one - Matt - well, I actually highlighted and made a note on my kindle when I read a certain description of him...yum...MEEE!! Oh, you want me to share?! Oh, OK, seeing as it's you, but keep this strictly between You and Me, OK? There is this one point in the book where Matt is wearing... a black shirt (Oh dear goodness... i'm swooning already) and dark low slung jeans like a cowboy.... (OK, that just made my tummy do cartwheels!) I am a sucker for black shirts and pair them with dark jeans and I swear, I'll agree to anything...

Ok, so back with everyone here now, THE GRAND REOPENING OF DANDELION CAFE is heart warming too, as you see Annie almost fight for the approval of her family. She still thinks that no one takes her seriously because of ONE mistake she made when she was 21... we ALL make mistakes at that age ... I still do and that was 5 years ago that I was 21. Anyway, Annie's Dad passed away and she finally inherited this Cafe, after Enid passed on too, and now it all rests on her shoulders to keep it going for the community - and maybe for herself. No pressure?!

I loved Annie's personality, sweet, friendly, terribly caring and just the right dose of fun - Silver sequined leggings - You can thank me when you read it! And, the chemistry between Matt and Annie is so terribly sweet, that I simply cannot wait for part 2 to be released... I have to wait a whole month before I can get my hands on that... or do I? ... Hmmm I really don't know, but what I do know is that I will be reading it the second I can!

Cherry pie island aka Eel Pie Island

The Cherry Pie Island as used i n this book, is a fictional version of the rather well known Eel Pie Island in the River Thames at Twickenham.
Eel Pie Island was earlier called Twickenham Ait and, before that, The Parish Ait. An ait or eyot is a small island. It is especially used to refer to river islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries.
Eel Pie Island is to be found on the ordnance Survey map of 1876 but was known by Dickens when he wrote Nicholas Nickleby in 1838-9. In the 15th century it was known as Gose Eyte and the Parish Ayte in the 17th century. This refers to the fact that it was either a nesting island for geese or was being used for geese being fattened for the table perhaps. It was a popular island for picnics in the 19th century and was famous for eel pies! Yes, real eels... caught in the Thames and cooked in sauce and then placed in a pie. The traditional recipe was developed by Mrs Beeton and a version is given here.
Based on the original Mrs Beeton’s 1861 Recipe for an Eel Pie.
Ingredients: 450g eels 2 tbsp parsley, chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped freshly-grated nutmeg, to taste salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste juice of 1/2 lemon 100g fish forcemeat 150ml béchamel sauce 200g puff pastry

Begin by preparing the eels. To skin and gut, hold it down by the head on a solid work surface with a towel (an eel is very slippery). With a sharp knife, make an incision around the neck, just below the head. The thick filmy skin will separate. Grip the skin with a pair of pliers, and pull it down the length of the eel to the tail and cut it off. Make a slit down the length of the stomach and pull out the innards. Rinse the eel well under cold running water.

Cut the eels into pieces 5cm long then line the base of your pie dish with the forcemeat. Arrange the eels on top then scatter over the parsley and shallot. Season with the nutmeg, salt and black pepper then sprinkle over the lemon juice.
Cover with the puff pastry then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for 1 hour. Heat the béchamel sauce in a pan, make a hole in the top of the pie then pour in the sauce and serve.

Read more at Celtnet: http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-mrs-beeton-eel-pie Copyright © celtnet Now eels are still eaten and in my Doyle’s Fish CookBook recipes for them start with a little verse:
Strange the formation of the eely race That know no sex, yet love the close embrace Their folded lengths they round each other twine Twist amorous knots and slimy bodies join.
Apparently this verse comes from another fish cookbook by Theo Roughley.
Doyle gives us 4 recipes for eel but none are a pie.
An eel is any fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes and is a predator.and includes conger and morays as well as the rather less fearsome variety that swims in the Thames - and although they are far from common now they were very common in the Victorian era hence the pies.
Coming back to the island it was not until 1957 that a bridge was completed. Today, the island has about 50 houses with 120 inhabitants, a couple of boatyards and some small businesses and artists' studios. It has nature reserves at either end. So as you can see - from both this description and the photos - that it makes a perfect Cherry Pie Island. It also has a famous recording studio named after it by Pete Townsend and is known for its bands and music too.
See also the descriptions of the island in: https://littlelondonobservationist.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/exploring-eel-pie-island So having identified the island we can now move onto the book.
It was a short but cosy read. Opening cafes is a genre that is as popular as opening books shops. Is this because hidden in so many women is the secret desire to run a cafe and in avid book readers to run a book shop? I know I wouldn’t mind either... and in fact only last night a friend said I should run a community book shop as I had so many ideas for how to do so..
Taking a run-down cafe /shop and filling it with antiques/upcycled/recycled/vintage items is very popular too. My brother-in-law’s favourite cafe runs on donated vintage (not necessarily matching) cups and saucers. And lots of cafes look like they’ve rummaged through a second-hand store for their tables and chairs. So very of the moment in how the cafe was fitted out even though it was done as a cost cutting exercise in the book.
Naming the poor boy ‘River’ was a shame - River Phoenix comes to mind and is so trendy of the pop star/film star variety - where children have names which seem cute when they are little but are an embarrassment when they grow up.
Looking up the book I find that this is just the first of a series and it does have that feel - that there are plenty more stories of the inhabitants yet to come - which I might just read in due course.
So overall, it was an enjoyable if light reading experience and I give it 3 stars.

I received this copy from Carina Uk and Net Galley and it is titled The Reopening of the Dandelion café.
Annie has been left the Dandelion café on Cherry Pie Island (on Thames side). But it’s a struggling concern and has seen better days. BUT it is known for it’s Cherry Pie- can that save their business.
She decides it’s worth reopening the café and collects various discarded shelves and baking items to make it a shabby chic café. Her mum even makes some pretty curtains to go with the new look.
She still wants to return to her ‘day job’ in the city and sees this as a temporary stay- but the islanders draw her in and the ‘brooding male’ is another reason to stay! He buys her a really thoughtful present for opening day- and the story has a really feel good feeling about it.
It’s part of a series which is advertised as readable as stand alone books aswell. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Every now and then I feel the need to read something that I know will soothe my weary brain and The Grand Reopening of the Dandelion Cafe is one such book. The first in a series of four books being published this year it's the story of Annie, a little cafe that she has inherited and her motley collection of relatives including a brother who can do no wrong and an overbearing mother.

Having worked hard to establish her own business the last thing Annie wants to do is come home to the island where she grew up to look after a cafe that had been her 'spot' with her late father and famous for its cherry pie. She does though and it turns out to be the best thing she could ever do.

Sulky teenage boys in bands, smouldering single dads, best friends with secrets and spending time with estranged family lead Annie to make long-lasting decisions that ultimately affect more than just herself. The Grand Reopening of the Dandelion Cafe is a great read that will make you smile and wish for your own slice of cherry pie. I'm itching now to read the rest of the series to find out what happens next!

Okay, honestly, first off, Jenny Oliver has some talent as a writer. Certainly she's better than a lot of chick lit and romance writers out there who are much more "mainstream" and she clearly has potential. The story is actually really cute, and Annie and her love interest Matt are both highly relatable and interesting, despite how quickly the book moves. It genuinely takes talent to make the reader feel like they have an actual human character instead of a bundle of cliches or a one dimensional cardboard figure, in less than 100 pages.

Really though, speaking of it being less than 100 pages, the book was just too short! I feel like it was just starting to settle in and pick up when it ended kind of abruptly. I mean clearly this is a planned series, so maybe Oliver is attempting to leave a cliff hanger to keep you coming back for subsequent books, but it was just kind of off-putting. I really felt like I needed a little bit more to be fully committed and invested in this series. I was thoroughly enjoying the story and starting to get swept up in the magic and really liking down to earth Annie flirting with good-guy Matt when it just cut me off and ended. I'd also really love for some of the other characters to be more fleshed out, but with such a short novel, only the two main characters really got any attention as far as character development, which really hurts my emotional investment level. Also, side note, I HATE when novels cite specific examples of technology (in this case, WhatsApp and and an iPhone 6 not to mention several popular TV shows) because it dates the book and really makes it feel irrelevant after a few years.

All that aside, it really is a charming and adorable little book. The plot moves fast, but quite a bit happens and the main characters at least are fleshed out and lovable. Her writing flows easily and isn't painful or stale, which is such a huge mark in this book's favor. I just needed a little bit more.

I loved this book right from the start, it reminded me a little bit of The Beach Cafe by Lucy Diamond. The characters were believable and I got pulled right into their story and their lives and on every turn of the page I was eager to see what was going to happen next. I loved it so much that I have pre-ordered all three of the other books in the series. Would definitely recommend

I really enjoyed this book. it was warm, engaging and witty. Jenny Oliver has a warm, engaging style and her characters, though not drawn out in detail, have a depth to them that's often lacking in books of this genre. True, the story was rather predictable but this didn't detract from my enjoyment. I rattled through at a fair old pace and willed for the cafe to be a success (of course it will be, otherwise there's no reopening as highlighted in the title).

My only criticism is that it's rather short. It's the first of four parts which means the story will be drawn out somewhat. I know it ended in an appropriate place but still felt very short... Looking forward to the next installment, eager to know more about Enid and Holly

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although the plot is very slight, this is an engaging feel-good novel. Annie and Matt are easy to like as are the surrounding characters about whom presumably we will learn more as the series unfolds. Ideal for an afternoon at the beach or a sunny day in the garden.

A fab start to a new series of books. Annie has inherited The Dandelion Cafe a memory from her past famous for its cherry pie unfortunately the cafe has been let go and needs a lot of work. Something stops her from selling and draws her back to her childhood home and friends. There is an interesting variety of characters from River the teenage Saturday waiter to Holly her best friend hiding her pregnancy from everyone. Hopefully we'll find out more of there stories as the books progress. Can't wait for the next one

A great light read, the first in a series of 4 books. I read this over a very busy weekend. This can be read as a standalone book or as part of the set. The book left you feeling that you wanted to read more about the characters so was pleased to find books 2-4 on amazon for preorder.

A delightful story. Annie has left her family home to forge a successful design career in London. However, a bequest from her father makes her question her reasons for leaving, and to reconsider her relationship with other members of the family. After all, home is where the heart is... A satisfying read. I just wish it had included a recipe for the eponymous Cherry Pie.

I started this book on a monday night when i was feeling a bit rubbish but this book was the perfect escape for me and once i finished i felt so happy and i love it when a book makes me feel like this.

Cherry pie island is a truly beautiful read and it seems such a gorgeous place to live and wish i could own little cafe there.

I really like Anna i felt for her how guilty she felt about her past and how her brother Jonathan makes her feel but apart from her demons she came across as a very sweet, friendly and fun character i loved the description of her outfit on the opening night those silver leggings.

To be honest i liked all the characters i found them all to be believable and i especially liked Mat i was very happy with the ending.

I would recommend Cherry Pie Island to anyone who wants to escape for a while as it certainly was an escape for me and i am very excited for the next books in the series.

On the blog tour for this book so will add my link to blog on Sunday 5th April