Review - Summer Daydreams by Carole Matthews

Lots of love, laughs and emotional moments as ever in a Carole Matthews book!

Nell and Olly are struggling to make ends meet and seem to be always tag-team parenting with their four year old daughter Petal.  Nell works in a fish and chip shop and Olly works in a pizza factory at night and also takes on a DJ job too.  When the owner of the fish and chip shop says that takings are suffering, and they need to make some changes, they decide to let Nell loose on the place to do a complete makeover on a very limited budget.  She does a fantastic job, there is a massive turnaround and the place becomes a huge local success. 

This brings out the creativity that Nell has always known has been hidden away inside her and when her boss offers to lend her the money to go to college to take on a course in creative studies, she jumps at the chance much to Olly's disappointment as she didn't discuss it with him first.  When she then goes on to start her own business making her own handbag designs, it gets off to a fantastic start, and business booms, but Olly feels that she's putting him and Petal on the backburner as it takes over her whole life and they are getting left behind. 

A beautiful, colourful and sparkly cover entices you to read this book.  The story details the trials and tribulations of marriage, parenthood and business.  It weaves all three beautifully and there are many emotional and hold your breath moments as you come to expect in a Carole Matthews book!

I adore Carole's work, and have been a massive fan since I read her very first book - Let's Meet on Platform 8.  She has an amazing gift; from her very first words, you form fabulously vibrant pictures of the places and the characters that she creates which makes her books so effortless and a pure delight to read.   She really is an incredible writer and even though she writes around a couple of books a year, she still manages to make each and every one of them completely different and an absolute pleasure to read.

This was another truly feel-good read, which I got completely lost in.  Whenever I finish one of Carole's books, I feel a little sad as I have learned to love the characters and don't really want to leave them behind and am left wondering how they are getting on! Oh and I do love a good romance and a fairytale ending!

Carole Matthews is the Sunday Times best selling author of 18 previous novels which have been translated into many languages and sold to Hollywood. When she entered a short story competition in Writing Magazine, she couldn't believe that she had won a thousand pounds! She spent this money on a writing course (much to everyone's surprise!). The tutor on the course liked what she was writing and recommended an agent who took her on straight away. She sold her first book, which became Let’s Meet on Platform 8 (a fabulous read by the way!) a week later.

To find out more about Carole you can visit her website

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You can buy this book via Amazon here