Guest Review: The Cafe at Marigold Marina by Tilly Tennant

Welcome to the café on Marigold Marina, where the smell of freshly baked cakes fills the air, the boats bob merrily in the mellow evening sun and an unexpected meeting means the chance to love again…

When Rosie inherits the café on Marigold Marina after her husband’s tragic death, she is determined to pour her heart into his dream. Nine months later, as she serves coffee and cakes to customers, she is all smiles and laughter. But when the sunshine-yellow doors of the café are closed, she allows her heart to break all over again.

Rosie doesn’t have much room in her life for anything but the café. But when Kit, the owner of a bookshop barge, starts to come by regularly for lunch, she finds it difficult to ignore his dark eyes, dishevelled curls and warm smile. As the pair grow closer, and Kit teaches Rosie how to swim in the sparkling marina waters, Rosie begins to hope that she might get a second chance at happiness.

But just as she is letting herself open her heart for a second time, she discovers the shocking secret that the husband she loved for so many years kept hidden from her. And when Kit disappears when she needs him the most, she closes her café for good and leaves the marina. But has she cut herself off too quickly? Will moving away allow her to move on? Or can she only find true happiness if she learns to trust again?

Review: Tilly Tennant is one of my must-read authors, so I was keen to get my hands on her new book asap. It sounded like I was really going to love it with its riverside setting and cafe full of gorgeous offerings. Unusually, I found it took me a while to get into this story, but once hooked I was eager to follow the fortunes of its characters.

The central character in the story is recently-widowed Rosie. She finds herself living above the cafe at Marigold Marina, a river basin near to the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Renovating the rundown cafe and opening it once again was her husband, Fergus’s, dream and she is doing her best to succeed in his memory. When it is up and running again, Rosie finds she has little time for anything else, but a distraction comes along in the shape of Kit, who owns a book barge which he ties up nearby, and his sister Tabitha, who agrees to help in the cafe. Just as Rosie is beginning to believe that she might find happiness again, she learns a shocking secret that rocks her whole world and makes her want to turn and flee. She is faced with a terrible dilemma - should she give up all that she has achieved or should she stay at Marigold Marina and perhaps find love once more?

Although I, personally, found it took me longer than I expected to get into this book, I was glad that I did and can recommend it to other readers. It has such a lovely setting right on the river and I could certainly envy Rosie waking up to that view every morning. Rosie herself was an interesting character; on one hand strong and determined in relation to her business but incredibly naive in other ways, particularly in respect to the qualities of her late husband. I certainly didn’t like the sound of Fergus. Most of the other characters at the marina were warm and welcoming, in particular Kit and his sister. I would love to catch up with them all and find out what transpired in their lives - surely the sign of a good book.

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