The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane... by Ellen Berry

The blurb:

Take a trip to the Yorkshire village of Burley Bridge, where a very special little cookbook shop has just opened its doors...

IN THE BEGINNING
Kitty Cartwright has always solved her problems in the kitchen. Her cookbooks are her life, and there isn't an issue that 'Cooking with Aspic' can't fix. Her only wish is that she had a book entitled 'Rustling Up Dinner When Your Husband Has Left You'

FORTY YEARS LATER

On Rosemary Lane, Della Cartwright plans to open a very special little bookshop. Not knowing what to do with hundreds of cookbooks her mother left her, she now wants to share their recipes with the world - and no amount of aspic will stand in her way.

But with her family convince it's a hare-brained scheme, Della starts to wonder if she's made a terrible decision. One thing's for sure: she's about to find out...

My thoughts:

This story follows Della and her love of cookbooks, hundreds of which she inherited from her mother who recently passed away. She decides that she wants to do something with them, give them a new home, hence the opening of The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane..

To be honest, I found this story a little hard to get into - I think it was just a bit slow of start for me. Saying that though, after a few chapters I really started to enjoy Della's story and I loved getting to know her while on this journey.

Della is kind, strong, talented and really likeable, you will be rooting for her to succeed, even when things aren't going well for her she always keeps going and tries to see the positives. Her husband Mark, however, is grumpy and discouraging - not a person who should be with someone as bright and cheerful as Della. I found Della easy to relate to, mostly through her love of food but to me, it was like getting to know someone who lives down the road..

I absolutely loved the idea of a bookshop only for cookbooks, if a shop like that existed near me I'm pretty sure my friends would never see me again! The quirkiness of the shop and how it comes about really intrigued me, keeping me hooked until the end.. Ellen Berry's descriptions throughout are mouthwatering - don't read this story on an empty stomach!

I'm excited for the next instalments in the Rosemary Lane series, if this first chapter is anything to go by. The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane is definitely a delicious read! You can buy The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane here, and follow Ellen Berry (aka Fiona Gibson) on Twitter.