A perfect bit of light and fluffy romance for a covid illness lockdown - falling asleep mid sentence has no absolutely no impact on remembering where you were up to when you drift awake again. It's also lovely and comforting at such a time to read about familiar places, scenery, with the added attraction of a holiday location, just to lull you further into that slightly contented and pleasant state. But it's not all chocolate brownies, sunny days and flat white coffees. There are some serious themes in this story of two friends who run the Pretty Delicious Cafe. Lia and Anna are childhood friends, who two years previously threw caution to the wind and opened the café in their home town. Anna is about to marry Lia's twin brother Rob - good conflict plot device there with wedding plan and prep. Into this lovely little community one night appears Jed - naturally the impending love interest, but what sort of baggage does he come with? And then there is Lia's ex, a pest with a capital P if there ever was one. With one exception the 'serious themes' aren't really dealt with in any substance, but there is an awareness that these sorts of issues are pretty much universal in our families, friendships, relationships and our communities. The tone of of this easy to read, predictable and enjoyable novel doesn't lend itself to delving too deeply into the issues, but it is good to have them raised.

New Zealand chick-lit - great fun

A perfect, light-hearted holiday read. An easy, page turner. I look forward to making the recipes at the back although where is the lemon, yoghurt cake recipe?

A lovely book! Reading it for the Book Voyage challenges and it was a light read, yet delves into important issues.

Another fun read by Danielle Hawkins - light, great repartee, nice romance, fabulous NZ setting.

This would make a great holiday read

I got this out of the library because I really enjoyed Hawkins' "Chocolate Cake for Breakfast" - however I unfortunately didn't enjoy this one as much. Many of the characters in it seemed like a lot of hard work, and the

Spoiler

"psychic twin bond" element just seemed like a weird way of resolving the plot issue of how someone finds you when you're kidnapped

.

Really enjoyed - read twice in a row

3 to 3.5 stars. A fun read, set in delightful NZ.