Sunrise by the Sea by Jenny Colgan (Review by Jennifer Holmes)

Rating: 5 ⭐

Jenny Colgan books are my guilty pleasure, my escape to a far off town, and my guarantee I’m going to love kinda book. Her characters are loveable and the storyline usually quite sweet. I mean with titles like “Welcome to Rosie Hopkin’s Sweet Shop” and “Meet me at the Cupcake Café” you know the stories are going to be winners right? My favorite book of Jenny’s is The “Bookshop on The Corner” and I recommend it to all my friends and bookworms. I would love nothing more than to travel to London to meet Jenny in person to get my book sighed by her. #goals
“Sunrise by the Sea” is part of the Little Beach Street Bakery series so you’ll see a few of your favorite characters make an appearance but this book can be read as a standalone.

Marisa is struggling with the recent loss of her grandfather and finding it hard to move on like everyone else. Plagued with terrible anxiety Marisa must work from home and avoid going outside whenever possible. Needing an escape and time to heal she has moved to a remote Island on Mount Polbearne. Renting a sweet little cottage right on the water she’s sure she’ll have the peace and quiet she requires, that is until her piano-playing all hours of the night neighbor moves in. How can this oversized gorilla man not realize he might be keeping her up all night? Children’s lessons during the day and him banging on the keys at night there simply isn’t any escape, especially since Marisa cannot leave her house! Video chats with her grandmother slowly help her to heal and the beautiful gift baskets of spices and ingredients from her home town in Italy remind her that home is always near.

During a piano lesson Marisa meets the local bakery owner and hears of her financial troubles. She approaches her buffoon of a neighbor and offers to sponsor the twins to help out her new friend. In exchange for him keeping his silence and not playing the piano at night she will cook him meals. With the ingredients from her grandmother and the love of cooking she will slowly form a friendship with the Russian and come to understand him as being as misunderstood as she is. Little by little she will start to open up to her new friends and heal her broken heart. When a storm hits the town will need everyone to come together to help the community and that includes Marisa. Now is the time she must put one foot in front of the other to prove to her friends and herself that she belongs in Mount Polbearne.