The Teashop on the Corner

At her beloved husband's funeral, Carla Pride discovers that Martin never divorced his first wife and has been living a double life with her. And his other wife, Julie Pride, is determined to take everything from Carla - her home, her money, and her memories.

When Will Linton's business goes bust he at least thinks that with the support of his trophy wife Nicole he will rise to the top again. But Nicole isn't going to stick around with 'a loser' and Will finds himself at rock bottom.

Molly Jones is being bullied into going into a retirement home by her 'concerned' daughter-in-law Sherry and son Gram. Then the love of Molly's life walks in through her door - a man who broke Molly's heart into little pieces many years ago. But he says he is dying and wants to spend the time he has left with her.

All people in need of a little love and compassion which they find by chance in the stationery and teashop on the corner run by the ever-cheerful Leni, a woman that site developer Shaun McCarthy finds annoying beyond annoying for her ability to remain unrealistically upbeat about everything.

But is the world of Leni Merryman as full of rainbows and sparkles as everyone thinks? Or is her smile papering over many cracks in her heart that will soon be shattered unwittingly by her new friends?

My opinion: Milly Johnson super fan alert.... I LOVED this book!

Carla is at her husband's funeral when she discovers, in a scene worthy of any British soap, that another woman is legally his wife and he has been living a double life with her behind Carla's back. Martin never divorced first wife Julie and when they met up again many years later, they got back together. He just forgot to tell Carla this, amongst many other things. Molly lives next door to her twin sister and brother in law and lives a perfectly fine life. Apart from her horrible son and daughter in law who are trying to put her into a home and sell off her house, and a few skeletons in her closet. Will loses his business, his home and his shallow wife who doesn't seem to remember the "for poorer" part of her wedding vows. Each person's life gets intertwined with one anothers following the opening of Leni's teashop, where they meet each other, make new friends and have lots of tea and cake!

As soon as I started reading this book I was hooked yet again. I love Milly's style of writing, and although I have only recently discovered her book, what a discovery that was!! I really liked and felt attached to each of the main characters, but felt especially drawn to Carla as she rebuilt her life on her own and moved on from finding out that her life had been a lie. I also loved Molly and her story. Each of the characters had so much depth and there were some real shockers lurking in the back of closets. These storylines were sensitively handled without feeling as though the author was afraid of the topics, and worked so well to really turn the characters into real people.

I loved the detail that went into this book, partiularly about all of the literary gifts in Leni's cafe. The only thing I love more that bookish gifts are books about books! I had a bit of a book geek moment with this book and may have bought myself some book themed gifts when I finished! Another fabulous book from Milly Johnson. I can't wait for the next book, but feel lucky that I still have to acquaint myself with her back catalogue - very much something to look forward to!

My rating: Five fabulous stars

I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review