The Pet Shop At Pennycombe Bay by Sheila Norton

2.5 Stars

I bought this book as a light hearted holiday read and it does fill that criteria nicely.  It is a light and fairly frothy tale of one woman's, Jess, struggle to forge a life for herself after everything has fallen apart and she finds herself more or less adrift.  I'm still not entirely sure why she felt that she had to leave her former life and finds it impossible to trust anyone, it is covered in the book but glossed over to some extent and I certainly can't remember it a coupe of weeks after finishing the tale.

So, she's moved in with her cousin Ruth.  Works in a local pet shop.  Has no social life.  Trusts no-one.  To be honest Jess has a fairly bleak existence that is only broken up by her internal conversations with her dog Prudence.  Then she meets fellow dog walker Nick on the beach and her horizons begin to broaden. 

This book does cover a lot of ground, not all of it nicely sanitised small town life.  The author manages to weave in alcoholism, same sex relationships, Pets As Therapy, abusive relationships.  Unfortunately, for me, it all felt a little superficial and the characterisations lacked any real depth to them so it was difficult to really empathise with Jess or to really settle in to the community at Pennycombe Bay.  to be honest the only bits that I really enjoyed were Vera and Eddie's later life romance and Jess's conversations with Prudence.  The rest of it just really passed me by.

The pace is nice and steady and events unfold fairly naturally.  I just found that it was all a little twee somehow.  It is a good holiday read as it is easy to pick up and put down, probably because I wasn't really invested in the place or it's people.