Christmas at The Little Duck Pond Cafe

by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / CA/ AU  

 

Fen has always hated being the center of attention.

She loves her new job, working behind the scenes at the Little Duck Pond Cafe and baking the scrumptious cakes that have helped its reputation soar. But frankly, she’d rather scrub the public toilet floor with a toothbrush than have to come out and talk to the customers.

She’s always been happy to stay in the background as long as she has a good supply of books to escape into. That’s her kind of romance – the fictional sort where she can read about other people taking a chance on love, but she doesn’t have to risk her own heart.

But that was before Ethan Fox arrived in the village and turned her world upside down. Ethan is a leading light in the local amateur dramatics theatre company and Fen knows he’s way out of her league.

But when the popular village Christmas pantomime hits a crisis, Fen and Ethan find themselves thrown together. Can Fen overcome her shyness and find the courage to step on stage and save the day?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I’ve always hated my blushes. You can’t have any secrets if you turn as red as a ripe tomato at anything that’s even mildly unsettling. When I was younger, I used to wear a weird green-coloured cream on my face that was supposed to hide the blushes. Then my latest crush commented loudly, in front of the whole class, that I always looked like Casper the friendly ghost. So the tube of cream went in the bin.

 

He of the hard muscles yet adorably soft centre.

 

I prefer muted colours. (Mum describes these colours ‘jokingly’ as ‘shades of sludge’ and is always trying to encourage me to dress more colourfully.)

 

I wish I had more confidence. So when I’m pitching for an important business contract and I know I’ll be nervous, I do my ‘Superman pose’ before I go to the meeting… It’s a little-known fact that you can con your brain into believing you’re confident, which then makes you feel more confident. And one way to do that is to adopt what they call a “power pose” to make you feel more powerful. In private, of course. They might carry you off if you were to do it on public transport.

 

My Review:

 

This was book three in the series and my favorite to date. I continue to adore these quirky characters and have been curious about the excruciatingly timid yet talented Fen since her first introduction. Fen was painfully shy and suffered from feelings of inadequacy and paralyzing anxiety, which was superbly captured and cleverly portrayed by this wily author.   The multiple and equally intriguing storylines were well-crafted and shrewdly paced with equal measures of levity, family drama, and attempts at romance as Fen and company were attempting to push past her restrictive comfort zone as well as deal with the community, work, and family concerns. I enjoyed Fen’s inner musings, confused insights, skewed observations, gradual ripening, and finally her personal shackle shattering awareness and epiphanies.   I was highly amused by the manner Fen drew plot similarities and concepts from her favorite romance novels and beloved heroines to draw confidence, check her deportment, or assimilate her feelings while attempting to interact with men she found attractive. Now that Ms. Green has dealt with the three women working in the café, I am eager to see whom her keen writer’s eye hones in on next.

I’m trying something new – I’m taking part in the lovely Jo Linsdell’s Booktastic link up Thursday – she is such a precious little thing.

Author Bio

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centered on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988