Great summer novels, like great recipes, require a proper balance of ingredients. For this warm and delicious debut, THE IRRESISTIBLE BLUEBERRY BAKESHOP & CAFÉ, author Mary Simses combines a charming New England setting, equal doses of laughter, drama, romance, and heartache, and a compelling and emotional quest.
Ellen Branford is going to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish — to find the hometown boy she once loved and lost and give him her last letter. Ellen leaves Manhattan and her Kennedy-esque fiancé for Beacon, Maine. What should be a one-day trip is quickly complicated when she almost drowns in the chilly bay and is saved by a carpenter who happens to be on the scene. She manages to make matters worse by sharing a passionate kiss with the hero, a moment that’s captured by the town newspaper and transforms her into a local celebrity.
On her journey to track down her grandmother’s love, Ellen takes many detours. In addition to discovering secrets about the woman she thought she knew, Ellen’s various interactions with Beacon’s inhabitants force her to question her own choices, and it becomes clear that a twenty-four-hour visit might not be enough. And, along the way, THE IRRESISTIBLE BLUEBERRY BAKESHOP & CAFÉ is suffused with sumptuous images of blueberry muffins, cider doughnuts, strawberry rhubarb pie, and other baked delights, making for a truly unique love story.
Rights have been licensed to Pantagruel in Norway, Mondadori in Italy, Companhia das Letras in Brazil and Blanvalet in Germany. Headline will join us in publishing in the UK.
