Saturday, July 1, 2017

The Second Chance Cafe in Carlton Square

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~


Synopsis (from Amazon): Everyone expects great things from Emma Billings, but when her future gets derailed by an unexpected turn of events, she realizes that getting back on track means traveling in a different direction. 

She finds it in the closed-down pub on Carlton Square. Summoning every ounce of ingenuity, and with the help of her friends and family, she opens the Second Chance Café. The charity training business is meant to keep vulnerable kids off the streets and (hopefully) away from the Metropolitan Police, and her new employees are full of ideas, enthusiasm ... and trouble. They'll need as much TLC as the customers they’re serving.

This ragtag group of chancers have to make a go of a business they know nothing about, and they do get some expert help from an Italian who's in love with the espresso machine and a professional sandwich whisperer who reads auras, but not everyone is happy to see the café open. Their milk keeps disappearing and someone is canceling the cake orders, but it's when someone commits bloomicide on all their window boxes that Emma realizes things are serious. Can the café survive when NIMBY neighbors and the rival café owner join forces to close them down? Or will Emma’s dreams fall as flat as the cakes they’re serving?


One (or more) Sentence Summary:  This was my first book by Lilly Bartlett and really enjoyed it.  This is the second book in the series, but I would have not know if I had just picked it up and started reading.  I do want to go back and read the first one in the series, The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square.

I could really relate to Emma.  Trying to do it all and not wanting to ask for help.  I too have twins.  When they were born, I had three kids 1 and under.  Life was crazy.  I also worked full-time and traveled.  Lilly did such a great job laying out the scenes and the struggles of Emma's life.  

The characters were so real to me.  Uncle Barbara....couldn't stop laughing. The "kids" (at risk teens) Emma hires to work at the Cafe, the elderly couple who met at the cafe when it was pub, Emma's parents, Daniel (Emma's husband) and BFF Kell.  The book rolls naturally as Emma gets the cafe ready, struggles with issues at home, helping two teens that tug at her heart, and there rival cafe.  What is a girl to do....?

Really cute book with great characters and a wonderful story line.

Would I Read Other Books by the Author: Absolutely, yes!  As I said above, I want to go back and read the first book in the series, The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square.  I also plan on reading The Big Dreams Beach Hotel, out in August.

Please check out what others are saying on the tour:




Lilly Bartlett is a pen name of Michele Gorman. Michele writes books with heart and humour, full of best friends, girl power and, of course, love and romance. Call them beach books or summer reads, chick lit or romcom… readers and reviewers call them “feel good”, “relatable” and “thought-provoking”.
She is both a Sunday Times and a USA Today bestselling author, raised in the US and living in London. She is very fond of naps, ice cream and Richard Curtis films but objects to spiders and the word “portion”.
You can find Michele on Instagram and on Facebook . You can follow her on Twitter and visit Michele’s blog and her website.

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