New Dreams at Polkerran Point by Cass Grafton
Rating: 4
Spicy: G; scenes are behind closed doors
Will you like this book? You might if you like:
Cozy romances
Pride and Prejudice
Cornwall
Found Families
Older, grump historian hero
Thank you to NetGallery for this ARC.
I’m a huge Anglophile and on my first trip to England I went to Cornwall and just fell in love. Adorable villages, beautiful views, demonic seagulls, you know all the best stuff. So when I saw this romance about a woman who inherits a cottage on the Cornish coast, I was like, yes please. And Grafton’s novel did not disappoint.
Anna is an orphan, raised by her resentful cousin, who spent her summers in Polkerran in Cornwall with her parent’s friend, Meg. When Meg passes away, she leaves her cottage to Anna with the stipulation that she live in the house, so Anna leaves behind her home in Yorkshire and moves to the coast. Unsure what she will do for work, she decides that she might open the cottage as a B&B. In the meantime, one of the villagers, who remembers Anna from when she was a child, helps her get a job assisting the local historian who lives across the cove. The historian, Oliver, is handsome for sure but a little grumpy and a man of few works. Around the same time, Anna runs into Alex, the son of the local gentry, who she had a major crush on when she was growing up. And now Alex seems to be interested in Anna, but does he have ulterior motives?
If you are a fan of cozy romances with a great cast of characters (read nosy villagers) with a little bit of gothic mystery thrown in, this is a great book for you. Anna is sweet but not a retiring wallflower. She might have slightly questionable taste in men, but she will see the light. Oliver is a little Mr. Darcy, combined with Mr. Rochester (minus the wife) and an older Dan Jones (if you don’t know him, google him now) with a dash of Edward from Elizabeth Hoyt’s Raven Prince. It is a heart-warming story of finding your way and creating a found family in a wonderful place.
Thank you so much for this beautifully written review, Julie. You've captured the sense of the book so well! Best wishes, Cass