The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay

De: Nicola May

Narrado por: Penny Scott Andews

Rosa Larkin is down on her luck in London, so when she inherits a near-derelict corner shop in a quaint Devon village, her first thought is to sell it for cash and sort out her life. But nothing is straightforward about this legacy. While the identity of her benefactor remains a mystery, he - or she - has left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it.

Rosa makes up her mind to give it a go: to put everything she has into getting the shop up and running again in the small seaside community of Cockleberry Bay. But can she do it all on her own? And if not, who will help her succeed - and who among the following will work secretly to see her fail?

There is a handsome rugby player, a sexy plumber, a charlatan reporter and a selection of meddling locals. Add in a hit-and-run incident and the disappearance of a valuable engraved necklace, and what you get is a journey of self-discovery and unpredictable events. With surprising and heartfelt results, Rosa, accompanied at all times by her sausage dog Hot, will slowly unravel the shadowy secrets of the inheritance and also bring her own long-hidden heritage into the light.

©2018 Nicola May (P)2018 W. F. Howes Ltd

The characters and relationship development

I didn’t like the main character at first but came to love her as the story developed

Nice story

Good narration but sometimes hard to know which character she was speaking in. Enjoyable story though. Would recommend.

Pauses.

The pauses between the chapters are a tad too long. It made me feel like the audio had stopped when it suddenly starts up again!🤨

Enjoy 😉

I really enjoy :) good read 📚 .. it was such good read on storm day ... Can't wait read next ok me

Joe, Jacob and Josh all in one book?

All the 'J' names don't help when there are too many moving plot points. I've had mildly negative feelings about this book since I started it. Penny Andrews is a narrator I try to avoid, but that wasn't the problem here. It's that there is not one likeable character. Rosa is a good time party girl with a rough background--a perfect character to begin with--as long as there is some development along the way. I'm on Chapter 46 and there have maybe been some glimmers of change in her but not much. Ditto the other characters. Some are just outright disagreeable. The ones who aren't are just mildly likeable.

All of the elements of a good story are here: gorgeous, seaside location, an orphaned main character who's single, and a mystery inheritance. Unfortunately, the unlikeable charters, lack of character change in the arc of the story, some clumsy plotting with too many elements topped off by the voice of this narrator make this sadly, a disagreeable book. Not sure if I'll try another by this writer. A development editor might be transformational here.

As far as the narrator is concerned, I don't know if Rosa's voice is Penny Andrews' natural speaking voice or not. I'm guessing not, as she does a good job with some of the characters. Rosa sounds like a silly Valley Girl--not a thinker and of questionable intelligence.

At least there's a cute dog!

“Meh”.

The story had a reasonably good premise but falls short of the mark. The main character’s lack of common sense is grating, leading to predictable failures. Her slutty behaviour does not help readers identify or empathise with her much either. She is all over the place, literally and figuratively. One of the biggest issues is the narrator’s speech - due to her accent and manner of speaking, she sounds much like Stacey Dooley - as if she’s constantly smiling or about to laugh, even when reading dramatic passages, which spoils the book completely. Regional accents are fine in a narrator, but not when it inadvertently conveys one single emotion throughout - that of suppressed mirth. I tried to ignore it but it is impossible - I eventually gave up 2/3rds of the way through the book as it, and Rose’s character just became annoying.

Stupid

The premise sounded okay but the writing was amateurish along with some gross vulgarities. NOT romantic. The narrator made silly and irritating voices that made most of the characters seem like witches or Dickensian villains. Too many characters who really had nothing to do with the story. No real plot- it was all over the place