Starry Skies Over the Chocolate Pot Cafe by Jessica Redland

If you are looking for a holiday Rom-Com, this is not it.

I added this to my December reading list because I thought it seemed like it would be a cute holiday read. Granted, I based this on the cover and the notion that there was “festive sparkle.” I also didn’t know this was book three in a series. Rest assured that it reads very much as a stand alone book, so I wasn’t lost or confused that I was missing something by starting here. I didn’t even realize it was part of a series until I started writing this!

As mentioned above, this was not a warm and fuzzy holiday read. The book starts at Christmas, goes through the whole next year and ends at the following Christmas. The ending is really sweet and fulfills the Christmassy feels that you want, but the rest of the book addressed some pretty tough and emotional challenges for more than just our main character, Tara.

Tara opened up the Chocolate Pot Café fourteen years earlier in Whisper Bay. This sounds like an amazing and beautiful little town in Yorkshire. Yes, another holiday read that takes place in England! All this is accomplishing is making me want to visit even more! Anyway, through flashbacks, throughout about 75% of the book, we learn why Tara moved to Whisper Bay and shut herself off from everyone including severing all ties with her family.

She slowly realizes that after all these years, she is missing the human connection that I personally feel makes life fulfilling. She has also been closed off and almost robotic with her café staff and secretive about her Etsy craft store. Because she has become this private and reclusive, she struggles to know exactly what she wants or even how to go about letting people back in. But she slowly decides to begin to rely on and trust her friend and fellow business owner, Carly and slowly begins sharing the story of her past. This friendship gives her the support and confidence she needs to really explore what she wants out of life and how to begin living again.

For someone who was so closed off socially and emotionally from everyone for 14 years, she was really quick to begin to open herself up. Sharing her pet rabbit is one thing, but just telling everyone about her parents and her home life growing up seemed to be a much easier process than I would have expected. I don’t really know what I expected, but I figured that we would see more of the emotional toil that it took on sharing some of those private and painful moments. She does question many of her actions and shows self doubt and clearly understands that she has no idea how to interact with others on that personal level. I almost had this love/hate relationship with how everything was shared.

When the new love interest comes into the picture, it could have taken a couple different directions. Tara’s early life was devastating, she was hurt and betrayed and it is understandable that she wouldn’t trust, but it was quicker than I expected. I guess once the floodgates open, there is no holding back. What I really liked is that they both have baggage. They both have issues that they are trying to cope with and learn to lean on each other to support decisions and show what it really means to love and care about someone.

The analogy of a lighthouse is woven throughout the entire book. This was really powerfully embedded into Tara’s life as she takes the experiences of her parents and their love for each other into her future. Being a lighthouse for someone must be a two way street. If there is only one lighthouse in the relationship, that one light may eventually burn out. Tara realizes this, and it is clear that she is determined to form a relationship where she can also be a lighthouse.

There were so many moments where my heart strings were tugged. I felt bad for Tara as we learned more and more about what she experienced in her youth, and then as she struggled to figure out how to emotionally reintroduce herself to the world. The biggest emotions came in regards to Kirsten and Tim. I am purposely not giving certain things away because if you read it, you really do need to experience it with almost a sense of naivety to all the specific details.

One of the most powerful lines that hit me came from some advice that Tara got from Kirsten. Basically, “don’t create problems where there are none.” Based on her life and how she felt about herself, Tara lacked a lot of the self confidence to know that her past doesn’t define her future. This was a hard motto to instill in herself when she had spent so many years blaming herself for everything and feeling that she wasn’t good enough. It’s a hard mental habit to break, and I respect Redland for addressing the impact of mental health in more ways than one.

Where does this book land on my bookshelf?

Solidly on my middle shelf. I respected the topics addressed and Tara’s selflessness in giving so much back to the community that took her in. There were a few points I felt were a little slow or where I struggled with Tara, but in the end, I felt that there was a solid conclusion and there really weren’t any questions that I was left with. I loved the family dynamics and the unconditional love that creates the foundation of a family, even when that love makes really hard “tough love” decisions a necessity. As long as you go into this book knowing that it’s not a light hearted rom-com, I think it’s worth the read. I really did enjoy it and loved seeing how Tara found herself and love.