Sunrise by the Sea is the fourth installment of the Little Beach Street Bakery series, and boy, was it worth the wait. Much like one of the “red thinks” (a.k.a., strawberry tarts) from character Polly’s bakery, I devoured this Jenny Colgan novel that brought me back to the fictional Mount Polbearne, a quaint and remote fishing village on an island off the Cornish coast.
If you’re looking for a brief review of the first book in this series, go here. If you’re ready to hear about Sunrise by the Sea, let’s go, with the understanding that slight spoilers for the series may pop up in this book review, but not any spoilers for Sunrise by the Sea.
First of all, let’s get the important stuff out of the way: NEIL THE PUFFIN IS BACK.
I was so excited, I texted my husband a photo of the page where Neil makes his stage entrance. (Yes, I texted him even though I was sitting on the patio and he was just inside the house. This is what #pandemiclife has done to us.)
Secondly, you’ll be pleased to find old friends Polly and gang back in action on Mount Polbearne, where we’ve zipped forward a few years from where the last book left us. There’s a lot of the same stuff we loved from books #1 and #2, and, I’m happy to report, not much of what we didn’t love in book #3 (not everything can be a winner).
Sunrise by the Sea happily brings us back into the heart of the Little Beach Street Bakery books: lots of delicious food, lots of people coming together to help the community, and lots of silliness along the way.
While Polly plays a large part in Sunrise by the Sea, she isn’t the main focus of the story; newcomer Marisa Rossi is. This is great because, although I love Polly, her story is kinda played out. It was great being in the same town but focusing on someone new with a unique background. I love what Marisa brings to the story: a ton of mouth-watering Italian cooking, a sassy “computer grandmother,” and a field trip to the Italian coast.
Most interestingly, though, Marisa’s story sheds a strong light on mental health issues. Marisa comes to Mount Polbearne because she’s riddled with anxiety after the death of a beloved family member, which has caused this formally vibrant, social young woman to become agoraphobic.
So many people battle with mental health issues, and Sunrise by the Sea is great because if you know anxiety and/or depression, you know: you know how difficult it is to ignore what your traitorous brain tells you, day after day. You know how hard it is sometimes to simply get out of bed or step out of your house, day after day.
For those of you who don’t know: first, lucky you. Secondly, Sunrise by the Sea is a great book to help you understand what we “Marisas” go through.
But Marisa is so much more than the issues she’s dealing with, and you quickly love her sweetness, her character, and her hidden strength. You also are dying to try the authentic Italian pizza she whips up in Polly’s ovens. You’re rooting for Marisa the entire book, particularly when it comes to love interest Alexei, the hulking Russian piano teacher who lives next door.
Alexei is another great character, full of warmth and charm and humor, all relayed to the reader in an endearingly enthusiastic Russian accent. There’s lots of back-and-forth between Marisa and Alexei centered around cooking and music, and it’s easy to lose yourself in their story.
I love Colgan’s ability to blend all different cultures together in her books. When Little Beach Street Bakery started, it was all very “English.” Same with my other favorite series by her, The Café by the Sea. As the books in each series increased, Colgan’s introduced characters from various cultures and backgrounds into the communities and addressed cultural issues with aplomb. Sunrise by the Sea is another Colgan story that reinforces the fact that different threads make the tapestry richer; that our similarities are greater than our differences; and that everyone can blend together just fine.
Obviously, I recommend reading Sunrise by the Sea. Colgan’s writing style is, as always, wonderful and funny and slightly untraditional, which somehow makes it even better. Like, it’s your friend telling you a story in person, rather than you reading it on a page. Even if you haven’t read the previous books in the Little Beach Street Bakery series, I think you could jump into Sunrise by the Sea since newcomers Marisa and Alexei are the main focus of this book.
How many of you race to read every new Colgan novel when it publishes? Which books are your favorites?
And, be sure to check back in for my book-inspired recipe: Chicken Saltimbocca.
Jenny Colgan has become one of my favorite authors in recent years. I loved “Sunrise by the Sea,” although her most recent, “The Christmas Bookshop,” was uncharacteristically off enough for me to wonder if it was an old manuscript she was bringing out (if you’ve read her pre-Little Beach Bakery stuff, you’ll know what I mean). Still, she’s one of the few authors I buy because her good stuff is SO GOOD.
I read the The Christmas Bookshop, and while it was very long and took awhile to get where it was going, I liked it. I loved the Edinburgh setting, which was pretty new for me. I don’t think I’ve read her pre-Little Beach Street Bakery books, though. I think the first book in that series is when I started reading her. I need to read Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe (which I think is earlier?), and now I’m curious to find out what you mean about The Christmas Bookshop!
Not all of Jenny’s early books are available in the US, but two that I’ve read are “Amanda’s Wedding” and “Waiting for Addison” (also known as “My Very 90s Romance”). “Amanda’s Wedding” was her first non-Doctor Who book (I think–I know it came out in 1999), and when I read “The Christmas Bookshop” I was immediately reminded of it, which made me think that TCB has been knocking around for a while. And yes, “Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe” predates the Little Beach Street Bakery books–and is good.