Hello everyone!
In between being hard at work on a translating project, I found some spare time to type this blog post up and return to the gorgeous setting of New Zealand.
I mean, come on, is there any place on Earth more beautiful?
My sister would probably say Malta, but at the moment she's kind of biased and this might change to a different location soon - she knows why haha.
But yeah, for me, New Zealand is one of those places on my bucket list to visit, not only because of Peter Jackson's movies which were filmed there, but also because it reminds me a lot of my home country and I feel like it could be home away from home.
And reading Serenity Woods books just makes me want to go, alright? That, too.
Last week I started this trilogy reviews and I'm following up on my promise to stick to book two this week, so here we go, lovely readers.
As Beautiful as the Bay, coming right up.
If you remember, last week we reviewed As Deep as the Ocean, and you can find the link to that blog post at the bottom of this one.
The book introduced us to three sisters, Fred, Ginger and Sandi, who inherited a vineyard and its connecting property to try and make it all work. But also, they each get 50 000 dollars after marriage, from their late father, which is also a big plus.
Anyway, in this book, we'll be taking a look at Ginger, the sister responsible for bringing life into the restaurant connecting to the vineyard.
A little word about Ginger: she's a hard worker, and tends to be harder on herself than anyone else is. But the thing with her hard working image is that she can come across as quite high-handed sometimes, and wants to give advice where it isn't even needed.
Take, for instance, the New Zealanders, who tend to respond better to gentle suggestions than plain-on knocks to the head.
Anyway, she's in the running for a foodie award, restaurant award, something award, and she badly wants to win it to prove to everyone that she's the real deal and she knows better than everyone else. Okay, maybe she isn't QUITE thinking that, but that's the gist we get, even from Sam, Mac's best friend (Mac being Fred's husband from book one) who tries to caution her about what she's doing.
She doesn't listen. And, sadly, neither does she win the award.
The award goes to Sam, running his father's bakery 'All or Muffin' (which is a cute name OHMYGAWD), despite the fact that he feels super restricted with it and not even remotely challenged.
See, Sam used to work on a cruise liner and concocted desserts that were edible and outlandish, but after his father's stroke, he returned home to look after the old man and take over the family business, despite it originally being intended for his brother Ian. Unfortunately, however, with Ian also passed, he was the only available person, and it seems like his dad resents that.
It doesn't help that old people in general just despise change, because this way Sam can't really do anything to modernise the bakery or to make it his own, because even for the name change (I can't remember what it was originally), his dad puts him in the dog house for weeks.
So yeah, he wins the award, but that night a massive storm, basically a hurricane, rides over New Zealand, flooding the bakery and pretty much destroying it.
At the time, Sam doesn't quite care. Why?
Well, he's busy getting naked with Ginger back at her place.
I mean, I'm blaming no one. If I were alone during a storm and had the opportunity for a night with a single, consenting, hot Kiwi guy? Where do I sign up for this??
Ahem.
So basically, we learn a little more about Ginger during the intimate exchanges - she used to have a boyfriend who was really into BDSM and sort of cold and clynical and made everything an experiment as opposed to fun. And to top it off he was her boss, who ended up accusing her of stealing from the hotel she worked for, and firing her.
Ginger took him to court and won, but that's beside the point for the lingering trauma.
And with the bakery now a goner, there's more drama on the horizon in her new life:
Sam's dad admits that he had seen some papers for editing the insurance policy, but didn't give them on to Sam, so now they won't be getting any money for the damage the water caused to the bakery. This being the last straw, Sam loses it on his father, saying the old man never really gave him the bakery to begin with and always held the reins, so that basically this was his fault now.
This doesn't end well, as sadly, the shock of everything triggers another stroke, and the old man unfortunately passes away afterwards.
Now free to return to the cruise line job (and with an ex who wants him to, to boot), Sam has to make a decision, and Ginger doesn't want to press him, because she knows she doesn't really communicate the best without sounding arrogant and know-it-all.
But, as this is Serenity Woods and a fairly reasonable real-life immitation, Sam decides to sell the bakery lot to a neighbour who wants to expand, and instead focus on a patisserie right out of the restaurant where Ginger works at.
Oh and also, he proposes to Ginger. Because, true love conquers all!
I could identify with Sam quite a bit in this one and so it pulled at my heartstrings maybe more than the first (though I identified with Fred there to top it all off haha), but generally speaking this is once more a really easy, beach-like read from Miss Woods which I highly recommend.
An aside, however: when you're reading this, be sure to have something to nibble on! Because, spoiler alert, they do a lot of cooking and baking in this one.
Tune in next week for the third and final review, As Timeless as the Sea.
xx
*image not mine
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