Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café

Jessica Redland

Description

'Heartbreakingly moving and yet beautifully uplifting, I cried for all the right reasons!' Jo Bartlett

'I fell in love with this story from page one.' Helen J Rolfe

'Achingly poignant, yet full of hope - You will fall in love with this beautiful Christmas story' Sandy Barker

'A tender love story, full of sweet touches and beautiful characters.' Beth Moran

Welcome to The Starfish Café - where you will find stunning views, delicious food and lifelong friendships.

Two broken hearts.

Since she inherited The Starfish Café, Hollie has poured her heart into the business, striving to keep her mother's traditions and warm-hearted spirit alive. But behind closed doors Hollie is searching for true happiness as she grieves the tragic loss of her family who were once the beating heart of the café...

An unexpected meeting.

Jake lives by two rules: don’t let anyone get close and don’t talk about what happened. Little does he know that a chance meeting at The Starfish Café, facilitated by a fluffy lost dog, is about to turn his world upside down...

The chance to love again.

Can Hollie and Jake break down the barriers that have been holding them back from finding love and happiness, before Christmas comes around? After all, with courage, nothing is impossible...

Join top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for a magical winter at the seaside, where love blossoms and lifelong friendships are made.

Praise for Jessica Redland:

'I loved my trip to Hedgehog Hollow. An emotional read, full of twists and turns' Heidi Swain

'Jessica Redland writes from the heart, with heart, about heart' Nicola May

'A warm-hearted and beautiful book. Jessica Redland doesn’t shy away from the fact that life can be very difficult, but she reminds us that we all can find love, hope and joy again.' Sian O'Gorman

'A wonderful, warm series full of family, friends and romance.' Katie Ginger

'An emotional but uplifting page turner.' Fay Keenan

'A warm hug of a book. I never wanted to leave Hedgehog Hollow. Very highly recommended.' Della Galton

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Soutien psychologique et conseils familiaux
• Romance contemporaine
• Fiction
• Yorkshire
• England
• Romance
• Family Life
• Contemporary
• The Women
• Feminism
• Woman
• Sibling
• Romantic Comedy
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Contemporary history
• Friendship
• Inglaterra
• Condado de Yorkshire (Reino Unido)
• Coming of Age
• Women
• Siblings
• Feminist
• Mashups
• Sea Stories

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 31 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801623995
• Langue: English

Extrait

SNOWFLAKES OVER THE STARFISH CAFÉ



JESSICA REDLAND
To my older brother Mike and my younger brother Chris, with love always xx
‘With courage, nothing is impossible.’
SIR WILLIAM HILLARY, 1823


Founder of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Est. 1824.
(Originally known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck)
CONTENTS



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70


Acknowledgments

More from Jessica Redland

About the Author

Also by Jessica Redland

About Boldwood Books
1
HOLLIE





Bonfire Night, eight years ago
‘These are the last two crates,’ I said, reaching the bottom of the stairs at The Starfish Café. I weaved between the pine tables and placed them down at the far end of the room beside several other crates of Christmas decorations.
Angie looked up from unpacking the seven-foot artificial Christmas tree. ‘How is it Bonfire Night already? I swear the summer tourists only went home yesterday.’
‘I hear you! Am I best not to mention that tomorrow is exactly seven weeks till Christmas Day?’
‘Argh, don’t! I haven’t even thought about presents yet.’ She ran her hands through her greying bob and shuddered, but I knew she was only joking. Angie loved the countdown to Christmas as much as Mum and I did.
‘Hot chocolate time!’ Mum announced, coming towards us with a tray of three mugs. I smiled at the squirty cream topping, peppered with mini-marshmallows and chocolate buttons. Extremely indulgent but absolutely delicious.
‘Cheers!’ she said, handing us each a mug. ‘Let the full-on festive fabulousness commence!’
We clinked our drinks together, laughing, and I experienced the same warm and fuzzy sensation I had at this moment every year as the countdown to Christmas commenced. Fifty days to go!
Christmas had always been a huge thing in our family and it was double celebration time for me as I was born on Christmas Eve, resulting in the uber-Christmassy name Hollie Gabrielle and the pet name ‘Angel’.
Mum loved her traditions and putting the tree up at The Starfish Café on Bonfire Night was one of them, started twenty-one years ago when the café opened.
Mum’s parents had owned the land at Starfish Point – a five-acre site a couple of miles south of the North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitsborough Bay – since the 1950s, bought when my granddad saw the potential for catching crabs and lobsters along the coastline. The sand and shingle beach was home to a small colony of seals, making it a popular destination for visitors, so, throughout the summer season, my Granny ran a café called Norma’s Nook from a prefabricated unit.
Mum worked in Norma’s Nook straight after catering college and took over as the new owner a few years later when Granny retired. For the next decade, she ran it just as Granny had but it was time for major changes: new name, larger premises, and a plan to open all year round.
An eternal optimist, Mum was never afraid to take risks and refused to listen to the critics who said there was no way she’d have enough business to survive through the winter. She adored Kevin Costner and put her own spin on a quote from his film, Field of Dreams. ‘If I build it, they will come,’ became her mantra. So she built it and they did come. Although I think her amazing skills in the kitchen and her bubbly personality had a lot to do with that.
The first ever Christmas that the new and improved café was open, Mum went for ‘full-on festive fabulousness’, putting the tree up on Bonfire Night and decking out the café with shiny garlands and lights everywhere, convinced it would help build the winter trade. Those who visited occasionally when going for a walk started coming more regularly, drawn by the Christmassy ambience and Mum’s amazing comfort food.
After a successful first winter opening, a tradition was born with Bonfire Night set in stone as the night each year to put up the decorations. At first it was only Mum and Angie but, after I started a summer job when I was twelve, the decorating team became a trio and, now aged twenty-six, this was my fifteenth year.
‘Tree first?’ Mum asked, a little pointlessly. It was always the tree first.
I opened out the base unit and began teasing out the branches on the bottom section while Mum and Angie each took another level.
‘Lovely clear night,’ I said, glancing towards the terrace. ‘Perfect for the fireworks.’
The annual display started at 7 p.m. over South Bay and the view from the café was fantastic, so every year friends and family would join us for drinks and a buffet while enjoying the fireworks.
‘It’s quite mild tonight,’ Mum said. ‘Should be able to go out onto the terrace.’
Angie shook her head. ‘I’ll stay in here, hiding in the storeroom with a napkin stuffed in each ear.’ Poor Angie hated the loud bangs.
‘We’ll send out a search party when they’re finished,’ Mum said with a giggle.
‘Thanks, Heather.’
They smiled at each other affectionately and it gave me a warm glow. I loved their friendship. They’d met at primary school aged four and had remained the best of friends ever since. They studied catering together at college and, as soon as Mum took over running Norma’s Nook, she offered Angie a job. Three decades of working together could have damaged some friendships but I’d never seen even the slightest of niggles between them. They were so aligned that they often finished each other’s sentences. ‘Like the same person inhabiting two bodies,’ Dad would say.
I considered myself lucky that I had the same sort of friendship with Katie, although we didn’t meet until we were fourteen. Her parents were going through a nasty divorce at the time and she didn’t have a great relationship with her older sister so I became her shoulder to cry on. Keen to avoid the tense atmosphere at home, she spent more time at our house – Sandy Croft – than hers.
‘What time does Craig think he’ll make it tonight?’ Angie asked, holding the stepladder for me as I added the angel to the top of the tree.
I smiled at the thought of seeing him. ‘Hopefully by half seven. He’s gutted about missing the fireworks, but it was the only time the husband and wife were both free so he didn’t have much choice.’
My boyfriend Craig was an independent financial adviser who often worked evenings to catch working clients. It meant we only got to see each other two or three times a week but that worked well for me. He was my first serious boyfriend and much as I loved our time together, I also valued the space after so many years being single and doing my own thing.
For the next ninety minutes or so, the three of us sang along to Christmas songs while we transformed the café ready for the guests. They’d start arriving from half six, giving them time for a drink and a chat before the fireworks display.
While Mum and Angie brought out the buffet food, I took the empty crates and spare decorations back up to the first-floor storeroom.
Before returning downstairs, I looked out the window at the front of the café, overlooking the woods and car park, and smiled to myself. Such a stunning setting.
The Starfish Café is a beautiful two-storey building clad in rich, warm European Redwood timber. Surrounded by pine trees, it feels very alpine. If it wasn’t for the North Sea below, visitors could be fooled into believing they were in a mountainous ski resort instead of North Yorkshire.
Mum had carried the alpine feel inside the café with pine tables, wooden cladding and even a Swiss cuckoo clock on the wall. The décor was perhaps a little dated but I loved it. It was such a warm and friendly place to be. We had loads of regular customers who felt like family as well as walkers and holidaymakers.
I paused halfway down the stairs to take in the scene below. Red and white lights twinkled on the tree and there were more fairy lights draped across the window ledges by the seating booths at the back of the café, overlooking the terrace. Miniature Christmas trees also stood on the window ledges and realistic-looking swags of holly and ivy with bright red berries were hooked across the top of the windows. It all looked so beautiful.
Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ was playing and I laughed as Angie and Mum failed abysmally to hit the higher notes near the end.
‘Pick a note, any note!’ I joked, descending the stairs. ‘But not that one!’
‘Cheeky!’ Mum put her arm round Angie’s waist and they caterwauled all the way to the end of the track.
Just as they finished, the door opened and Dad arrived with Willow, our pale golden retriever, who scampered over to say hello. She’d never been overly bothered by fireworks and the constant attention from the guests was the perfect distraction.
‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ Dad boomed before crossing the café to hug and kiss Mum. My brother Isaac and his girlfriend Bex were right behind him, arms round each other as usual. The pair of them were so cute and cuddly together. Katie and Kyle – Isaac’s best mate - were next, gigglin