THE LITTLE BEACH STREET BAKERY (Jenny Colgan)

On the surface this looks and sounds like fluff.  A young woman with a failing relationship and a failing business is forced to look for a new life with very little prospect of financial comfort.  She ends up running a bakery on an island in an unfashionable town in Cornwall and eventually brings the place and its inhabitants new energy and happiness and, of course, falls in love.  Colgan reminds me of Katie Fforde,.  They share that rare talent of taking a simple, maybe even trite, chick-lit story and infusing it with such appeal that you can't put it down.  There is something inspiring about women who are self-sufficient and hard-working, and both Fforde and Colgan write about just that.  Somehow the setting, the ambiance, and the characters all come together into a wonderful story.  Maybe there aren't any murders (although there may be sadness and loss) or other major crimes, but characters with a positive outlook and a compassion for others go far in creating wonderful story.  Maybe some prefer mayhem and gore in their reading, but give me a little bakery by the sea and a bunch of quirky, wonderful characters and you'll have me hooked every time!