The Endless Beach (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read a few books by Jenny Colgan since first coming across her contemporary novels about six years ago. Many of them involve chocolate or cakes, and they’re quite light-hearted on the whole. I’ve picked up a few at charity shops, and have also put one or two on my wishlist after recommendations. One of the latter group is ‘The Endless Beach’. I was given this for my birthday a year ago but have only just read it.

The main character is Flora, a young woman who lives and works on a small Scottish island. She works in a popular tea shop, providing high quality home-made cakes and other goodies, but these are not such a large part of the story as I had expected. Flora is in a relationship with Joel, a high-powered American lawyer who regularly flies around the world on business. She’s feeling a bit neglected, as if she’s only there for him when he wants a bit of a rest. She is not at all sure how their relationship will develop.

I learned in the introduction that this book is a sequel to one called ‘The Summer Seaside Kitchen’, and also has characters introduced in the short ‘quick read’ entitled, ‘A Very Distant Shore’. I wondered briefly whether I should put ‘The Endless Beach’ aside for a while and try to acquire those first, but decided to continue reading it. The brief summary at the start was more than sufficient to give a background to some of the characters, and it wasn’t really necessary as the book is complete in itself.

I found the early chapters a tad ‘fluffy’; the writing is quite informal, and there’s a fair amount of innocuous chatter which doesn’t seem to advance the story much. Viewpoint characters switch regularly, which allows for quite a number of storylines, but makes it hard to see the characters are three-dimensional. There’s one relationship which I felt was a tad unreal, almost as if it were there for the sake of political correctness. However it becomes an important part of the plot, with some unexpected and poignant twists towards the end.

More significant, in my view, is a subplot involving the island’s doctor, a Syrian refugee called Saif. He has lost contact with his beloved wife and young sons, growing increasingly sure he will never hear of them again. Then he gets news from the mainland. What follows feels entirely authentic, demonstrating the plight of many refugees, and the traumas that can beset families in this situation. Saif must also fight a temptation on the island, something that causes sadness to someone else but demonstrates his integrity and moral standards. He is an excellent character.

As for Flora, I found her a bit flat on the whole. She’s a kind-hearted person, unwilling to charge locals more than they can afford, and baking more than she needs so that she can give food away. When a local woman takes advantage of her generosity, it looks as though Flora’s business may become bankrupt. But it was hard to feel much sympathy for her. She works hard, but seems naive and unrealistic. I didn’t find any of her brothers particularly likeable either, and her young niece who yells in broken English is sometimes amusing but more often rather annoying.

Joel’s story is mostly tied up with that of his boss, but again I didn’t find either of them particularly realistic. Joel is persuaded to do things against his better judgement, which left me rather confused until an unexpected revelation later in the book. He and Flora seem entirely unsuited, living in different worlds with different standards and expectations, and very little in common. Perhaps their relationship would feel more believable if I had read the earlier book.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book, increasingly so as the story developed. I’m impressed that Jenny Colgan has introduced some quite serious contemporary issues into the plot, and has covered them sympathetically and authentically. My only real gripe is the repetition of the unnecessary adverb ‘incredibly’, which appears on almost every page. This is something the editor or proof-readers should have spotted - it detracted rather from the storyline when I was looking out for the next instance of this annoying word.

While I’m in no hurry to buy the first couple of books in the series, I am pleased to learn that there is a sequel to this, which I hope to acquire at some point. Not that I care particularly what happens to Flora or Joel, but I would love to discover how Saif’s journey continues.

Recommended if you like light women's fiction with a bit of depth; this would make excellent holiday reading.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews