Title: The Little Cornish House
Author: Donna Ashcroft
Published on: 6 May 2022
Genre: Chick-lit | Women’s Fiction | Romance
Ruby has arrived at Indigo Cove, Cornwall, to help her grandmother run the pottery barn. Ruby is happily single and loves her accountant job. Pottery was her first love but after her mother’s death, she did not want to pursue it as a career.
Coming back to Indigo Cove has brought back a lot of memories – especially those of her father. He walked out of Ruby and her mum’s life when Ruby was five months old. Though he kept appearing once in a while, her mother held on to the hope that someday he will stay with them for good. But that never happened. Ruby’s mother died of a heart attack – she couldn’t handle her husband’s betrayal.
Ruby’s grandmother Lila runs a pottery store in Indigo Cove. The store needs urgent repairs but Lila gave all her saved money to Ross (Ruby’s father). He had promised to return her money but that never happened.
Meanwhile, Gabe and his brother Aaron have inherited their father’s brewery business. Aaron is not interested while Gabe manages it only because it has been in their family for three generations now. Someone’s playing a dirty trick on Gabe. His car tires get slashed, dung is dumped in the factory’s ground and much more. There have been a series of vandalisms in the vicinity but Gabe seems to be getting an extra dose of vandalism for reasons unknown.
This is the second Donna Ashcroft book I read. I did not like it as much as Summer in the Scottish Highlands. The story was slow paced and to be honest, there wasn’t anything much happening throughout.
The vandalisms added a dash of mystery to this chick-lit. The romance was more of lust than love. At first, Ruby tries to control her feelings for Gabe. But when she gives in to his charm, all that happens is sex – and more of it. The attraction between Gabe and Ruby seemed more like lust than love.
Ruby’s friend Anna has a toxic relationship with her on/off boyfriend. They have a child now but when Ruby is at Indigo Cove, she receives a call from Anna saying she and her boyfriend have broken up. There’s also a shocking secret about Anna’s baby – and Ruby decides to find the baby’s biological father (who isn’t Anna’s boyfriend). This was a tad annoying because Anna repeatedly tells Ruby not to interfere in her personal life. She wants nothing to do with the baby’s biological father. But it seems like Ruby doesn’t want to respect a NO.
Ruby also digs deeper into Aaron’s life – she wants to prove to Gabe that she was right about his brother all along. Ugh! There also seems to be some issue between Ruby and her estranged father. She keeps avoiding him and goes back to the same negative thought pattern of how he ruined her mother’s life. If Ruby had that big of an issue with his past, why did she try to reconcile?
There wasn’t much of a story here, per se. The vandalisms, yes – turned out to be the only interesting part about this book. The ending seemed abrupt and all of a sudden, all the misunderstandings and toxic relationships healed as if by magic. Not really the kind of ending I was hoping for – it seemed hurried up.
Overall, The Little Cornish House by Donna Ashcroft was an okay read. Interesting family dynamics but annoying characters.
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