The perfect place to mend a broken heart!

Synopsis

Welcome to Tilly’s Tuscan Teashop, the first book in a brand new series from the author of the Hummingbird Hotel and the Cornish Confetti Agency series.

When photographer Natalie Nicholson’s beach hut studio – and everything she’s spent the last two years working on – is destroyed in a fire, she doesn’t think things can get any worse. Until she sees her boyfriend Josh Clarke on Instagram frolicking on a palm-fringed Balinese beach with a fellow cabin crew member.

Devastated and heartbroken, she heads to Italy to help out at her sister’s English teashop in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, where she encounters sun-dappled hilltop villages with attractive terracotta bell towers, cobbled piazzas housing world-famous art and architecture, and a national fixation with getting from A to B as quickly as possible whether in a glamourous Ferrari, a scarlet Vespa, or a snail-like ape.

With handsome local filmmaker-cum-waiter Matteo Ferretti on hand to guide her, can Tilly learn to ditch her workaholic ways and embrace the Italian pursuit of la dolce vita? Or will she miss out on her chance at a happy-ever-after?

My review

Natalie Nicholson, better known as Tilly, is devastated when her beach hut studio goes up in flames. She worked so hard for the last two years as a photographer and seeing everything destroyed is just terrible. To make things even worse, she discovers that her boyfriend Josh has been being too close with a fellow cabin crew member in Bali and posted it on Instagram.
Heartbroken on two levels, Tilly decides to help out her sister in Italy. And working in the English teashop in a small Tuscan countryside village, may be the perfect place to mend a broken heart. Especially when Tilly is surrounded by beautiful architecture, inviting piazze, welcoming people. And one of those people is Matteo, a local filmmaker slash waiter, ready to not only guide her around and help her, but also to show her that life is too beautiful and colourful to be only filled by work.  

Oooh Daisy James, what do you do each time to me with each book you write? And no, I am not biased (okay, just a tiny bit!) as this beautiful story is set in Italy. I have read several books from this amazing author, and I loved them all, even when they were not set in Italy! 

Before I start with describing all the things that made me fall in love with Tilly’s tale… I have to get one thing of my chest…
Being an Italian (yes yes, I know I was born and raised in Belgium, but having both parents being Italian, that makes me also an Italian!) I felt my Italian fury rise a little bit whenever I read the word ‘fiesta’.
My dearest Daisy, ‘fiesta’ is not Italian, it’s Spanish… Italians say ‘festa’ for a party or a ‘fiera’ as it would be appropriate in this story as it concerns more a local fair. 

That’s it, that is all the negative I have to say about this book! Be prepared to be overwhelmed by positivism and happy thoughts! 

When I started reading this book, I immediately liked Tilly. Even her sad past, and the struggles she still had, made me not dislike her, on the contrary. I liked her even more and especially at the start I wanted to jump into the book and be there for Tilly as a friend. 

I also felt it appropriate that at the start, Tilly’s work was monochrome photography. Because that shows us as a reader that her life is also rather monochrome. We see that Tilly is passionate about her work and she is a great and supportive friend. But her life is a bit grey, dull… she doesn’t go on great adventures, she even doesn’t dress herself in colourful clothes.
And I liked it how her being that kind of photographer reflected perfectly on her life. 

Of course there has to be a reason why Tilly decides to go to Italy (but do we really need a real reason? Let’s just all go!). And I felt so sorry for her, I even pitied her as there were two heart-breaking reasons for her to leave her home. 

And then in Tuscany her amazing adventure starts. I can understand the cultural shock that Tilly had, as in Italy things are done completely differently. And I was glad for her that her vehicle of transportation was a Vespa and not a car. Even I don’t dare to drive in small villages (or even big cities) in Italy with a car. 

I completely agreed with Tilly that having a teashop in Italy wasn’t a rather great idea, but I liked it how Tilly tried to come up with ideas to make the business flourish, using Tilly’s own imagination and ideas.
But what I liked the most, beside the dedication Tilly has for her sister, was to see the evolution in Tilly. We see her literally become a more colourful character. What starts with wearing her sister’s clothes, ends with Tilly almost becoming a real Italian (or at least as close as possible 😊). 

Having been in Tuscany several times, it was so easy for me to see Tilly wandering around the piazza, sipping her coffee, absorbing the Italian sun and fall in love with not the place.
Because let’s be honest here, Matteo is rather easy on the eye! And no, I am not objectifying him, as he has a wonderful character too!  

In this book we see that life is supposed to be an adventure and that we should always follow our dreams. But we also see that dreams can change, and tat only time can show us where our heart truly is. And that can be from dreaming to become an actor, or to run your family business. Or even something more drastic like Tilly will discover in this book.
Life doesn’t always go as expected, as tragedies can happen to all families, in very different ways, but we shouldn’t allow those tragedies to take the light out of our lives. Instead, like written so well by this author, we should find a way to let the colour and light back in, even if it seems impossible.

I truly enjoyed reading this colourful book, that not only has an amazing cover, but also its content is filled with sparks of joyful colours. I had a smile on my face while reading, realizing that in this case, you can perfectly judge a book by its cover.
This was a wonderful journey in a wonderful place, with amazing and warm people that made me love them all so easily.