When you are (not) looking for your soulmate…

Synopsis

Welcome to Pepper Bay, where you’ll find love, drama, and a happily ever after.

Snuggle down with this cosy, feel-good, comfort read that whisks you away to a beautiful bay on the Isle of Wight – Perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Alison Sherlock, Rachael Lucas, and Holly Martin.

The Pepper Bay books are standalone stories, best read in order, that intertwine with recurring characters.

The Treehouse of Dreams: When Willow Silver pays for a psychic drawing of her soulmate, she truly believes that one day he will come into her life, not that she has any time for love. She’s busy helping run the family garden centre. Plus, her best friend, Cody, is staying with her for a while, so she doesn’t feel she could run off in the name of love and abandon everyone, even when she bumps into a man who looks exactly like the one in the drawing.

My review

After breaking up with her boyfriend, on a whim, Willow Silver pays an online medium to draw a psychic drawing of her soulmate. When she sees Kip, she is astonished at how much he resembles the drawing she has of her soulmate. But with her family relying on her help on the garden centre, and her best friend Cody staying with her for the moment, Willow hopes that Kip will turn out to be truly her soulmate, understanding her duties and choices…

Returning to Pepper Bay always puts a smile on my face. And it’s great to see how this author writes each time a different kind of story, with characters of any age, in different stages of their lives. She keeps things original, while it could have been so easy to fall in the trap of repetition.

Willow is one of the youngsters in this series. At the delightful age of twenty – one, it’s obvious that her life it just at the start.
It’s clear that Willow is a loyal person, for her family and friends she would do anything. She also isn’t afraid to talk about emotions and tell what her feelings are. It warmed my heart to see how easy she says how important people are to her, and that she loves them.

That same loyalty also shows her commitment to her family and their business. She loves living and working in Pepper Bay, and she also sees her future here. And I cannot blame her!
She is enveloped by warmth and love, why would she want to leave?

The friendship she has with Cody is truly a great one. Even if they are of opposite sex, they get perfectly along, they can talk about everything, share everything (or at least almost everything 😊) and they would do anything for each other. Their friendship is the kind to be envious of.

While Willow in so many aspects shows a maturity not many of her age (or even older) would have, at times she acts a bit gullible. Because from the start it’s obvious how her tale should be ending, yet she clings so much on the psychic drawing, not allowing her to see the reality.
And after meeting Kip, she acts also out of character, it even looks a little bit desperate as she just wants Kip to fulfil her high expectations instead of realizing that perhaps Kip isn’t the soulmate she expects, wants or need…

With Cody having his own say in this book, it’s not a surprise how the story ends. But I liked reading how both Cody and Willow are trying to understand he shift of feelings.
And reading how Cody based his graphic novel heroine on Willow, just made me melt!

I liked it how different Cody and Willow were, but in retrospect, not that much at all. They perhaps don’t always understand each other’s hobbies, but they are each other’s biggest fans. They respect each other’s choices.

Talking about choices… I have to say that I admired Willow in her choice of not making love until marriage. It shows once again a maturity and an understanding of how precious making love is, and that there are people that only can do that act out of actual love. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am not talking bad about people who made different choices (and I am one of them 😊) but I also think that we all should respect someone’s choice and even if we don’t understand it, and absolutely not try to make them change their mind!

Like I said, this was a delightful return to a place that makes me want to move. And reading a story about younger people than myself, but yet also having their heads screwed on the right way, was truly amazing.
And even if perhaps the end was a bit rushed, and choices were rushed (while I understood the made choices, don’t get me wrong! 😊) I enjoyed reading every bit of it!