The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones

The blurb:

A delectable tale of friendship, love and cake for fans of Jenny Colgan and Sophie Kinsella...

Laurie loves a challenge. Especially if it involves anything beautiful, baked and frosted. The brief is simple: With three other women, Laurie will board a London bus - kitted out as an English tea shop - on a deliciously different road trip of the USA.

Their mission: To bring home-grown classics like Battenberg, Victoria sponge and scones to the land of cupcakes, whoopie pies and gold-leafed chocolate sundaes.

And to show them how a real cup of tea is made. All of the women have their own secrets and heartaches to heal. As well as a grand appreciation of cupcakes, there's also the chance for romance...

But will making whoopee lead to love?

All aboard for: New York - Connecticut - Rhode Island - Massachusetts - Maine - New Hampshire - Vermont(less)

My Review:

The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones is an amazing read....I loved it! If you love cake, life and love then this is a must read for you.

The book introduces us to Laurie who is interviewed by Pamela, who is a famous baker from London. Pamela is writing a new book about cake, and hires Laurie to organise a tour  which takes in different states and allows her to exchange traditional local cakes in return for an English recipe. We also get to meet her Mum and daughter, and some other key characters in Charles and his son along the way.

I adored this book. It is a story about life and happiness. I felt light reading it, even when the plot deepened. I loved the characters, particularly Laurie and Pamela's daughter Ravenna. Ravenna is coming out the other side of the teenage years and when we first meet her she is surly, rebellious, insecure, and a nightmare to her Mum and Grandmother.   As the book develops so does Ravenna's character and I felt quite protective and motherly towards her.

They hire a London red double decker bus to travel round from state to state and I could imagine being part of the gang and travelling around with them. The feeling of a jolly boys outing hit me more than once and the road trip was great fun.

The book is cleverly written and I learnt many facts about each state as we travelled around. Not only was the book fun and full of life but I felt like I learnt great facts along the way.

I felt a really warm glow throughout the book, some of it down to my love of America and Belinda has renewed thirst to travel there. I would love to follow the same route and wow people with my snippets of knowledge gained from reading this book.

I feel like I have a new vitality for life after finishing this book. The message I took from it was that no one is perfect and we can't control what happens in life, but we can make the most of what we have, appreciate those we love and who love us, and enjoy life.

Oh and it also left me with a massive craving for all things cake!!

I love this book. It made me smile and put a spring it my step. I hope you will love it too.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton who kindly provided me with a copy of the book via Netgalley in return for an honest review.