I await new Belinda Jones novels like JK Rowling fans await the next Harry Potter. Her glamorous, funny tales of love and life in gorgeous locations are the perfect summer reads, flying by like a 500 page holiday romance. However, this is the first year I've not read her latest offering on my holiday, and I do wonder if my slight disappointment was down to that fact?
In this novel, Belinda Jones transports us to Costa Rica, where heroine Ava is summoned to help her dad open a beachside coffee shop. It's a big change from her life in Bath, but running her own cafe is Ava's dream, and where better to give it a go than the home of some of the best coffee beans in the world?
Of course, things never run smoothly, and Ava has more to deal with than how to choose the perfect blend. There's her dad's new wife Kiki, her sexy and smouldering business rival Santiago, and Ryan, the thrillseeker who can seem to keep his fly unzipped when Ava is around.
As always, the star of the book is the location rather than the heroine, and you're treated to plenty of details about Costa Rica. From rainforest zip-wire trips to turles nesting at Tortuguero, Ava manages to experience it all... while two gorgeous men fight over her. Tourist boards really should start paying fees to the author, I want to go there just for the butterflies (both sorts).
All that said, there was something about Cafe Tropicana that left me feeling slightly disappointed by the end. Don't get me wrong, it's still miles above most of the trash that's rushed into publication as a 'beach read' and I still thoroughly recommend it as a great easy, entertaining read. I just didn't find myself relating to the characters as much as I have in her previous books (the main protaganist of 'The California Club' even had the same celebrity crush as me!), and it lacked the frequent laugh-out-loud moments of Divas Las Vegas.
Maybe it's just that I don't drink coffee? [Gemma Cartwright]
Rating : 4 out of 5
Like this? Try 'The Paradise Room' by Belinda Jones
