I’m really delighted today to be joining the blog tour for The Little Board Game Café by debut novelist Jennifer Page, and sharing my review: published today (13th April) by Aria Fiction, it’s now available for kindle and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading copy (provided via netgalley).
This book was on my reading list from the moment I first spotted it – it was actually quite funny, because when Jen e-mailed me back in January (her first approach to a blogger!) because she thought it was a book I might just enjoy, I was able to tell her that there was already a slot in my reading list with her name on. As chance would have it, Aria had also invited me to edit The Note, their newsletter, in February – and I was able to tell everyone, hand on heart, how much I was looking forward to reading it. And, blow me, then came the invitation from Rachel to review as part of the blog tour – it really was meant to be, wasn’t it?
An irresistible story of love, friendship and the power of Games Night, perfect for fans of Holly Martin and Christie Barlow.
When Emily loses her job, house and boyfriend all within a matter of days, she’s determined to turn a negative into a positive and follow her dream of running a small cafe in the gorgeous Yorkshire village of Essendale.
But she quickly finds she’s bitten off more than she can chew when the ‘popular’ cafe she takes over turns out to secretly be a failing business. Emily desperately needs a way to turn things around, and help comes from the unlikeliest of places when she meets local board game-obsessed GP Ludek. But when a major chain coffee shop opens on the high street, Emily is forced to question if she’ll ever be able to compete.
Has she risked everything on something destined to fail? Or can a playful twist, a homely welcome, and a sprinkle of love make Emily’s cafe the destination she’s always dreamed of?
‘A heart-warming romance perfect for curling up with. I absolutely loved it’ – Kitty Wilson
Is there any better way to start a review than to say that I thought this book was a total delight from beginning to end? The friendships old and new, everyone pulling together when the chips were down, a heroine I adored, its lovely Yorkshire flavour, the gentle humour… and no, I don’t have any particular love for board games (although this book certainly made me want to explore them rather more…), but is there anyone who doesn’t like a cafe? And the loveliest story about turning your life around, finding love and friendship and everything that makes you happy, so beautifully told… my goodness, it was wonderful. And when I find a book I love this much, I immediately want to share the entire story – but I do promise to rein myself in and try not to spoil it for anyone.
Emily and her mum always had a dream of running a cafe together but… well, that wasn’t to be. Instead, she finds herself working at James Ridley Engineering, engaged to the boss and planning their wedding (when her horrendous mother-in-law allows her to) – until she’s very unexpectedly and embarrassingly made redundant, leaves her fiancé after seeing him through different eyes, and finds herself sleeping in her best friend Kate’s spare room, wondering what to do with her life. Until she spots a “for sale” sign on a run down cafe in an Essendale back street – and decides it’s her big chance to follow her dream. At first things are difficult – although the books looked good, the customers (other than Mr B, for his daily cuppa and a Chorley cake) just don’t come in, and she doesn’t know how she can carry on.
Meanwhile, friend Kate is over the moon to have Emily as her wingman again while she searches in vain for the man of her dreams – and that’s how they find themselves at the local running club, where Emily meets local GP (and board game enthusiast) Ludek. When his board game club has nowhere to hold their meetings, she offers them the use of the cafe – and that leads to the idea of giving it a USP (Kate works in marketing…) and turning it into a board game cafe, with a launch event that hits the papers and the customers start to come through the door. But there are clouds on the horizon – as well as another very popular cafe on the main street, there’s news of a Costa about to open nearby – before Emily finds herself having to face up to the likely end of her dream.
There’s SO much more to the story than that – and one of the things I really loved about it was its wonderfully drawn characters and the friendship and support they provided. Emily’s relationship with the wonderful Mr B was just so lovely – and, rather surprisingly, her ex and his mother came good too. And her friendship with Ludek, slowly building (perhaps…) into something rather more, was just gorgeous, absolutely everything I wanted it to be – but, as you’d expect, with a few obstacles and misunderstandings along the way.
There’s a tremendous warmth about the story’s telling – every single character, no matter how minor, is entirely real and comes to life on the page. Everything is beautifully paced, with the perfect emotional touch – the friendship and romance, but also a really lovely focus on family – and along with the occasional tears and frustration, there’s plenty of gentle humour too, the one-liners that made me laugh out loud, the set pieces that sometimes have you reading through your fingers when things go badly wrong. The Yorkshire setting is just wonderful – we learn early on that Esssendale is the kind of place where you greet people with an “Eyup” even if you don’t know them, and I felt right at home there.
And then there are the board games – as a central theme, that’s quite inspired. You can really feel the passion the different individuals have for their game-playing – and the way Ludek gently cares for his own games speaks volumes about the man himself. And it’s all rather infectious – even I, who’ve only ever played Monopoly and the occasional Trivial Pursuit at Christmas, found myself on Google looking at a few games I’d never heard of before, and really enjoying what I found. And, of course, where there’s a cafe, there’s plenty of delicious food too – some of it less familiar, with a little more googling around pierogi and pączki, but also to find out what Annie’s cakes based on meeples would have looked like!
I really loved this book – but I’m sure you can tell, can’t you? And the fact that it’s the author’s debut takes my breath away – it’s a book she must be immensely proud of, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. One of my books of the year – and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
About the author
Jennifer Page wrote her first novel – a book about ponies – when she was eight. These days she prefers to write romance. When she isn’t writing, Jennifer can usually be found playing board games which are the inspiration for her first novel. She has worked as a television producer, a music teacher and has even run a children’s opera company. She now lives near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire with her husband and his large collection of games.
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