REVIEW: An A to Z of Love by Sophie Pembrooke

An A to Z of Love by Sophie Pembrooke: Mia has tried to forget about her past so many times for so many years and yet living in a small town, she’s just never been able to get away from it. She tried leaving, but the town just drew her back in. Even now 14 years later she is still just trying to live her life in the present without the weight of the past dragging her down.

Charlie has his own past to deal with, he moved to this small middle of nowhere place to be with a woman, a woman he thought he would marry. So he bought a house and a restaurant and set up shop, then she dumped him. Two years later he’s still in this small town, house going to ruin and struggling with his restaurant. The only good in his life, his best friend, Mia.

So what happens when best friends start to have feelings for one another? Feelings they are very sure aren’t reciprocated? On top of that an ex that comes back into town and a father who hasn’t been much of a father? Can these two actually work through their pasts to have a future? Or will they get stuck living in the past watching their future drift into the sea?

Having never read Ms. Pembroke before I wasn’t sure what I was going to get I’m very pleased to say that she delivered a sweet story about dealing with your past, learning to see past old hurts and embrace what happened and how it helped shape the person you are today. Her characters certainly have their faults, but all in a very human way and as they start to overcome these faults one is able to really relate to them and to the story. Both Charlie and Mia are extremely well written and the side stories all help to bring the main story of Charlie and Mia together. While there isn’t much steam in this story there is such a growth of friendship and reality it’s enough to make you sigh.

Book Info:

Published June 12th 2014 by Carina UK

Everyone’s talking about Mia Page. Again.

Mia Page has been the subject of gossip in Aberarian for half her life, ever since her father ran off with his secretary–and the contents of the local museum safe–when she was fourteen.

Still, Mia loves her hometown, loves working at the A to Z shop, eating seafood with her best friend Charlie at his restaurant, catching the classic midnight movie at the crumbling Coliseum cinema. And if she ever wonders if things might be even better if Charlie were more than just a friend, well, it’s only an idle thought in a lonely moment. After all, friendship always trumps romance, doesn’t it? And she’s never been one to rock the boat.

But everything she loves is suddenly under threat from Charlie’s ex-girlfriend, Becky, and her plans to turn Mia’s beloved Coliseum into a casino, transforming the sleepy seaside town forever. As Mia tries to pull the people of Aberarian together to save the town they adore, her father reappears, and people start asking what he wants to take from them this time..