Book review: Stirred with Love by Marcie Steele

Still grieving after the loss of her beloved husband, Lily Mortimer is determined to do something with the time she has left. 

After the end of her fairytale marriage, thirty-something Kate is trying hard to mend her broken heart. 

Chloe, a young woman with the world at her feet, is struggling to know what to do with her life. 

When Lily embarks on a new venture in the picturesque town of Somerley, the three women come together to open The Coffee Stop, the most charming café for miles around. 

But opening a coffee shop is never as simple as it seems, especially when you add neighbouring competition, local heart throbs and heartbreak to the mix. 

When tragedy strikes, can the three women pull together to make the new business fly, or will Lily’s last chance disappear down the drain along with yesterday’s coffee grinds? 

As I said in my review of The unfinished Symphony of You & Me, I'm really enjoying spending this month indulging in some older reads that I've been longing to pick up from my bookshelf for some time. Stirred with Love by Marcie Steele is one of those books that I've been wanting to read for some time now... it sounds great, looks great and is just my kind of story.  Really, that could actually be my whole review. Job done. However, I will go in to a little more detail.... seen as it's you ;) 

So the story centres around Lily, who is re-opening her cafe following the death of her beloved husband. She hires Kate and Chloe to work full-time for her to help her get it back up and running. Chloe is a great character - a feisty teen who's also a little lost, feeling pressured by her Dad to go to University when it's clear she doesn't really want to. Then there's Kate, who is mending a broken heart following the break-up of her marriage. 

What I loved most about Stirred With Love was the unlikely friendship between the three women. They're all different ages - generations, even, yet they get along so well. By the end of the story they're not just colleagues or friends - they're family, and I thought that was such a lovely aspect to the story. They really support each other through tough times and good, and I liked that the story centred more around friendship that romance. 

The setting for Stirred With Love is the tearoom and if you read my blog regularly then you'll know that I'm a sucker for a good tea room. I LOVE them as a basis for a story and this one is no different. In fact, it's exceptional. It really stuck in my mind and captured my heart. It's a wonderful place to read about and is the driving force of the book.

Marcie Steele is wonderful - she has an engaging way with words and the ability to make a straight-forward storyline something more complex and exciting. This is a story that pulls you in and absorbs you, as well as sticking in your mind for sometime afterwards. It's a heartwarming tale full of friendship, hard work and coffee. The perfect story to relax with and one I'd highly recommend.