Review: 'The Plumberry School of Comfort Food - Part 1' by Cathy Bramley (2016)

Verity Bloom hasn't been interested in cooking anything more complicated than the perfect fish finger sandwich, ever since she lost her best friend and baking companion two years ago. 
But an opportunity to help a friend is about to land her right back in the heart of the kitchen! The Plumberry School of Comfort Food is due to open in a few weeks’ time and has rather gone off the boil. It needs the kind of great ideas that only Verity could cook up . . .
But as Verity tries to balance stirring up publicity, keeping their top chef sweet and soothing her aching heart, will her move to Plumberry prove to be a sheer delight... or a recipe for disaster?
The Plumberry School of Comfort Food is an irresistibly charming novel told in four parts – following the adventures of Verity Bloom in love, friendship and cooking. This is the first part.
Cathy Bramley is one of my absolute favourite chick lit authors. I fell head over heels in love with her novel 'Ivy Lane' quite some time ago and since then she has treated us to fantastic reads like 'Appleby Farm' and 'Wickham Hall' (click here to read my review). Cathy's novels really have absolutely everything I look for in a read and so far none of her books have disappointed me. Needless to say, I had pretty high hopes when I started the first part of Cathy's newest serialised novel, 'The Plumberry School of Comfort Food.' The question is, though: did Cathy live up to these expectations with her new series or were my expectations perhaps too high after loving her previous work so much? I had no idea, but I had a good feeling Cathy wouldn't disappoint, definitely not.
After discovering her boyfriend has been cheating on her and losing her job, all on the same day, Verity Bloom needs something to distract her from all the misery in her life. After the completely unexpected death of her best friend Mimi two years ago, Verity has never really done anything with her passion for cooking, but the perfect opportunity to pick this up again arrives in the form of the Plumberry School of Comfort Food. Verity's help is desperately needed and before she knows it, she finds herself back in the kitchen while also dealing with all kinds of complications, including the move to a new village, the publicity for the school to attract students, and a rather handsome top chef...
Cathy Bramley has done it again! Obviously this is just the first part of this new series set at the Plumberry School of Comfort Food, but it's a promising start and one I really enjoyed reading from start to finish. It's quite a quick read and sets the scene perfectly; providing the reader with the chance to get to know main character Verity, the secondary characters and the setting, in this case a new cooking school in the small town of Plumberry. I straight away fell in love with Verity, her personality and interesting background story, and Plumberry and its wonderful inhabitants. 
I really admire Cathy for how she manages to come up with a great and fascinating new setting and collection of characters over and over again. We've had gardening, farming, events at a big country estate, and now it's cooking at a school... I love it and can't wait for more. This is a great book to pick up for anyone who's looking for a quick read, or anyone who's not yet familiar with Cathy's writing and would like to give it a taste. I can safely say that if you love chick lit, you will love Cathy's work, so don't hesitate to give it a shot. The first part of 'The Plumberry School of Comfort Food' is a promising and great start to a new Cathy Bramley series; I can't wait to read more!

Rating:10/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.