Published : 23rd January 2020
Publisher : Orion Fiction
Format : Hardcover, Kindle, Paperback, Audio
Genre : Contemporary Fiction
Synopsis..
Welcome to the café that never sleeps.
Day and night Stella's Café opens its doors for the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It is many things to many people but most of all it is a place where life can wait at the door. A place of small kindnesses.
A place where anyone can be whoever they want, where everyone is always welcome.
Meet Hannah and Mona: best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They work at Stella's but they dream of more, of leaving the café behind and making their own way in life.
Come inside and spend twenty-four hours at Stella's Café; a day when Hannah and Mona's futures will be changed and their friendship tested. Today is just the start, but it is also marks a conclusion. Because all beginnings are also endings. And all endings can also be beginnings...
My Review...
Thank you so much Orion for this fantastic, light hearted read. It was a complete pleasure to read and review this for you.
If you love a book that is uplifting, lighthearted and thought provoking then this is the book for you.
I love a story that is filled with different characters and there different perspectives. This story has just that. Set inside a café that is open 24 hours just outside Liverpool Street station in London you meet Hannah and Mona. Two best friends that both work shifts at the cafe, long twelve hour shifts that enables them to still pursue there careers of one day becoming a singer and dancer.
The girls met a few years ago whilst in a house share and now live together in their own flat.
The first twelve hours are mainly from Hannahs perspective, she is a loving, caring girl who will say yes to please almost anyone, but that has not worked in her favour as her last two boyfriends have betrayed and lied to her and her best friend Mona doesn't seem to feel like her best friend anymore...
whilst you experience hour by hour Hannahs shift and what is going on with her life at that time you also get to meet various customers who come into the cafe and read what is happening in there lives at that moment to, what has brought them into the cafe, wether it is a new mum at 4am desperately needing five minutes away from the screaming baby she loves so much but just needs some me time away from, or the homeless university kid who at 1 am is trying his best to study and not fall asleep, books all strewn across the table all the while hiding his sleeping bag under the table so no one suspects he is hiding from the cold till morning.
My favourite characters had to be Dan, the homeless student who has been dealt a really unfair card in life, he is such an endearing character. My heart really went out to him, trying his hardest to make something of himself even though all the odds are stacked against him.
Then there is also Harry and Martha, they were a close second. Finding each other later in life after both going through failed marriages and love lost they are on there way to their honeymoon when they go to the cafe to sit in the window and watch the world go by whilst they wait for their train.
Their story touched my heart the most, especially at the end. That was the part that brought the lump in my throat.
The second part of the book is mostly with mona, she is Hannahs best friend and the strongest out of the two. Always going for what she wants and not letting anything, even love stop her from pursuing her career as a dancer.
Mona has felt pushed aside by Hannah during her last spell with her ex boyfriend and it was all the little things that Hannah didn't notice that were slipping by that mona did notice and each time a little more of their friendship is chipped away.
Mona doesn't know how Hannah is going to take her big news, and if she wants to salvage a friendship that might already be damaged to far.
Also through out the book are flashbacks, memories that Hannah or mona will remember whilst working that shows us how their friendship first started, grew and from either side how the cracks started to grow.
This is a story about friendships, love and secrets and lies. The ties that bind us so completely that no matter how hard they are pulled and stretched the tie is still there holding strong.
Purchase Links…
BookDepository
Meet the author...
LIBBY PAGE is the author of the SUNDAY TIMES bestseller and runaway success of 2018, THE LIDO. THE LIDO has sold in over twenty territories around the world and film rights have been sold to Catalyst Global Media.
After writing, Libby’s second passion is outdoor swimming. Libby lives in London where she enjoys finding new swimming spots and pockets of community within the city. She and her sister run a blog and Instagram account @theswimmingsisters, documenting their swims and the benefits of outdoor exercise for mental health
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