Welcome to Pepper Bay, where you’ll find love, drama, and a happily ever after.
Snuggle down with this cosy, feel-good, comfort read that whisks you away to a beautiful bay on the Isle of Wight – Perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Alison Sherlock, Rachael Lucas, and Holly Martin.
The Pepper Bay books are standalone stories, best read in order, that intertwine with recurring characters.
The Treehouse of Dreams: When Willow Silver pays for a psychic drawing of her soulmate, she truly believes that one day he will come into her life, not that she has any time for love. She’s busy helping run the family garden centre. Plus, her best friend, Cody, is staying with her for a while, so she doesn’t feel she could run off in the name of love and abandon everyone, even when she bumps into a man who looks exactly like the one in the drawing.
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When you've been reviewing a series for a while, it can sometimes feel as though you are running out of things to say about each new book. You want each review to feel as fresh and different as the books do, for your words to reflect the joy and sense of comfort you feel at revisiting familiar characters and being introduced to new ones. But it can be tough sometimes, which is why it's lovely when you know within a few pages, exactly what approach you want to take with your review.
As has quite often been the case with this series, 'The Treehouse of Dreams' fell into my inbox at exactly the right moment. The last 8 weeks have been insanely busy, as I've tried to juggle working more than full time hours with ferrying the small one to all his after school activities, keeping on top of the housework and attempting to make the most of having the big one home from university so i can see a little bit of my friends in between everything else. My paid work usually makes me hermit-like at this time of year and my husband usually picks up the slack, but he is still living the not-so-glamorous and definitely not-so-single life in the South-West and so I've had to try and keep everything going myself. Consequently, when everything in the characters' lives felt like it was getting a bit much for them, I completely sympathised.
However, it wasn't this that really drew me into this book. What truly caught my attention was the key concept around which the plot centres: the idea of a soulmate. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines soulmate rather blandly as: someone, usually your romantic or sexual partner, who you have a special relationship with, and who you know and love very much. For me, this doesn't quite cut the ice as a definition. This could describe most romantic relationships, but for me, a soulmate is something more.
I've always believed that there is one person you are meant to be with. Not everyone finds their soulmate. Not all soulmates are romantic partners. Some find them very young, some have to wait a lifetime and kiss many frogs before they meet. But I firmly believe that each soul (and i use this in the loosest definition of the word) has its partner somewhere in the world. I was lucky; I found mine at 18. It took my mum and dad until they were 31 and 54 respectively and while Mum remarried 7 years after Dad's death and is happy, she openly admits it's not the same.
One of my frequent discussions with my eldest is that in Titanic, Kate Winslet's Rose is still thinking of Jack, almost a century after his death, even though she has married and had a family in between. What he sees as disrespect to her husband, I view as the connection between soulmates that she has never been free of.
It is clear from the start of the book that Willow and Cody are soulmates. Whilst in the beginning they are friends, that special connection is there, tethering them to each other and no matter what happens, you just know that connection will hold them together. Even though it takes them a while to recognise their romantic feelings for each other, they acknowledge their relationship is something particularly special even without the sexual chemistry. Thus, when they do finally make the move from friends to lovers, it doesn't take them long to realise what they truly want.
As the author herself acknowledges in her latest newsletter, the last couple of books in the series have been a little bit darker and whilst I definitely enjoyed them and felt the issues raised were important ones to tackle, I must admit that it was nice to return to the lighter tone of the earlier books in the series. Nevertheless, there are still some topics touched upon that add the dash of seriousness which stops the book becoming too light and fluffy. (I'm all for a HEA but i prefer them to be realistic and for the characters to deserve their good fortune, which in this case, they do.)
As always, it was a pleasure to return to Pepper Bay and catch up with its inhabitants, particularly as this instalment gave some closure to some of the things left open-ended in previous books. Knowing I have one of these on my TBR pile fills me with joy and always reminds me why I love reading.
Hello, I’m K.T. Dady. I’m the bestselling author of the Pepper Bay series. I’m also a chocolate lover, mum to a grown-up daughter, and a huge fan of a HEA. I was born and raised in the East End of London, and I’ve been happily writing stories since I was a little girl. When I’m not writing, I’m reading, baking cakes, or pottering around in my little garden in Essex, trying not to kill the flowers.
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