Bedlam & Breakfast
at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse
by Sharley Scott
Amazon
Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse
Katie is desperate to leave her stressful job, so she doesn’t think too hard about moving to Devon to run a B&B, even if it means uprooting her family. She is certain that she and Jason have a strong and loving relationship which can weather any storm.
Hooked by the beauty of Torringham with its quaint harbor and stunning coastline, they purchase Flotsam Guesthouse which needs more than a lick of paint to keep it afloat. Soon, Katie finds that renovating and running a guesthouse is taking its toll, especially when dealing with challenging guests and madcap neighbors, Shona and Kim. Katie comes to learn that trouble is afoot whenever Shona begs a favor.
However, when her adored daughter moves back to their old hometown, she wonders if they’ve made a huge mistake, especially when cracks begin to show in her marriage.
Her seaside idyll is crumbling along with her relationship. Should she let Flotsam Guesthouse founder while she salvages her marriage? Katie needs to decide where her priorities lie. The only issue is, she doesn’t know.
Hooked by the beauty of Torringham with its quaint harbor and stunning coastline, they purchase Flotsam Guesthouse which needs more than a lick of paint to keep it afloat. Soon, Katie finds that renovating and running a guesthouse is taking its toll, especially when dealing with challenging guests and madcap neighbors, Shona and Kim. Katie comes to learn that trouble is afoot whenever Shona begs a favor.
However, when her adored daughter moves back to their old hometown, she wonders if they’ve made a huge mistake, especially when cracks begin to show in her marriage.
Her seaside idyll is crumbling along with her relationship. Should she let Flotsam Guesthouse founder while she salvages her marriage? Katie needs to decide where her priorities lie. The only issue is, she doesn’t know.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Like any couple we had our ups-and-downs and a good row would usually clear the air but that was impossible in a guesthouse filled with two dozen pairs of ears, especially as I’ve never been one for a hissed argument. I could imagine the TripAdvisor reviews: ‘Flotsam offers the authentic seaside fish-wife experience’.
When I went back out to take more orders, I apologised for the wait. “You’ve forgotten our presents,” John said. I frowned. “Presents?” He glanced at his watch and laughed. “We’ve been waiting so long, it must be Christmas.”
That man must have a blowhole in his head. He doesn’t stop for breath.
Don’t leave me! It’s handbags at dawn in there.
My tongue must be an inch shorter for all the times I’d bitten it, but now it shrank to the back of my mouth fearful of being chewed off.
He’d been grumpy all week, making me feel as if I had to tiptoe around him. Maybe he should have married a ballerina.
My Review:
This was an amusing, fun, and lively tale chronicling the misadventures of first-time owners of a B&B, who had optimistically approached their new endeavor with no prior experience in the hospitality industry. The story was told from the first person POV of Katie, who with her husband Jason had purchased a run-down B&B in a seaside tourist area of Devon. While they realized the structure was going to need improvements, they were sorely unaware of just how neglected and poorly maintained the facilities were, as well as how much effort running a B&B was going to require. Complications abounded before their uniquely difficult guests had even started arriving, yet they handled the myriad comical and exceptional challenges head on and learned hard lessons by doing, which is quite often the best form of education and training.
Resentful over the amount paid for the sale, the former B&B owners had spitefully poisoned the locals towards them as well as purposely tampered with the bookings and left layers of filth behind. I don’t even want to consider how I would have fared with such a labor intensive and uphill 24/7 enterprise; I most likely would have locked the doors and fled at top speed while shrieking like a banshee.
The stress and exhaustion frayed their nerves, siphoned off their patience, and sorely tested their relationship as their communication became limited to quietly sniping and snarling at each other in private while doing their best to maintain a pleasant atmosphere and cheerful countenances for their guests. I am uncertain why this was originally tagged as a Contemporary Romance, whereas I would label it as Women’s Fiction with copious amounts of wit, humor, and family drama.
New additions to my Brit Word List include grockles – which are tourists; and nous – which appears to be associated with intelligence as well as common sense, although it has been my experience that most human beings rarely possess both at the same time.
Empress DJ
About The Author
While 'Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse' is fictional, I am a guesthouse owner. Thankfully, we have been blessed with lots of amazing and kind-hearted guests, who are nothing like some of the characters featured in this novel and the subsequent books in the series. I would be a lot greyer if they were.
Likewise, Jason is quite different to my husband, who I sometimes nickname Victor Meldrew. He is lovely though and has a fab sense of humor, although some of his dryness has rubbed off on Jason.
Bedlam & Breakfast is set in South Devon, in the fictional town of Torringham, which is loosely based on Brixham. If you've been to Brixham you may recognize some of the local features, including the seals, fishing industry and the fantastic lifeboat crew, but the businesses, people and a number of settings are fictionalized.
The same applies to the B&B owners featured. Many guesthouse owners undertake work when they move into a property and our current B&B was not an exception. While, thankfully, our previous owners were nothing like Jim and Maureen, this also means we don’t get to live next door to the fabulous Shona and Kim. But we do have many lovely B&B friends. B&Bers are a wonderful and hardworking bunch, although the ones we know have a penchant for parties in the low season. That's why I had to end Bedlam & Breakfast at a party.
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