Review: The Little Vintage Carousel By The Sea by Jaimie Admans

Ness has almost resigned herself to being single forever, when she catches sight of the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen on the train to work.

But just as she plucks up the courage to speak to him – he steps off the train and disappears into the crowds, without realising he’s accidentally dropped his phone!

It’s her ‘glass slipper’ moment, she’s sure of it, she just needs to track him down – all the way to the gorgeous seaside village of Pearlholme, where she finds him restoring a vintage carousel by the sea…

Maybe it’s finally time to follow her heart?

*Review copy received via NetGalley*

ebook

Full-length novel

Third person narration, single pov.

Nope!

Nope!

Nope!

Yep!

The Little Vintage Carousel by the Sea is the perfect summer read! I smiled all the way through reading it. It was joyful, funny, sweet and absolutely infectious in its happiness!
Seriously... It's pure joy distilled into a couple hundred pages.

Ness is a fact-checker working for a London based magazine. She lives in a horrible flat, hates her commute, dislikes her boss and dreams of something different while being stuck in the mundane day-to-day of her life. She has a smile-thing/major crush going on with an attractive stranger she sees semi-regularly on the tube and one day he drops his phone which she picks up and tries to return to him but doesn't get a chance before he's lost in a crowd.
This sets the scene for a madcap scheme with her annoying boss and pregnant BFF (who works at the magazine) to write a series of articles as Ness tries to track down 'train man'.

Of course, Ness finds train man - who happens to restore carousels - and sets off to return his phone to him (with her boss's approval) in a sleepy seaside village in Yorkshire where he is restoring a mystery carousel.

You can imagine how it all unfolds...
An amazing guy, who is intensely private, falls in love with his train girl only to find out she's in the town under not entirely honest circumstances...
And that's why this isn't a 5 star read, I'm afraid.
All Ness had to do was tell Nate what was going on and everything would have been fine, but she didn't. She lied to him... A lie of omission, perhaps, but still a lie, and the mini-drama that unfolded felt like it was added just for drama's sake diminishing the shine of this book like a storm cloud on a sunny day.
It doesn't ruin the book though.
I loved Nate and Ness, they were perfect for each other. The setting was beautiful, the mystery surrounding the old carousel was captivating and I laughed out loud so many times... A little unnecessary drama can't destroy that.
That's why I whole-heartedly recommend this book if you're looking for a happy pick me up or something to read while chilling in the sunshine.

I love this cover so much! It just screams light, summery read!

 "A stranger made eye contact with you, on public transport, in London? What kind of weirdo is this?”