The Little Teashop of Lost and Found

by Trisha Ashley

[Leah]

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Trisha Ashley novel – but it took only a few pages to of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found for my to realise just how much I love her books. I was enthralled by Alice’s story and I loved all the different aspects to it – that Alice’s story was a fairytale destined to never go right, that she would always end up abandoned, that she never felt at home anywhere, a bit transient, always moving from place to place. Throw in the fact that Alice writes fairytale horror stories for a living (which I found incredibly exciting, and would read if Trisha ever went down that road) and the whole Bronte connection, you have a lot going on in one book, without me even mentioning the teashop

I really loved Alice. She’s a bit jaded from everything life has thrown at her – from being abandoned as a baby, to her (adopted) dad dying and her wicked witch adopted mother showing her true colours, to moving to Cornwall, to moving to Scotland, to meeting Dan, then Dan’s death and then, finally, deciding to buy a teashop and move to Haworth in a bid to find her real mother. I mean only two of those things happening is a lot, never mind all of that, but I liked that she still had her spirit, that even despite all the issues with the teashop, she knew what she wanted to do with it to make it her own and by hook or by crook she was going to do it. With a little help from a friendly neighbour, Nile Giddings and his family, this is just such a delightful read. I really felt, like Alice, that Haworth was where she was meant to be. It just seemed so right.

Trisha Ashley is a fantastic storyteller, she kept me riveted for 400 pages and I loved getting to know Alice, seeing her build up the teashop ready for opening and deal with having to write a novel also and I absolutely loved the Giddingses. Each and every one of them were so welcoming to Alice, allowing her to stay with them, being friendly with her, basically welcoming her as if she was one of their own, and helping her in her quest to find her birth mother (which has a pretty impressive plot twist I did not see coming). I loved that the relationship between Alice and Nile wasn’t in your face or over the top, and that for much of the novel they have this sort of love-hate thing going on, and how it slowly turned into something more, it never felt rushed or over the top or more than either of them could handle.

I really enjoyed The Little Teashop of Lost and Found. It has so many strings to its bow and so much depth and heartbreak and humour. You might not expect that when you see the beautiful, if cutesy, cover but this book covers a lot of ground. It gave me so much delight throughout, and I could imagine myself eating an afternoon tea at the Fat Rascal, and being thoroughly abused (with pleasure) from Nell and Tilda, with Alice whipping up gorgeous cakes in the kitchen. This is stellar fiction, not that I expect anything less from Trisha Ashley.