Books Read: Abby Clements - Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop

When Imogen and Anna unexpectedly inherit their grandmother Vivien's ice cream parlour, it turns both their lives upside-down. The Brighton shop is a seafront institution, but while it's big on charm it's critically low on customers. If the sisters don't turn things around quickly, their grandmother's legacy will disappear forever. 

With summer looming, Imogen and Anna devise a plan to return Vivien's to its former glory. Rather than sell up, they will train up, and make the parlour the newest destination on the South Coast foodie map. 

While Imogen watches the shop, her sister flies to Italy to attend a gourmet ice cream-making course. But as she works shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best chefs in the industry, Anna finds that romance can bloom in the most unexpected of places...

I loved Abby Clements' debut book Meet me Under the Mistletoe so when I saw that she had a new book out this Summer, Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop, and that it featured an old-fashioned Ice-Cream shop I was practically salivating...

Sisters Anna and Imogen are as different as could be; Anna has a successful career in a marketing company in Brighton and just moved in with her boyfriend Jon, whereas Imogen has wanderlust and currently living in Thailand where she's trying to build up her portfolio to enable her to fulfill her dream of becoming a photographer.

So both girls are stunned when their gran Vivien dies suddenly and leaves them her Ice Cream parlour, Sunset 99s.  After all what do they know about running a shop and besides which they're both too busy.  But once the realisation kicks in both of them decide that they do actually want to make a go of it and set about to restore the parlour back to its former glory.  Anna sets off to Florence to attend a course to learn how to make gorgeous ice-creams, sorbets and granitas, whilst Imogen looks after the shop whilst dreaming of taking the business on the road in a mobile van...

This book had everything you could wish for in a summer read, delightful characters that you could picture as one of your friends, gorgeous locations... beautiful Florence and the delights of Brighton beach for us hardy Brits, the odd mishap or two to have you cringing at their misfortunes, and throw in a couple of leading men and a little romance... what more could a girl want. 

And as for the cover, it's so cute and would definitely have made me pick this up to buy if I hadn't been fortunate to have receive a copy for review.  There are also some recipes at the the back for those of you who are brave enough to have a go... think I'll stick to my local farm shop creations as wouldn't want to poison anyone...