Sunset Over the Cherry Orchard by Jo Thomas - Not only Food and Love, but also Flamenco!

Sunset Over the Cherry Orchard is the latest fabulous book by Jo Thomas, and it's not only about food and love, but also about flamenco!!
Beti Winter arrives in the Andalusian resort of Lado del Puerto with her fiancé of five years, Will, to take over the Butterfly Bar, but he gets cold feet and runs away with a band and a new girlfriend, Freya, taking all the money that Beti's grandma left her, and therefore all Beti's hopes and dreams.
The owners of the bar, Harold and Brenda, kindly give her some time to earn the money she needs for the deposit on their bar and so when the burger bar she works in lays her off, she gets a job with accommodation at Cortijo Ana, up in the mountains, near a small village called Colina de Flor.
Her job is to wash up in the restaurant, but she soon runs into the owner of the cherry farm, Antonio, who is known as the horse whisperer, and is better at dealing with horses than people. However, I did feel that he had more than a touch of Ross Poldark about him, especially when he rides over his land on Suerte, his fine horse!
Antonio's aim is to produce the best traditional cherries, needed by the cooperative to fulfil their orders, but he has no money to mend the watering system, so Beti and Miguel, his son, have to do it by hand pump. Miguel is Antonio's son with his wife, Esmerelda, who has gone off with Felipe to realise her dream of becoming a flamenco champion.
Now, Antonio runs the farm and his girlfriend, Vanessa, runs the restaurant, however, the cook, Bonita, who has worked there most of her life, does not like Vanessa's new ideas and recipes.
But in attempt to take over the farm for herself to sell, Esmerelda challenges Antonio and Beti to a flamenco dance off to win or lose the land and restaurant.
How on earth will Beti learn the steps? And is her experience of life enough for her to feel the emotion of the dance? Also does she really want Will back if he returns, or is she becoming more interested in Antonio?
This is a rich engaging story with wonderful escapism in this beautiful Andalusian setting and I could certainly feel the wet grass of the cherry orchard underneath my feet!
I really enjoyed it and I think its the best book by Jo Thomas that I've read so far.

The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas is a Pearl of a Book!

I can thoroughly recommend The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas. Published originally as an ebook in 2013, it was a runaway success and was then published in paperback in 2014, winning not only the prestigious RNA Joan Hessayon award for a newly published writer, but also the 2014 Festival of Romance Best Ebook Award too.
I heard of it through the RNA and have been keen to read it for some time, and I wasn't disappointed!
After a disastrous wedding, when Fiona's husband runs off, and she crashes the honeymoon camper van, she is left wearing only her wedding dress in Dooleybridge, County Galway. Her salvation comes in the shape of Sean Thornton who takes her on to help on his oyster farm. Through Jo Thomas's hilarious descriptions, I see Fi as a sort of Bridget Jones in Sean's oversized boots and waterproofs, and Sean himself as a brooding hero, with perhaps a bit of Ross Poldark about him although it is set in twenty-first century Ireland, not eighteenth century Cornwall!
There is a whole cast of village characters too including Margaret, the barmaid who has terrible fashion sense, but who becomes Fi's friend.
Dooleybridge has declined into a quiet backwater since it's waters were declared unclean for oyster production after the Murrays sold their oyster farm for building on the shore. However Sean proves that the waters are now pure, and wants to make a success of his farm, but he is hampered by oyster pirates who steal his stock when Fi is left in charge. So to help Sean, she becomes involved in reviving the legendary Oyster Festival to bring business to the village, and their love/hate relationship becomes the backbone of the story.
This is all complicated by the arrival of Dan Murray, a famous American broadcaster, who has come to make a TV programme about finding his roots, and has his eye on Fi; and also Nancy, Sean's girlfriend, a restauranteur who has her own ideas about the Festival.
Jo Thomas actually did her research on a Scottish oyster farm, going out into the sea to collect the oysters and prepare them for market, and I think she has done a really good job in making Fi's attempts at working at Sean's oyster farm so believable.
Interestingly, The Oyster Catcher is written in the first person present for Fi, and in other chapters, in the third person past for Sean, but it definitely works.
So whether or not you like oysters, this is a pearl of a book for you!