A review by mapscitiesandsongs
The Summer Seaside Kitchen by Jenny Colgan

Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

DNF @ 20% 

Had this book on my kindle since forever and finally picked it up. To my dismay it was absolutely horrible. First of all, what is that writing? Just awful. Just look at this paragraph: 

Her hair is a strange colour; very, very pale. Not blonde, and not red exactly, and kind of possibly strawberry blonde, but more faded than that. It's almost no colour at all. And she is ever so slightly too tall; and her skin is pale as milk and her eyes are a watery colour and it's sometimes quite different to tell exactly what colour they are.

It's giving women written by men. What does that even mean "watery colour"? It's a poor attempt at making the female MC likeable because she is so "ordinary". Give me a fucking a break. 

And if that wasn't enough the author follows it up with good ol' internalised misogyny. Because the girlfriend of the super mean and evil law boss is a blonde bombshell with a tight hotpink dress. It's obviously something our plain MC could never wear, because she is soooooooo ordinary. 

Apart from the female MC looking ordinary (*eye roll*) she is also dumb, self-conscious and self-absorbed. She comes back to her small island home and asks the foodstore owner if he has rice wine and lemon grass. How stupid do you want the MC to be? The author: YES! 

I read some reviews to see if it gets better, but not to my surprise it actually gets worse. What's up with authors and their "I can fix him" kink?! It hardly ever works. You mean to tell me I should root for some law firm guy who is actually described as mean and evil just because he has a sad backstory?! ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's a disgrace that some authors still use the "I can fix him" and "I never even looked at her for a second, but now I realise I was wrong. She is just what I need." combination.