please help me find my next comfort read (I'm v fussy!)

[Namechangetimesigh]

(reposted as I put it in the wrong topic to start with)

I'm a total escapist comfort reader and I know exactly what I like, but having exhausted the back catalogue of my favourite authors (Jenny Colgan, Trisha Ashley and the comfort food cafe series) I'm always struggling to find another that hits the comfort-reading spot:

• set in the UK countryside or seaside
• featuring a sensible woman who makes the best of her situation, often through organisation, home/shop renovation or cooking
• quirky friends and/or family provide comedy
• nothing horrible happens
• romance optional

If it helps, I liked Cathy Bramley until her style changed slightly, I can't get into Debbie Johnson's non-comfort food cafe books and Heidi Swann very nearly hits the spot. For some reason, Kate Forster, Phillipa Ashley and Jo Bartlett didn't click for me.

Thank you!

Katie Fforde?

This is 70% of my fairly extensive library 😁 Try Veronica Henry, Katie Fforde, Celia Anderson, Maeve Haran, Milly Johnson, Caroline Roberts, Vanessa Greene, Nicola May, Sue Moorcroft, Rebecca Raisin, Holly Hepburn and Donna Ashcroft.

Also Christina Jones and slightly different but if we have similar tastes, Sarah Addison Allen and Ali McNamara - all three fit your requirements but have some magical realism going on and are among my all time favourite reads!

Also came to say Katie Fforde, I prefer her older books.

Lucy Dillon too...not escapist but heartwarming, and although not a series her books loosely interconnect.

Oh and the Cornish Cream Tea series - Cressida McLaughlin 😁

Thanks for the suggestion, I find her books hit and miss TBH. I loved A Summer at Sea, but her frequent approach of 'controlling man takes over her life even though she doesn't want him to, but it turns out he loves her!' is a bit hard to stomach in 2023. Trisha Ashley's very oldest books are infuriatingly like that too, but her later heroines have more gumption :)

Jill Mansell. All of them.

Following.

A few existing misses there, but also some new names to try, thanks!

I used to enjoy Christina Jones (especially the Milton St John series), but her return with Sandcastle Cottage was a disappointment.

I actually recommend books for a living … but this is so not my genre, sorry 🫣

Jane Green - Life Swap and Spellbound

Maggie O'Farrell - This Must Be The Place

Louise Penny

Lucy Dillon - ‘secret of happy ever after’ is about renovating a bookshop and is a favourite comfort read of mine (much more so than her other books which are too doggy for my taste)

Ever try anything by Marcia Willett?

Try Erica James

Ooooh, they look promising - and if it did click, there's seven to go at!

Hazel Ward's Netta Wilde series.

Thanks everyone! I've got a massive list to explore now. I love Mumsnet x

Have you tried Hannah Ellis? There's the Hope Cove series, the Lock Lannick series, and a new series set in the Isles of Scilly.

Do they have to be contemporary?

What about:

Diary of a Provincial Lady (Delafield)

South Riding (Winifred Holtby)

Long shot = the Miss Read Fairacre books. They might be terribly dated, I have fond memories of reading them from my grandmother's bookshelf as a teenager.

Yay! I figured some you'd have tried already but pleased there are some new names in there - hope some of them are your thing!

Penelope Fitzgerald - The Bookshop

Rather old school but Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is my go to duvet read!

Ooh these are all right up my street!

I am reading the Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan...very easy reading!

Have you tried Christie Barlow's Loveheart Lane series? I think they'd be right up your street and there's 9 in the series I think. Also Sue Moorcroft, Sarah Morgan and Holly Morgan.

Try the Hens Dancing books (trilogy?) by Raffaela Barker. The fit almost every one of your requirements (except that the protagonist is not terribly sensible) and are really lovely books.