New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Café

Julie Haworth

IF you haven’t yet visited the sleepy, soul-soothing East Sussex village of Blossom Heath, then the clowder of irresistible rescue cats settling in at everyone’s favourite café could be just your cup of tea.

New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Café – a delicious blend of romance with a side order of cats and cosy community vibes – is exciting new women’s fiction writer Julie Haworth’s second warm, romantic and uplifting novel set in this most idyllic, quintessentially English village imaginable.

Haworth (pictured below), who worked as an English teacher for a number of years, wrote last year’s debut novel, Always By Your Side, a celebration of rural life, love and friendship, whilst recovering from Covid in 2020, and it went on to win the Romantic Novelists’ Association Katie Fforde Debut Novel of the Year 2023. And romance fans – and cat lovers – will be in reading heaven when they get their paws on Haworth’s warm, life-affirming and sun-soaked new story which stars a young woman returning to Blossom Heath, the village where she grew up, after her boyfriend of four years shatters her dreams of a happy ever after.

When Tori and her long-term boyfriend Ryan set off a year ago on what was planned to be the ‘adventure of a lifetime’ in Asia, she believed that their future together in Blossom Heath was all mapped out.

But after being unceremoniously dumped and left stranded by Ryan, who is now (unbelievably) telling her he’s ‘not a relationship guy,’ the bottom has fallen out of Tori’s world and she returns to her pretty village and her mum Joyce after the worst week of her life.

As Joyce’s number one helper has just left her busy and popular Cosy Cup Café, Tori puts on her frilly apron to help her mum but, recognising that the café is starting to looking dated and tired, she formulates a plan – inspired by the cat cafés she visited in Tokyo – to give the place a fresh start and a new feline identity. Joyce is not initially

convinced as, judging from their own ginger Maine Coon Ernie, cats could cause chaos but Tori wins her over and, despite some adventures and misadventures, the Cosy Cat Café starts to thrive.

As for Tory, she starts to turn her own blighted life around again with the support of her mum, her old schoolfriend Rose, the caring villagers, a clutter of cats (each with their own very definite personality!) and, not least, hunky fireman and cat lover Leo. Perhaps the secret to her future happiness might lie closer to home than she had ever thought possible.

Set once again amidst the rolling hills of Sussex, and the warm and welcoming residents of Blossom Heath, the reborn Tori, her handsome, kind and caring firefighter Leo, and an enchanting cast of felines are undoubtedly the leading players in this romantic odyssey as love blossoms against a backdrop of dilemmas, dramas and some dastardly scheming.

Add on the fun of meeting up again with lovebirds Jake and Rose and their adorable Border Collie Scout from Haworth’s first book, Always By Your Side, and the charismatic cast of rescue cats (not least top cat Ernie) who most definitely steal the show on more than one occasion, and only the hardest of hearts could not melt at this feast of feel-good delights, tasty dishes and summer vibes.

And with friendship, family bonds, community spirit, the importance of not giving up on your dreams, and, most importantly, true love taking centre stage, New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Café is the purrfect beach read for your holiday escape.
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £8.99)