Savoring the Seasons

Cotswolds bakery owner Julia Bentley has just turned 40 and believes she’ll spend the rest of life in the seemingly satisfying routine of early morning bakes, caring for her 90-year-old father, napping after the lunch crowd, and venturing out to the neighborhood book club. When the village gossip, Mrs. Pickering, proposes a celebration to commemorate Julia’s father and the 40th anniversary of the bakery, Julia is both pleased and apprehensive about joining in—until she meets Mrs. Pickering’s nephew, Tristan, an attractive younger man newly moved to the village. Borum’s fourth contemporary set in the English village of Chilton Cross (after Seeking the Star) is meant to be cozy and tender, but Julia’s inner dialogue is constantly telling her that she’s too old, too fat, too childless, and too boring to attract anyone, and the reader may believe her. Her outlook is so bleak and tentative that it’s amazing Tristan would see the braver woman lurking inside her. (Oct.)