Book Review: The Windmill Cafe by Poppy Blake

The Windmill Café is a three-part book, based in different seasons, each containing different mysteries that the protagonist, Rosie, and her friends work to solve in the small village of Willerby. First, let me say that the cover is beautiful and I love the idea of a windmill café. If I wasn’t so averse to customer service, I would love to own a little café. Picking up this book would have allowed me to live vicariously through the main character as she works to find herself after leaving London for Willerby. Working with her friends to solve the local mysteries, I expected the main character to build up her self-confidence and end on a cozy note. In some ways, I think the author accomplished that. However, I felt like I was dragging myself along after only 5% of the book and could only read a couple pages (on my phone) before checking the percentage bar.

I am disappointed that the beautiful windmill on the front cover didn’t give way to a story that swept me away. From the beginning, I didn’t care for the writing style. I’m sure this won’t bother all readers but it felt like the author was working to show off her extensive vocabulary like children after they’ve just entered a new section in their vocab lessons. Sprinkling in words that aren’t used in day to day conversation is fine, but this was a constant presence throughout the novel and it completely threw off the flow. The conversations feel stilted and unrealistic leaving the characters in a two-dimensional state and ultimately unlikeable. I ended up distracted, looking up word definitions and usages as the use seemed wrong or had a conversational alternative that conveys the same meaning like using indecision or wavering instead of vacillation. Before long I felt like I was reading and editing a high school English assignment when I started reading descriptions like “Butterflies were having a disco in her stomach…” or sentences like “However, this was real life – yet, weren’t the principles the same?” Even so, I think I may have suffered through my opinions on advanced vocabulary and weird idiom combinations if it weren’t for Rosie.

I found Rosie, our main character, insufferable. As I review my Kindle notes, I wrote at one point during a conversation she has with Matt, her love interest, “it’s one thing to be polite and proper but Rosie has the personality of flour and is a ninny.” My notes get increasingly more irritated as the book carries on and it almost always stems from Rosie. The mysteries felt lukewarm and while I didn’t necessarily guess the perpetrator, I also didn’t care if they were caught. 

As I go to post this review, I see that a lot of people enjoyed this book and I am relieved. I don’t relish giving poor reviews and I encourage the author to keep going because there is clearly an audience for their work. I just won’t be a member of that audience.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.