A lovely book about Charlie who has inherited a bus and turns it into a travelling cafe in Cornwall and finds love in the process. Cressida McLaughlin paints a lovely picture of Cornwall in the process.

This book is .lovely.
Set in a gorgeous place with believable characters and a great story.
Recommended

A lovely easy holiday read, set in the Cotswolds but mainly Cornwall. Loved the main characters and would recommend

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the passion that Charlie had for her bus!
Characters were good. It was a nice cosy read, and I loved the uncertainty through the book about which character would capture Charlie’s heart!
A lovely tale, easy to read and enjoy. I curled up and read it on a rainy winter day, so good to read all year round.
Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Cressida McLaughlin for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review

Wasn't totally sold on this one to start with, but persevered and by chapter 4 I couldn't put it down. I found myself wanting Gertie to be revamped and do well, I wanted Charlie to find her happ ending and I wanted the residents in porthgolow to come round to her and her ideas. From starting out not being sure, I ended up really enjoying this. It's well written, engaging (once I got into it), heartwarming and inspiring.

What a great story, set in Cornwall but starts in the Cotswolds. There are twists and turns all the way through so you are never sure how it will end. So you need to get hold of a copy of this fantastic book to read it yourself. The bus ofcourse features a great deal but it makes for a really lovely novel. I recommend this and give it 5 stars.

In this book we follow Charlie as she travels in her late uncle’s double decker bus, Gertie, to Cornwall. Charlie has taken a sabbatical from her work in a tea shop to be able to begin to recover from the heartbreak of the death of her uncle and finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her. She heads to Porthgolow to stay with her friend, Juliette, who lives in the forgotten & neglected seaside village. However, Charlie sees the potential in the village and after having Gertie completely revamped she starts to run the Cornish Cream Tea Bus in the hope of getting Porthgolow recognised for the special place it really is.
We travel along the Cornish roads with Charlie & follow her attempts to get the villagers on side with her plans for Gertie, a weekly food market and the ups & downs this brings. Charlie is faced with the dilemma of being interested in two men but feeling differently about both of them. Who should she choose: Oliver who runs a mobile cocktail bar and appears friendly, caring & helpful, or Daniel the brooding owner of a swanky hotel on the outskirts of the village, for whom Charlie has very conflicting feelings and doesn’t know whether she can trust him with her heart that beats a little faster when he’s around. And what should she do when the summer season ends: return home with Gertie or choose Porthgolow as her new home?
A lovely, easy to read romance story full of friendship, fun, delicious sounding cream teas & delectable descriptions of Cornwall - the author’s life for the area shines through. Characters you can relate & respond to along with the hint of romance throughout the book. An enjoyable read.

A delightful little story about a woman following her dreams and seeing up a wonderful little cafe on a bus. Along the way she breathes life into a sleepy town bringing food festivals and tourists. Not everyone is happy with these changes, so she has some battles along the way. As for the handsome man running the hotel, is he friend or foe?

After losing her uncle Hal, he leaves Charlie his beloved bus, Gertie.



After breaking up with her boyfriend Stuart and her beloved uncle, her best friend Juliette comes back from Cornwall where she lives and alongside Charlie's dad and boss try to get her to take a break and have a holiday as she throws herself instantly into making Gertie a success and have her uncle Hal be proud of her for keeping the bus going now he's gone.



After a first disaster, she and her dog Marmite end up in Portgollow where Juliette lives. The area is a bit ran down and in need of revival, however there's the matter of Crystal Waters, a high end spa ran by Daniel.



Not everyone is welcoming to Charlie, Marmite and Gertie but can they change their minds?



Charlie and Marmite her yorkiepoo are setting up the Portgollow food festival to help raise the areas profile and make their businesses a success as she runs her Cornish Cream Tea Bus.



As she reunites with Oliver from The Marauding Mojito, Daniel invites her to the spa after her opens up about helping and failing to give her friend a job.



So on enough she has a choice to make and to address her feelings, safe Oliver but sexy and risky choice Daniel, who'll she realise her feelings for?



Charlie has to confront her true feelings for Oliver and Daniel especially when it seems one might have a wandering eye and not been honest with her alike she with them but only worse...



We also see how she plans to tour her bus around now and begins to trial her plans too!



In the final part of Charlie's story, we see how she discovers who sabotaged her bus stopping her trading which was of no surprise to me who'd done it, the clues are there all along...



However the whole village comes together to make it better including with regular food festival's!



But will she and Daniel finally sort out their feelings?



I have truly loved this book. Once again Cressida has written a remarkable story with characters that I wish really existed as this bus sounds amazing and I would love to support it!

I love the idea of keeping and using a vintage bus as a cafe it's absolute genius and I wish it existed. Even early on the chemistry is building between her and Daniel and the Cornish village life looks set to get vibrant, I was hooked on this book Cressida just keeps writing thrilling entrancing books you need to read!



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. An easy read, perfect for summer holidays. I liked the characters and it has a plot which, even though it was easy to guess the ending, made me want to read all the way through. Made me want to visit Cornwall again!

Charlie Quilter is left in her uncle Hal’s will a 1964 AEC Routemaster, ex-London Transport double decker bus. Follow Charlie, a baker, as she transforms Gertie into a mobile cafe and sightseeing tour bus.

Having driven buses and coaches since 1981, I loved how Cressida puts across to the reader the passion that vintage buses and coaches can give. There is a little something that vintage buses and coaches have that modern vehicles lack. Cressida taps into the character of this Routemaster very well indeed and with her words you get the feel of this bus. I was really impressed that Cressida could put across the bus parts of this book so well. It was lovely for me to finish my rest break reading The Cornish Cream Tea Bus and then reflect upon the book as I drove along the motorway behind the wheel of my modern Euro 6 - Volvo B11R. Cressida had done her research well as Charlie had both her PCV licence and a valid Driver CPC Qualification Card. I will ignore the absence of an Operator’s Licence etc and all the legal requirements as this does not affect the story.

The Cornish Cream Tea Bus has a large list of lively characters who all have their part to play. The whole book is told from Charlie’s point of view and I had empathy for her from the moment she pressed the button to start the AEC AV590 9.6 litre engine. Character development was good and there was romance in this story too! The romance developed at a steady pace and it was uncertain which way Charlie’s heart would lead. This is light reading and is suitable for all age groups as there is no gritty sex within the pages, just the odd gentle kiss on the mouth. All the cream was on the scones!

This whole story is very British and is told in a cosy, warm, whimsical way, very similar to the popular television series Doc Martin, also set in Cornwall. Tourism and village life are lovingly depicted giving this book a great holiday feel. I really engaged with this book and had the “we’re all in this together” feel. Making me feel more at home, not just the bus and the scones, was Marmite - a pet Yorkiepoo. Charlie’s dog was a crossbreed Yorkshire Terrier/Poodle and as dogs are integral to many people’s lives, it is lovely when they are included within a story.

I enjoyed reading The Cornish Cream Tea Bus and thought it was a GOOD 4 star read. It was a light and fluffy, very comfortable read with a happy ending.

I loved this story. It is a very slow-burn romance, Cornwall, and Gertie, the Cornish Cream Tea Bus are the real stars of the show. Cressida McLaughlin obviously loves Cornwall, and knows it very well,

Charlie has had a very upsetting few months. She discovered that her fiancé Stuart was cheating on her, and she has left him, and moved back to her family home. Then, what probably upsets her even more, her beloved Uncle Hal dies, leaving her Gertie, his old, vintage double-decker Routemaster bus, that he used to drive as a tour bus, taking visitors round the Cotswolds. She has spent lots of happy times helping him with the bus, even passing the test to be able to drive it. But she is a baker, she doesn’t want to drive a tour bus. Then she has a brainwave, why not convert the bus into a cafe?

Her best friend Juliette is worried about her, and begs Charlie to come and stay with her and her boyfriend Lawrence in Porthgolow in Cornwall for a while, to recharge her batteries. Charlie has some minor work done on Gertie, and tries out her idea of a cafe bus at a festival in the Cotswolds, to see if the idea is viable. Unfortunately there has been a lot of rain, and half way through the day the bus starts to sink, a bit of a disaster! Charlie decides to go to stay with Juliette, and at the last minute decides to take Gertie instead of her old car, maybe she will get it fitted out in Cornwall, and have another attempt at starting her business.

Porthgolow is a village that it seems time forgot! Charlie absolutely loves it, but some of the locals have reservations about her plans and ideas, and she has to work hard to fit in and counteract their resistance. Lawrence finds someone who can fix up Gertie, and Charlie is set on the path to her new business! It is delightful watching her deal with all the issues and hitches that occur. It all feels quite real, problems and situations that are perfectly believable.

All in all a lovely, gentle story, inhabited by a cast of interesting, well-written people that you become involved with. Well worth reading.

Lovely story that is easy to read and is interesting with the different characters who are involved. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommended it to those readers who enjoy reading this type of book.

This book was a perfect summer holiday read. Loved the setting and all the characters; made me want to revisit Cornwall

Thanks to NetGalley I received a free copy of The Cornish Cream Tea Bus by Cressida McLaughlin in exchange for an honest review. The Cornish Cream Tea Bus was originally released as four separate parts in ebook but it is being published as a complete novel (in paperback and ebook) today.

Here is the blurb:
Baking fanatic, Charlie Quilter, is surprised when her late uncle bequeaths his vintage bus to her in his will. Keen to give the bus a new lease of life, Charlie thinks it will be the perfect mobile café for afternoon tea, and when her friend, Juliette, suggests Charlie comes to stay with her in the picturesque Cornish village of Porthgolow, she’s thrilled at the chance of a new start.
Charlie and her cute dog, Marmite, make new friends wherever their bus stops – except for the sexy but reclusive owner of the posh spa up on the hill, Daniel Harper, who isn’t very pleased that her bus is parked outside his lovely hotel.
Has Charlie’s Cornish dream developed a soggy bottom? Or can she convince Daniel that her bus could be the start of something wonderful for the little village – and for them?

The Cornish Cream Tea Bus was a perfect read for lazy summer days when you’re tired but want to feel you’ve done something. I liked that it was divided into four distinct sections but equally was very glad I was reading them all at once (I have a love hate relationship with the current trend for books in instalments). Some books that are originally published in parts have a lot of recap of previous events, change of setting or time skips at the beginning of each part which can jar when reading the whole book but The Cornish Cream Tea Bus worked really well with a story that just kept moving. I don’t think I would have realised it wasn’t originally one book if I hadn’t already known.

I was mostly sitting in the garden reading this. And I kept hoping my neighbours couldn’t see or hear me because I was literally giggling at funny moments throughout the book. There was a wide cast of characters, different personalities and ages etc. I had some definite favourites by the end of the book who I was sorry to say goodbye to. Porthgolow and The Cornish Cream Tea Bus were brilliant settings and if Cressida McLaughlin were to write a sequel I would be sure to read it.

This is the first Cressida McLaughlin book Ive read and was lucky enough to read the series as a complete novel. Charlie is in need of a change of scenery, her partner Stuart has walked out after she discovered his infidelity and her beloved uncle has recently passed away. Uncle Hal leaves his beloved double decker vintage bus to Charlie and she decides sprucing it up and going to visit her best friend Juliette in Porthgolow Cornwall is just what she needs. With some help from Juliette’s friend Uncle Hal’s rather sad looking bus is totally revamped and kitted out with tables, seats, and a mini kitchen, The Cornish Cream Tea Bus is born. However, not all Porthgolow’s residents are happy with Charlie’s idea of starting a weekly food market on the beach to revatalise this sleepy town. Daniel Harper the owner of the beautiful spa hotel on the top of the cliff becomes a total thorn in Charlie’s side, or is he just being helpful? As the the food market takes off and the village begin to warm to the bus, so Charlie starts to fall for Daniel only to meet a handsome cocktail maker called Ollie.
I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, the wiring was engaging and the pace of the story perfect to keep you wanting more. I look forward to reading the next instalment.

A very fun series! All of the elements i love in good, British, chick lit!

**OMG! I cannot believe that these reviews haven't been done! I am so sorry they are so late!!!**

I am a complete sucker for a book set in a bakery or café and I know I hear you all whispering not another one but I adore the comforting storylines with the little buzz of excitement they bring as we watch these determined women begin to build their businesses whilst tempting us with their mouth-watering treats. The Cornish Cream Tea Bus has all of that and more with the unique twist of setting up on an old route-master, how could I resist, the temptation was just too much.


Meet Charlie our leading lady who is ambitious, hardworking and selfless always thinking of how she can help others. As Charlie gets to work on creating her vision of running her own cream tea business onboard her treasured route-master that she has inherited she sees a chance to help the community around her at the same time but this was not going to be plain sailing. Charlie is a determined and honest woman and with every knock she takes from those around her she gets straight back up and comes back fighting strong.


The friendships and relationships between all of the characters were all a joy to read and all felt genuine. I had my reservations about the love interests Oliver and Daniel, the author cleverly pulls us in believing at different points that they could be the one before throwing in situations that then made me wary, so I was never quite sure what way the romance would go which only kept me all the more intrigued!


The temptation was too much for me when it came to the mouth-watering cakes that were continually teased with, I can’t tell you what I would have done to be able to jump on board and gorge on warm homemade scones!


I find Cressida’s writing style manages to sweep me away providing me with pure escapism and creates such an exciting and buzzing atmosphere to her storylines. This is definitely my favourite of her novels and I do hope we see these characters pop up again in future novels.

As a huge baking fan, I was drawn to this story straight away. I'm also a big fan of Cressida McLaughlin after reading her Canal Boat Cafe series. This had a similar premise, a cafe or eatery set on an unusual setting. In this case, it's an old Routemaster bus left to our heroine Charlie by her late uncle. After a bit of a disastrous start to her cream tea bus, she relocates to Cornwall for a fresh start.

Not all the locals are pleased with the idea, they don't like the idea of someone new coming in and taking over and Daniel, the owner of the Crystal Waters Spa seems intent on rubbing her up the wrong way. But with the help of her friends and some of the more affable locals, Charlie takes her bus 'Gertie' on the road.

The setting is beautifully described, Cornwall is a place I really want to visit one day and this book only helped fuel that desire. The village of Porthgolow is a sleepy town, almost a ghost town but still such beautiful scenery. With Charlie's help, the village comes alive and brings more tourists in and helps the villagers and their businesses, despite some initial objections.

But it also has secrets. Who is maintaining the Instagram account, anonymous beautiful images of the town and no-one will admit to sharing them? What is Oliver, the bartender of the Marauding Mojito, hiding? Is there really a mermaid living in the little yellow house? Who is trying to sabotage Charlie and shut her bus down? All signs point to Daniel, but is it really him? And how can she be attracted to him if it is?

With equal parts of romance, intrigue and baking, this cake is meant for sharing.

A double-decker ride of laughs and misunderstandings served up with tea and scones

Thank you to Net Galley for sending me a free kindle copy in exchange for a honest review.

What a lovely book. I adored this story it had just the right mix of romance and humour. I also liked how you got to know each of the characters in depth throughout the book, Marmite being my favourite of course. Definitely a book that I would recommend.