Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A nice rom com with a bit of a twist, a recommended read.

Lucy Brown is sitting in an airport when a handsome man asked to sit beside her. Surprised, but agreeing, they began a conversation. Used to being quiet with little confidence, since her ex-husband had constantly belittled her during their marriage, Lucy decided to be a carefree, put together woman. After all, what could it possibly hurt?? She would never see this handsome stranger again. As Lucy regaled the stranger with her exploits and travels she began to enjoy herself. Something that she had not felt in years.
I hope you pickup this delightful book as you will be treated to a village of wonderful caring individuals of Starshine Cove. Friends with a need to help and to give before Lucy can even ask. But most of all, hope for long awaited happiness and a second chance at love. Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for an arc of this heartwarming book. This review is my honest opinion.

Lucy is travelling from her home in Ireland to reconnect with old university friends in the delightfully named Starshine Cove. At Dublin airport a chance encounter and a flirtatious conversation with a a handsome stranger sets the basis for an engaging and charming story.

Lucy is a single mum with a 16 year old daughter and had become estranged from her friends through a controlling husband. She left him 10 years earlier but still suffers anxiety from the experience. Her story unravels throughout the book as she meets and is welcomed by the villagers at Starshine Cove. New friendships are made and opportunities for exciting futures are created.

The characters are well developed and the detail of Starshine Cove and surrounding area is beautifully described giving it a real sense of place. Lucy’s challenges around moving on from her past and overcoming her insecurities are sympathetically dealt with. Also, her empathy with her ex husband’s wife is a strong element of the story.

A thoroughly enjoyable story. I’ve just found out that there are two earlier books in this series and I’m looking forward to reading those.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is a contemporary romance novel following Lucy, a forty-year-old single mother still healing from her abusive relationship with her former husband. When Lucy’s friend gets engaged, Lucy heads to Starshine Cove in the UK for the wedding when she meets Josh and claims she’s flying to New York instead, with the assumption that she is never going to see him again. Before the wedding, she meets the groom’s brother aka Josh.

The first third of the novel is Lucy reconnecting with her friends Ella, Priya, and Katie, while trying to strengthen her relationship with her daughter, Rose. The romance plays a smaller role to the female friendships and is used to explore certain parts of Lucy’s personality, particularly her compulsive lying. We also get a glimpse into her relationship with Lyssa, the woman who married Lucy’s ex-husband and their strained relationship despite Lucy trying to reach out.

After Josh and Lucy reunite, Lucy apologizes for lying to him and the two start a whirlwind relationship as they help Lyssa and her children flee from her husband. What I liked about how these two tied together was in how it showed Josh’s willingness to help others, including complete strangers, and gave Lucy a chance to further grow as a person and take back her life from her abusive ex.

Content warning for depictions of emotional and verbal abuse.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a contemporary romance with middle aged leads, fans of small town contemporary romances, and those looking for protagonists moving on from abusive relationships and finding love.

Lucy Brown has been hiding from the world for years, ever since she left her controlling husband. However, a visit to the magical Starshine Cove for her best friend’s wedding changes will be transformative.
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This was a really lovely book full of interesting, well fleshed out characters set in a special place that was came alive on the page, so much that I felt I was there and I yearned to go and visit it for myself. I was so sorry to finish the book and would love to see more books set there. In addition, the novel highlighted the important issue of coercive control and the damage it can do to partners and their families, without trivialising the subject, or making it seem contrived. If only one person recognises the signs and escapes the damage it is causing, highlighting the subject in this delightful book will have been worth it.

I am loving Starshine Cove so much, it really is a great place to be, and I think I would love to live their myself, if only it wasn't so hard to find, and that it wasn't fictional!

This time we are introduced to another newcomer to the cover Lucy, who is only there for Ella's wedding. Well unless the cove's innate charms rub off on her. But what she wasn't expecting was to bump into the man she had been flirting with at the airport, but using a false name!

Once again the community in Starshine Cove has blown me away, especially how close knit and special everyone seems to be.

It was great catching up with Ella again, but rest assured this could easily work as a standalone story.

It's just such an enjoyable story that I had a wonderful time reading. I am already hoping for another book in this series!

Thank you to Storm and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Reading any book in Debbie Johnson’s Starshine Cove series is like being wrapped up in a warm hug. It’s a magical place by the sea full of handmade, decorative fairies and a group of kind-hearted villagers who are like real fairy godmothers, coming together to support and protect the people they care about, even if they’re only visiting.

In this third installment, we are introduced to Lucy when she serendipitously meets Josh at the Dublin airport on her way to her college friend Ella’s wedding. (Ella and Jake are the couple from Book 1, Escape to Starshine Cove.) One of the things she loves to do while waiting for her flight is imagine scenarios for the people around her, so it’s little surprise that, when she meets the handsome Josh, she pretends to be the worldly, put-together security consultant Amelia on her way to New York, not plain old Lucy heading to Dorset by way of London. What she doesn’t expect is that Josh will be attending the same wedding. After an initial embarrassing and angry encounter (Josh hates liars), she apologizes, and they start to get to know each other.

Although just about everybody approaching their forties carries baggage, Lucy’s first marriage to the verbally and emotionally abusive Robert has left her with lingering trauma and insecurities a decade later. However, Starshine Cove has a way of casting a spell on the people who visit and are in need of a do-over. Will Lucy, with the support of her 16-year-old daughter Rose (who wants to move there permanently) and her old and newfound friends, be able to leave the safety of her isolated Irish home and find the courage to start over, especially after his 2nd wife reaches out to her on the day of the wedding, asking for her help in escaping with her children, thus putting her in Robert’s sights again?

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove can be read as a standalone, but there are many characters from the first two books who feature prominently, and knowing their back stories enhances the experience of reading this one. Although there is a closed-door, slow burn romance between Lucy and Josh, much of the focus is also on both Lucy’s friendship with her 3 college friends she lost touch with (thanks to Robert’s narcissistic abusive tactics), and the effects of that abuse on both Lucy and Lyssa, the second wife. Just reading about it caused my heart to start racing, so it’s definitely a trigger warning for those who’ve been in abusive relationships. Despite this, there is much humor, light-heartedness and hope for the future. Highly recommended!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Storm Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I couldn't wait to read this, and I wasn't disappointed!

Another visit to Starshine Cove. More brilliant characters, crazy japes and fresh starts. A brilliant read which is highly recommended.

Yet another wonderful visit to Starshine Cove. These books are so good to read, fantastic romances but with a tough story within them that is beautifully handled that stops them being saccharin sweet. It will have you racing to the end.

So good to be back in Starshine Cove again, for a third visit.
All the usual characters & residents of Startshine Bay feature to some extent in this book; however, it would be very easy to read as a stand alone book as prior knowledge isn’t required.
This time we follow Lucy & her teenage daughter as they visit Starshine Cove for a special wedding. Lucy’s backstory & to some extent her current story is rather heavy, but is handled well & sympathetically. Needless to say the magic of Starshine Cove, the patience & support of friends, old & new, and a dash of romance helps Lucy begin to take steps at starting life afresh.
A touching story set in a wonderful sounding place.

3.7 Stars
One Liner: Heartwarming but a bit heavy

Lucy Brown has been in hiding for a decade, thanks to her ex. However, she finally ventures out to meet her best friends and attend a wedding in the small town of Starshine Cove. The trip proved to be a great decision for her and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Rose.
But then, Lucy is stunned to see a man she impulsively flirted with at the airport and gave a fake name. They seem to have a connection, but Lucy is a long way from healing. With the past threatening to spill, Lucy has to decide what she needs from her life.
The story comes in Lucy’s first-person POV.

My Thoughts:
The book works well as a standalone despite the presence of recurring characters. They are the supporting cast and enhance the plotline.
This is a heavier book than it appears to be. It deals with psychological domestic abuse and its after-effects on the victims. Lucy has panic attacks, and there’s another character going through a similar phase. The book is not exactly a light read, though it has many sweet and humorous moments. It can be triggering to some readers.
Now, that’s done, I have to admit that the author writes teenagers very well. Rose is a doll! She is childish but mature, composed but dramatic, stable and reliable, but prone to sulking. In short, she is easy to love and relate to (though I haven’t been a teen for a while). Rose is my favorite character in the book.
Lucy’s narration takes some time to get used to. She is frantic and rambles, the result of living with a controlling spouse. However, we don’t know this at the beginning, and the first chapter has her monologue, which made my eyes glaze. NGL, I was worried about where it would go. Fortunately, there's a reason for it. We can get used to her thought process.
Starshive Cove is a beautiful place, and we are once again transported to an almost magical land with kind and helpful neighbors. This book is set in spring, so the flowers have started to bloom!
Josh is an adorable guy. The adults act like adults and can communicate, so that’s a big plus. Lucy and Rose also have meaningful conversations, which I like.
I knew there would be a third-act breakup, but it doesn’t happen until around 93%, which is too late, IMO. That leads to an HFN ending, which is okay since this is a series, and we’ll meet the characters again. However, I am disappointed that Lucy’s self-healing journey doesn’t come across clearly.
When the FMC calls herself a mess for most of the book in feel-good fiction, I have the right to hope she would realize and openly acknowledge that doesn’t define her. Circumstances forcing her to be stronger is not the same as self-healing, which Lucy needs. I don’t want to say more, as they’ll be spoilers.
The pacing is on the slower side due to the topics handled. Since these are important social aspects and are well-handled (as far as I know), I didn’t mind the slow pace much.

To summarize, Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is a heartwarming story with likable characters and a lovely setting. It has dogs and kids, too, so yay!
Thank you, NetGalley and Storm Publishing, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #FindingHopeInStarshineCove
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Extra:
I’d like to thank the author for handling the henna scene carefully. I appreciate the inclusion of the question about cultural appropriation.

What a magical place this is, and it is the 3rd book in this series. Reading this you will find that you really want to be there. Excellent writing and this book leaves you wanting more and more. 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for this ARC

My Thoughts /

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and author Debbie Johnson, for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for April 24, 2024.

The first thing I wanted to do when I finished this book was book a one-way ticket to Starshine Cove!

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove is the book #3 in the Starshine Cove series by Debbie Johnson. If you haven't read any of this series before, have no fear, as neither did I and I had no trouble keeping up and I didn't feel like I was missing any back connections.

If there was a 'Feel Good' award, this book would take first prize. Relatively short at 257 pages (which was just the right length IMO) it's packed full of joy and 'feel good' vibes. Full Disclosure: I don't read a whole lot of books in this contemporary/romance genre, so maybe my thoughts might be a little skewed(??) but this was just a very enjoyable book and a really nice respite from heavier reads. Plus, the author dedicated the book to her readers, so, big 'ticks' all round from me.

Single mum, Lucy Brown is at the airport with her teenage daughter, Rose. Both are travelling to Starshine Cove where they are to attend the wedding of her friend, Ella. Lucy and Ella met when the two attended the same university, and together with a couple of other girls became a close-knit group of friends. When Lucy married, she dropped out of contact with her girlfriends, choosing to focus all her attentions on her husband, Robert. Sadly, the marriage ended when Lucy realised that her husband was emotionally coercive and controlling. Sixteen years later and Lucy is still dealing with the fallout of her abusive relationship. But putting her insecurities aside, Lucy is looking forward to reuniting with her friends again and having a wonderful vacation with her daughter.

Once the duo arrives in Starshine Cove, the mood lifts and it's all rainbows and unicorns. Starshine Cove is a place where the unusual happens; a place where magical things seem to occur; it's a place where someone might find a second chance.

Johnson has written a light and colourful story. The combination of wit and humour together with fun scenes and a little light romance hits the spot. The characters, on their face, are a little unbelievable, but when combined with the whole Starshine Cove magical element, suddenly become believable.

Themes of community, hope, and love burst from the pages of this story.

If you read this one, I guarantee you'll be wanting to book yourself a ticket to Starshine Cove too!

#NetGalley #FindingHopeinStarshineCove #DebbieJohnson

Debbie Johnson can always be relied upon for an entertaining, comforting yet at times thought-provoking read. We return to the magical world of Starshine Cove for this one, coming across old friends from previous novels as well as some engaging new characters. Johnson deals well with the controlling relationship that is in the background of this novel, preventing the main character from really moving on with her life. I would have liked to focus a little more on Lyssa's story but perhaps that will come in the future,

This is the third in this series and I have enjoyed them all, I love the familure characters and the stories new ones bring, they are very well written and I would love to visit this Cove,

Lucy Brown likes to play a game of guess the occupation of travellers when sat at airports. When good looking stanger asks if he can sit next to her she makes up an glamorus name and job for herself never thinking she will see him again.
When Lucy travels to starshine cove with her daughter for a friends wedding and a holiday only to bump into the stanger at the airport who is the brother of the brides husband.
They start off on a bad start but eventually become close.

This was my first visit to Starshine Cove. An enjoyable experience for sure. Delightful characters. I do wish for an epilogue. I would expect these characters to be in the next book and would then discover more about their happily ever after. Well written. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

I loved being back in Starshine Cove. It felt like a reunion with old friends and was lovely to meet all of the newcomers.

Lucy Brown is a single mother to 16 year old Rose and lives in a remote area of Ireland. She has a fractious relationship with Rose’s father to say the least and he has left her with a lot of issues.

Lucy and Rose are off to Starshine Cove for Ella’s wedding to Jake. Lucy is travelling on her own to London to pick up Rose who is visiting her father. In the airport she plays a game where she makes up stories in her head about her fellow travellers. As she is doing so, she meets Josh and thinks he must be a male model or something similar. She decides to have a little fun and becomes ‘Amelia’ a confident, high-flyer off to New York (complete opposite of Lucy) and flirts with Josh. She thinks there is no harm as it’s just a bit of harmless fun but little does she know she will encounter him again!

Lucy and Rose are bowled over by the kindness and friendliness of the locals in Starshine Cove and Lucy is delighted, but a bit apprehensive, to meet up with her old friends Ella, Priya and Katie.

They soon settle into life in Starshine Cove and surrounded by so many lovely people soon Lucy learns to relax a little and how to smile again. When Rose’s stepmother (Lyssa) contacts Rose and Lucy for help, they don’t hesitate to do so even though it means opening up old wounds. The villagers rally round too and are soon providing a safe haven for Lyssa and her children.

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove by Debbie Johnson is a story of mother and daughter dealing with loss, being closed off closed minded and the failure of a marriage. Lucy Brown the mother to Rose a very smart sixteen year old who is dealing with her new step family. You see Lucy took Rose at a young age and left her controlling and isolating doctor husband Robert and fled to Ireland. Robert wasn't physically abusive to Lucy and Rose but verbally abusive to Lucy and her self esteem. Once Lucy had married Robert she was cut off from family and friends and was told to give up her job. She was totally isolated from everyone and everything. Until her friend Ella invites Lucy and Rose to her wedding in Starshine Cove. There things change for Lucy and Rose.

Before getting to Starshine Cove Lucy must get past the humiliation she endured once she found out the gorgeous man she flirted with at the airport was non other than Ella's future brother in law Josh. You see Lucy made up a hole new persona while at the airport because Lucy felt unworthy of a man like Josh because of her life with Robert. How is Lucy going to pull off being herself around all these new people who have welcomed both her and Rose into their loving community with no questions asked. Can she finally get past her life with Robert and open up to having a life and enjoy herself? Can she really fall for someone like Josh, is she deserving of someone like Josh especially if she opens ups and tells everyone who she really is and why she fled to Ireland. That decision isn't made by Lucy. It is made my Robert's new wife. Lyssa leaves Robert and turns to Lucy and Rose for help. With Lucy helping Lyssa her life story comes to light. Will Josh understand? Will the people of Starshine Cove still love and respect Lucy after her story comes to light and Robert shows up in Starshine Cove? Will Lucy be strong enough to help Lyssa and be able to put her past behind her. Will Rose finally understand why her mother is the way she is? Rose is a smart 16 ;year old who tries to help her mother navigate it all. There is no love lost with her and her dad. She must help her mother see the light.

This is book number 3 in the series. Yet I didn't feel like I had to read the other books to become a fan of this little community that opens their arms to people in need. Ms. Johnson writes a story of healing and bringing friends together. The love of a mother and daughter that just seems to grow without strings attached. I loved Lucy's character because I saw the change in her from beginning to end. How strong she became and even though it took time she let someone new into her life. I also loved the bond between mother and daughter. How they both grew up and faced the challenges before them. Rose really figuring out what she want to do with her life, and how she wanted to stay connected with her step siblings.. Growing into a person who was confident and proud. Lucy opening herself up to new things and mostly people. Being accepted by her old friends brought together by a wedding that changed her life for the better. Seeing her daughter grow into the confident young woman, letting Josh in, while becoming a stronger person while helping Lyssa the woman who stole her husband, and gave Lucy back her life.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC. I totally enjoyed this beautifully written heart warming story. Would highly recommend it Looking forward to more from Debbie Johnson. 4.5 stars.

Starshine Cove seems like a perfectly magical place. I love this series, meeting old characters and meeting new ones with each tale. This is a book filled with the ups and downs of human life, told in a lovely way, filled with humour and understanding. It’s always good to have a love story built into the tale too. An excellent read.