Abby Clements - Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop

Now that we're truly in winter now with the cold weather and as of this moment, it is raining like something out of Noah's Ark, I picked up a book that has a more summer based plot, Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop.  Plus, it mixes it up from the weird and wonderful books I've read recently which may have my intention when organising my bookshelf.

Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop is a novel from Abby Clements that focuses on two young women who inherit their grandmother's ice cream shop in Brighton following her unexpected death.  Clements is no stranger to the book publishing world, having worked behind the scenes for years then beginning to write her own chick lit books such as this.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Those with Holiday book needs

Favourite Characters: Imogen - would love her life

Favourite Part: Anna had never thought of herself as the adventurous type.
[...]
But as she neared Pisa Airport, passing by the houses and churches of a small town, Anna wondered if the story she'd always told herself - about who she was and what she wanted - was still true.  Italy had opened her eyes - to adventure, and a world full of energy, and a life lived with food at the very heart of it. - Page 206-7

Good Points: Sisterly bond; identified with both Imogen and Anna on different levels; the epilogue

Bad Points: Françoise - annoying; Jon storyline annoyed me

Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop follows Anna and Imogen, two sisters that are completely different in many ways from their lifestyles to their desires in life; unfortunately for these two, their grandmother on their father's side, Vivien, passes away while Imogen is living in Thailand so she leaves her boyfriend behind to attend the funeral; at the will reading, it becomes apparent that Anna and Imogen have collectively inherited the ice cream shop Vivien has owned in Brighton since their father was a child, along with some start-up money.  The sisters then work together to refurbish and rebuild the reputation of this beloved ice cream shop that once was a tourist attraction until their grandmother became too ill to run it.

There is a great sense of a sisterly bond throughout this book, despite the two characters' differences, as they rely on one another through this difficult time with their beloved grandmother dying and then trying to run a shop that they have inherited which starts off bad.  Clements writes about the sisterly bond extremely well like she has experienced it so there can be an assumption that she has a sister at least, unless I'm reading too much into it; I tend to connect with well written sister themes because I understand it as I have a younger sister and we're quite close even though we're different in some ways much like Imogen and Anna.

The way Clements wrote Anna and Imogen allowed me to identify with them both on different levels because I too want a stable life and relationship like Anna and I love to cook like her because it calms me down as I'm the one in control much like Anna.  I also connect with Imogen because I want to become a photographer like her and go on adventures because it seems more exciting than the life I lead now, at home with my family even though I love them all to pieces.  The best way to describe it is that they are the two halves of me, one the more adventurous side who craves freedom and unpredictability and the other the more sensible side who craves stability and familiarity.  As well as this, they kind of remind me of me and my sister, the one who stays at home and the one who goes out and about.

I loved the epilogue in this book because it summed up the book really well with a happy ending for both Anna and Imogen with their guys and their new lives and an extremely successful ice cream shop, gaining its old reputation that it had while their grandmother was running the ice cream shop.  While it leaves the book open to continuation so it can possibly progress into a series focussing on the sisters, it also brings them to a nice end and I am completely satisfied with this and extremely happy while I would be happy if Clements decided to continue with more books about Anna and Imogen.

If I were to pick between Anna and Imogen as my favourite character, I would have to pick Imogen because I would just love to have her life, taking photographs on an exotic island to build up a great collection and selling her work while living with a hot guy; while it's a simple but almost impossible dream, I would love to do what Imogen does because I love photography though I'm more fascinated by people, while she is interested in marine life.

Anna and Imogen's aunt Françoise (by marriage) just annoyed me as she kept interfering in the girls' lives and trying to turn their own family (father and uncle) against them which just makes her manipulative and therefore an extremely unlikeable character for me because I believe families should stand behind one another and support them, not try to manipulate key members to turn against others for their personal gain.

While it was good to see both sisters in relationships whether it was good or bad, with Imogen's boyfriend living in Thailand still which causes issues and Anna's boyfriend lying to her despite them living together, I found the Jon storyline, lying about his job and what he's really doing with his time, really annoying because he had a kid to think about, not just Anna, who he was getting serious with.  His child is very young and needs stability in his life and Jon messing Anna around in turn does the same to his little boy who just wants a happy home.

Anna had never thought of herself as the adventurous type.
[...]
But as she neared Pisa Airport, passing by the houses and churches of a small town, Anna wondered if the story she'd always told herself - about who she was and what she wanted - was still true.  Italy had opened her eyes - to adventure, and a world full of energy, and a life lived with food at the very heart of it. - Page 206-7

This just summed up Anna's character transformation for me as she's gone from being a stay-at-home-at night and safe full time job kind of woman to a young woman who runs her own business which brings freedom and unpredictability to her life, much like her sister's life before their grandmother's death.  She has become more like Imogen while Imogen has become more grounded like Anna by staying near family rather than running off to a foreign country just because she can't stand being in the same place for too long and wants to explore new things.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite Françoise and Jon, and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a book to read on the beach or by the pool while on holiday because it's an easy read with great characters and a good story.  There's a definite summer theme to it but it cheered up my dreary British Christmas with the weather being absolutely awful.