When Bonnie stands up for a customer in her father’s former antiques store, her awful boss sends her packing. But she is lucky enough to score another position working for the lovely Lew in his Pot of Gold store in a nearby village. As she helps bring in lots of new custom, Bonnie is making plans to leave her controlling husband Stephen. Meanwhile Lew is trying to get his wife to curb her lavish spending since he gave up his well-paid job after having a heart attack.
With the story set in the same community as The Teashop on the Corner, this is a fantastic read, made all the more enthralling by the sinister husband and the reason he has a hold over Bonnie. The main characters of Bonnie and Lew were easy to warm to and the antique dealers were a very colourful – and loyal – crowd. I also enjoyed the brief articles scattered throughout from the local newspaper with funny typos or embarrassing corrections. One of Milly’s best.
The Queen of Wishful Thinking, by Milly Johnson, is about a couple who seem perfect for each other but are both married to other people. The summary says: "When Lewis Harley has a health scare in his early forties, he takes it as a wake-up call. So he and his wife Charlotte leave behind life in the fast lane and Lewis opens the antique shop he has dreamed of. Bonnie Brookland was brought up in the antiques trade and now works for the man who bought out her father's business, but she isn't happy there. So when she walks into Lew's shop, she knows this is the place for her.
As Bonnie and Lew start to work together, they soon realise that there is more to their relationship than either thought. But Bonnie is trapped in an unhappy marriage, and Lew and Charlotte have more problems than they care to admit. Each has secrets in their past which are about to be uncovered. Can they find the happiness they both deserve?" The Queen of Wishful Thinking is out in March 2017.