Rambling About.. Katie Fforde's A Summer at Sea

Title: A Summer at Sea
Author: Katie Fforde
Publication: 12 August 2016 - Bookouture (this edition)
First Lines: Emily and Susanna, midwife and mother-to-be, were quiet and settled in the candlelit room. Everything was going to plan; so far it was a textbook birth.
Favorites on 4s:
4% - 'I shouldn't have come,' she muttered. 'I shouldn't be about to take a summer job -- something I might have done when I was a student. I'm thirty-five, with professional qualifications. It's ridiculous!'
34% - 'Us Celts, we're like icebergs, there's a lot more under the surface than there is showing.'
64% - 'What? Are you telling me, while you were huffing and puffing, you were observing body language and jumping to conclusions?'
84% - It was always going to be sad, but in a beautiful, poetic way. Now it was sad because she'd quarrelled with a man she loved and was never going to be able to explain and put things right between them.

Ramble:
'It was always going to be sad, but in a beautiful, poetic way.'
That line sums up Katie Fforde's A Summer at Sea so well! I know that the cover says that it's "a gorgeous feel good summer read,"  but I've come to realize that "feel good" often translates into "grab your tissues before you start reading."
Emily has taken a leave of absence from her position as a midwife in order to head to Scotland to help her friend Rebecca by being the cook on their puffer boat. Normally Rebecca would be cooking for the guests and crew herself, but she's seven months pregnant and finding it difficult. Emily readily agrees when asked because she needs a break from the headaches being given to her from her local health care colleagues who don't believe in things like home birth.
Emily had always been in the mindset that she was perfectly happy being single and that she didn't want children -- just her career delivering them. Of course, all of those feelings got capsized the more time she spent on the puffer with the delightful guests, Rebecca and her family, and especially Rebecca's brother-in-law and his daughter. She began second thinking and second guessing and then rethinking and reguessing everything all over again.
The pacing felt a bit slower than a lot of the books I've been reading lately, but it was still a fairly fast and enjoyable read. I adore Emily's friends and especially her new ones -- Kate, Maisie and Lizzie. The romance angle felt predictable to me but they all do. I'm really looking forward to the next time when I don't see the big pair-off within the first couple of chapters.