Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages, by Jenny Colgan, is #6 in her series taking place on the fictional island of Mure, located in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway. I have loved most of the books from the second half of Colgan’s career, once she found her optimum writing groove. My comment on that subject a few years ago, when I reviewed one of the earlier books, was, “Read everything after 2012. That seemed to be a turning point for her, when she quit writing about shallow, artificial, unlikeable characters and started embracing her now-trademark touching, empathetic, and charming ones. I’m not saying she went over the sappy line, just that they quit being actively annoying and started exhibiting positive qualities.“

I have to modify that advice after reading this book. Essie, one of the two main characters, is so obnoxious, self-centered, entitled, and completely unlikeable that I had trouble finishing the book despite my fondness for the setting, the other main character, and that character’s romance. The book was neither “glorious” nor “uplifting,” as the author blurbs on the cover claimed; in fact, it was a struggle.

This story, like several others, is set in the small town of Carso, which suffers from “rural flight.” The younger people, unable to find work and therefore also unable to afford a place of their own, have largely moved to the “big city” of Edinburgh or to other more far-flung places, in search of a life with more possibilities. Many of the people who remain live a sometimes precarious existence that is dependent on tourism while disliking some of the changes it brings to their community. One of those is the scarcity of housing, as every available property seems to be snatched up by developers to be turned into holiday homes, excluding the year-round inhabitants from obtaining affordable living space.

One of the main characters, Janey Carter, has managed, after her divorce, to buy and renovate a small cottage where she lives happily alone (although surrounded by a close-knit group of friends), doing her beloved job as an audiologist at the island hospital. There are other nearly identical unoccupied cottages in a row next door to her, and Carso’s occupants have hopes that an ordinance will require that they be developed for sale to the general population, allowing more of them to invest in the town where they wish to remain.

The other main character, Essie, is Janey’s 30-year-old daughter. She fled Carso for Edinburgh just as soon as she could, got a good job in finance, found a picturesque place to live, and met a guy. But now all that has blown up in her face. It starts when her company decides to close their Edinburgh branch and move some of the staff to another office in Europe, but Essie is not invited to come along. She immediately starts looking for a less expensive place to rent, only to discover that her landlady is thrilled with that idea, as she plans to turn Essie’s into an Airbnb and wants her out as soon as possible. And she finds out that although her boyfriend is sticking with her, that doesn’t extend to the option of moving in with him; he lives with a couple of his “bros” from the investment firm where he works, and they’re not keen on another roommate, let alone someone’s girlfriend. Jobs are scarce, and after hunting fruitlessly for awhile, Essie realizes that she needs to retreat to somewhere a lot less expensive until she can solve the employment problem—and that place is home to Mother, in Carso.

The central problem is not that Janey begrudges her daughter the temporary asylum, but that Essie is such a selfish brat. She blamed her mother for her parents’ divorce and, despite 15 years having passed since then, has not changed the opinion she formed in her teens, even though it’s obvious that her father was the person who benefited from the break-up while Janey lost most of what was dear to her. So even though her mother is doing Essie a huge favor by letting her move into Janey’s tiny cottage and basically supporting her through her tough spot (and her father is making no offer of help), Essie gives back a sulky, surly, thoroughly unpleasant response to Janey’s every gesture, and basically acts like that 15-year-old teenager again, taking out all her frustrations on Janey. I couldn’t stand this character from beginning to end, and no amount of ameliorating circumstances made a difference.

Essie is also arrogant and dismissive to most of the other inhabitants of Carso—until she gets involved with the unlikely character of Dwight, the brother of her high school nemesis, who presents as a Scottish cowboy complete with boots and hat. Dwight has bought the option on the other cottages on Janey’s street, and solicits advice from Essie, whose job as a project manager gives her the ability to help him organize their renovation. Dwight is the object of Essie’s ridicule right up until she discovers that she is physically attracted to him. I didn’t buy the abrupt switch for a minute and was also quite taken aback at the rather explicit sex scene enacted by these two characters. Jenny Colgan has always been pretty “cozy” with her writing, and although there have been many romantic relationships in her other books, none of them included this eye-opening degree of frankness. It felt off—abrupt and out of nowhere—and also made me dislike this character even more for her hypocritical attitude.

All in all, nothing about either the environs or the other characters was strong enough to counteract how off-putting I found the Essie character, and I wasn’t a fan of this story.