A gorgeous cover. Descriptions of Edinburgh, Scotland at Christmastime that would make anyone want to be there, even a snow grinch like me. The Christmas Bookshop is another delightful novel by Jenny Colgan, with a little bit of romance, and a great amount of family and bookshop life. Have you noticed, though, a common trope in bookshop stories? There’s the elderly man who lets his bookshop become shabby and dusty, rundown so it’s not attracting business. And, a young woman swoops in, taking a job she doesn’t want, and saves the bookshop.
Every year Carmen Hogan argues with her mother about the family Christmas. Carmen feels as if everyone compares her to her older sister, Sofia Hogan d’Angelo. Sofia is a successful lawyer, married, with three children and a fourth on the way. Carmen never went to university, and she works at a rundown department store that is the last holdout in their dying industrial hometown. Predictions are right. When the store closes, Carmen has no education and no experience.
That doesn’t mean she wants to move into Sofia’s basement, help with the children when the nanny, Skylar, isn’t available, and take a last-resort job at a failing bookstore. But, Mr. McCredie, one of Sofia’s clients, is going to lose the shop if it doesn’t turn a profit by Christmas. Sofia doesn’t tell Carmen there’s a deadline. She’s just counting on Carmen to work a miracle.
Well, maybe a little dusting and a window display. Everyone in the shopping area seems to be decorated for Christmas except Mr. McCredie, who loves his antique, dusty books. Carmen has an idea, though, to turn the bookstore into a Christmas bookshop for the holidays, and sell everything she can with a Christmas theme.
The Christmas Bookshop isn’t a cozy mystery in which two guys are fighting over the same woman. Instead, two men, vastly different, show up at the bookshop. One is a bestselling author who isn’t at all the self-help guru he professes to be. The other is a professor specializing in trees. While Carmen is interested in both, they are each swept up by other women.
This novel is really about finding family, even when that family was always there. As Carmen observes with her nieces and nephew, though, sometimes family doesn’t quite fit. It takes time and effort to understand each other, and sisters aren’t always willing to make that effort.
If you’re looking for one more book to add to your list of Christmas reading, you won’t go wrong with Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop.
Jenny Colgan’s website is https://www.jennycolgan.com/
The Christmas Bookshp by Jenny Colgan. William Morrow, 2021. ISBN 9780063143258 (hardcover), 336p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley from the publisher.
I love reading Jenny Colgan’s books. There are times when I need a cozy, comforting read. I want to get The Christmas Bookshop soon. Happy Holidays!
Thank you, Bonnie! I do hope you get it soon, but you could read this one all winter. Happy Holidays!
Beautiful cover. Wanted to win it, but no go.
Sorry about that, Carolee.
Loved it! Jenny Colgan’s books are sometimes a little too sweet for me, but this one was just right.
You’re right, Kaye. This one wasn’t too sweet.
Greetings, fellow Snow Grinches! This book sounds wonderful. Family and Holidays are a delicate balance for many of us, and the story sounds just right.
P.S. I keep looking for ‘Festivus Cozy’ to start trending. No luck so far but hope springs eternal, even in winter. 😉 Happy and Merry, Everyone!
Well, that would be an interesting combination, Festivus and Cozy. You’re right, Lucia. Juggling family and holidays isn’t easy in this book. Enjoy!
I have the first in the series, in ebook format, on hold but there are dozens ahead of me, and for some reason ebook readers seem to read the book and, instead of returning it, just let it expire, meaning everyone else has to wait the full three weeks per person. Grrr.
Their librarians didn’t train them well, Rick. I agree with you. Grrr.
I haven’t tried Jenny Colgan, but think that I would like her. This sounds like a good one.
Gretchen, You can read this one without having read any of the others. I’ve sort of skipped around. Some interest me, and some don’t.