Solid holiday romance. I struggle sometimes with Colgan's characters (they are usually overly ghastly at the start and by the time we reach the end of the story, they are finally tolerable human beings) but she is the best for creating atmospheres, spaces, and secondary characters that I adore immediately and so keep reading despite the ghastly main characters.

This is a truly delightful Christmas read! Perfect for anyone who enjoys Hallmark movies around the holidays. The only problem is, that person isn't me. It took me so long to finish this one and the reason is I just kept getting lost. Too many characters. So much sweetness my teeth hurt. This just isn't one id pick up again. But there is an absolutely wonderful audience for such a cute Christmas story.

I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley, Jenny Colgan, and William Morrow. 🩷

The Christmas Bookshop (The Christmas Bookshop #1). By Jenny Colgan. 2021. Avon (ARC eBook).

While The Christmas Bookshop is enjoyable enough and I liked the development for the old bookshop owner Mr. McCready, I found that there were too many characters floundering. I’ve read/listened to the Little Beach Street Bakery series by Colgan and appreciate her writing style and the incorporation of turbulence that couples, families and communities experience. But the protagonist in this story is not particularly likable to begin or end with, so the “self-discovery” is just off-putting; as she comes off more as one of many failed adults that permeate so much of our reality. I suppose I would’ve liked a bit more escapism at the moment. So if this story continues I probably will not revisit, but I would try another of the author’s series.

Delightful and heartwarming. Like a warm cup of tea or a hug. I loved everything about this book. You are transported between the pages. Definitely a must read for lovers of the magic of Christmas and books.

I'm not sure what has called me to read romance at the moment, but I really enjoyed this one. It is sad to see women with such a low opinion of themselves that they fly after the obviously wrong guy. But I guess that is just part of the genre. I remember similar stories when I was in school. It is nice to read something where one knows everything will turn out well in the end. I loved the descriptions of Edinburgh. I really want to visit there now, and see the wonderful Ormiston Yew. I liked the relationship between Carmen and her nieces and nephew. Fun story. I'm delighted to have found this author. I'll look for more of her work.

Jenny Colgan is always reliable, and I'll read every book she writes about books. This did not disappoint and most certainly held up.

Carmen has lost her job and her super-successful sister has asked her to help an elderly man earn enough money at his decaying bookshop to be able to sell the business. The Christmas Bookshop is quintessential Jenny Colgan- young woman at a crossroads, family issues, quirky characters. Although this was a little slower for me than I anticipated, I really enjoyed it. I really loved how Carmen changed and grew over the course of the book. I was also thrilled when there was a cameo from characters from Bookshop on the Shore that was completely unexpected. This is a sweet read for Christmas!

I can't think of a better way to get into the Christmas spirit than with this book! This book was like a warm cup of cocoa on a cold day! It just gave me that fuzzy feeling that I can't get enough of during the holidays.

I love new Jenny Colgan and for a brief moment I thought I had gotten a reprinted Jenny with a fun new cover. There is this low key rage I have with the characters in her early works. The romance is there, the love, the sweetness but the characters are flawed. And not in a way that is endearing in a way that makes me want to shake them. That was how I felt about the sisters in this book. In the end though, Jenny came through and my own flawed relationship with my sister led me to cry on and off the whole book. Read if you want a little bit of Irish Christmas and would be okay surrounding yourself with books and then possibly people. I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley, thank you to them. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love Jenny Colgan. Her characters are like comfortable friends to me and The Christmas Bookshop is a sweet, albeit predictable read. Predictable isn't a critique, however, sometimes you need to try on a story that fits like a comfortable sweater.

Title: The Christmas Bookshop
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: Harper Audio
Length: Approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes
Source: Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library through Overdrive. Thank-you

Have you ever shopped at a Christmas shop? What about a Christmas Book Shop?

I’ve been to Frankenmuth Michigan over twenty years ago and it was filled with beautiful Christmas stores. I need to go back someday. I’ve never been to a Christmas Book Shop, but I would love it.

In The Christmas Bookshop, Carmen has lost her job working in retail when the store she works at closes for good. With no prospects in her town, she goes to live with her sister Sofia and her children in Edinburgh. Sofia is a lawyer with a client who owns a book shop that is going to close. Sofia hopes that Carmen can help the shop to make a profit over the Christmas season. Carmen is not sure she can do it, but she decides to give it a try. Along the way she meets two potential suitors. What will Carmen do with life and which suitor will she chose?

Jenny Colgan is one of my favorite authors and I love her Christmas stories. I love that her stories often involve a woman down on her luck who manages to find out what her passions in life are and make a fresh start. I love bookstores so reading about how Carmen is able to spruce up the store and reinvent it as a Christmas Bookshop was delightful. I was also intrigued by the vivid descriptions of Edinburgh. It made me really want to visit this city and see the architecture. It sounds like a beautiful place to visit at Christmas.

I also loved that Carmen and Sofia were two very different sisters that didn’t really get along, but they are able to really understand each other and have a better relationship in this story. I also loved Carmen’s relationship with her nieces and nephew. I also loved the bookshop owner, Mr. McCredie. I loved how his story slowly came together piece by piece.

Eilidh Beaton was a soothing narrator who gave the characters a good voice. Each character had a different voice from her, which I enjoy. This overall was a very enjoyable and charming Christmas story.

This is an absolutely fantastic Christmas time story. I loved every second of it and I know that this one will be a reread added to the Christmas book rotation!
When Carmen is laid off from her job at a department store she is nearly broke and her options are incredibly limited. The idea of spending Christmas with her sister Sofia, the perfect sister with the perfect children, house and yuppie lifestyle, does not at all appeal to Carmen.
On the other side of the coin is Sofia who doesn’t want her sister Carmen around either. However, Sofia has another child on the way, their mother desperately wants to see her girls get along, and she has a client who is in desperate need of help to bring his old shabby bookshop back to life. So, Carmen sucks it up and moves in with Sofia to take the job.
Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshelf is on the verge of going under. It’s in a beautiful picturesque part of historic Ediburgh though and Carmen finds herself intrigued. The store is old, disorganized, and dusty yet it is still undeniably incredibly charming. Now she just has to bring it back to life in time for Christmas shopping or poor Mr McCredie could lose it all. When a very famous charismatic author drips by he takes an interest in the bookshop and perhaps even Carmen herself. So, she just has to deal with her sister, a falling down bookshop, and a handsome author and everything will be just fine. She hopes.
This book is so good. I love this author in general but this is turning out to be one of my favorites. It’s incredibly atmospheric and so much fun. Great characters, fun story, and a bit of Christmas to go around. I love it and definitely recommend it.

5 stars, Loved This

THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSHOP
by Jenny Colgan

Loved this one.

Highly recommend

I received a complimentary copy from #netgalley #williammorrowpaperbacks #williammorrow @williammorrow I was under no obligation to post a review of #thechristmasbookshop.

#christmas #holiday #romance #contemporary #chicklit #jennycolgan

I loved this one! I love anything Jenny writes. It was so heartwarming and charming. I loved the setting and being a bookshop owner I really love anything that takes place in a bookshop. I felt like the characters development throughout was very smooth. LOVED!

This author is one of my go to reads when I need a good story to pull me in and keep me there. Loved this one! How could I not? Christmas and bookshops! How wonderful. 5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of The Christmas Bookshop. I absolutely love Jenny Colgan. This one was amazing. I love her Christmas atmosphere.

Carmen is down on her luck and ends up moving in with her sister (Sofia) and working at a bookshop that needs help or it will have to shut down after the holiday season. Sofia thinks that Carmen is perfect for this job and will be able to help out the bookstore owner, while she is also getting to spend time with Sofia and her kids.

Now the bookshop owner is Mr. McCredie and while he loves books, he isn't so good at selling them because of this the bookshop is in major disorder and no one knows how it has managed to stay open with how he just gives books away constantly. Mr.McCredie slowly starts trusting Carmen and listening to her ideas and the bookshop starts transforming and so many more people are coming in and reading and the children are loving it as well.
With this we see Carmen getting closer to her family and starting to appreciate them and seeing as well that she is good at something. She always spends so much time comparing herself to her perfect sister Sofia and Carmen starts to realize that things aren't always what they seem in Sofia's life. While Carmen's life is different she's good at stuff too and she should be proud of what she's doing now and how she's helped out Mr. McCredie with the shop.

Overall this book had some parts I really loved like when she was at the bookshop and you can tell she loved doing that, and later on when she became closer to her sister and her nieces and nephews. Then there were other parts that I didn't like so much and all involved her dating life, and just how it wasn't it for me. I didn't care for either guy personally and while I do prefer the one she chose in the end, I still think it was just kind of blah compared to the other parts of the story.
As I mentioned above a little bit my favorite parts of the story personally were the bookshop and the transformation that she brought to it and how she helped Mr. McCredie come out his shell more and share the books and knowledge that he loves and has. It was so nice to see that and see how genuine Carmen was about it all. You could tell she cared and wanted it to succeed and the best for Mr. McCredie and the shop which ended up going into other parts of her life as well.
This book was really nice and I liked it and I just wish it had focused more on the family and a little less on trying to find romance in all the wrong places it seemed.

Wonderful story about a run-down bookshop…. or is it about run-down relationships? Clever plot and sub-plots ending with the characters made just a little bit closer to whole than they were at the start.

This is a great little holiday read with all the qualities of an amazing book. I really loved the love triangle and the holiday charm throughout the book.

If you are a Jenny Colgan fan, you will not be disappointed! This book follows our main character Carmen, who feels like she is a little bit of a failure in her family. She doesn't have a great job, or a significant other, and everything she does seems to be wrong. Her sister Sofia, is the perfect daughter. Perfect house, perfect job, perfect family. When Carmen loses her job, Sofia says she has a client who owns a bookshop that is in need of help. Carmen agrees, although she is not sure how she is supposed to save a failing bookshop. But of course, as she begins to learn more about the shop owner, and the town, she finds much more than she was expecting. Love! Family! A really awesome train set!

I really enjoyed this story. I didn’t like the characters at first, but they began to grow on me and by the end I really liked them! I loved how Carmen began the story hating kids and resenting her family, but at the end really loved them and spending time with them. This was a classic Jenny Colgan book, and I was here for it! I ended up reading it a little after Christmas, and I loved having that little bit of holiday cheer after the season was over.

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own