I started my Christmas themed reading with this book. This story was a a little slow for me at times, but I think I was just eager to find out the solution and if the efforts paid off. There was a moment that I thought I could predict what was going to happen and was happily mistaken. Overall, it was a good read and am glad I had it!

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publishers for this copy in exchange for an honest review!

Jenny Colgan can be counted on to write an engaging Christmas novel every year and this year is no exception. The Christmas Bookshop is set in Scotland. Colgan portrays Edinburgh and brings it to life. I had never known that Edinburgh was so hilly! Mr. McC’s bookshop also is described in a way that makes it feel so real in all its initial scruffiness and then as it slowly transforms.

Protagonist Carmen chose not to attend university but rather continued to work at her local department store…until it closed and Carmen found herself unemployed. Meanwhile her sister Sofia seems to have it all. She has the job, the house, the husband and is pregnant with her fourth child.

Carmen travels to Edinburgh to stay with Sofia. Sofia finds her the position in the bookshop and from here the story moves forward. There are several characters whom readers feel will vie for Carmen’s affection. One is a disaffected self-help book author while another is a bookshop customer.

Readers can enjoy this story knowing that all will end well. Watch the bookstore begin to thrive (I love bookstores in books) and wait for Carmen to find happiness.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Just what i needed this holiday season! A heartwarming tale of two sisters, a book shop, and a love interest - or two! A quick, fun read ,

This book was an adorable Christmas read! It made my heart feel warm and happy. It was everything I want in a Christmas story, and now I'm in the Christmas spirit. Everyone should read this adorable book!

Practically perfect in every way. I LOVE Jenny Colgan’s stand-alone novels and this was no exception. Excellent exploration of sister relationships, personal growth, a sweet and not saccharine love story, the MOST perfect cozy Christmas bookshop vibes - I loved it. Declaring this the perfect holiday book to cozy up with!

Jenny Colgan writes such great family stories and I dived into this one snuggled into my comfy chair. A lovely Christmas romance and family fiction story.

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan is a magical holiday romance with a Hallmark Christmas movie vibe. If you want a wonderful, uplifting book, then this is the one!

Pretty sure I read this book in 1 sitting. Loved the setting of Edinburgh at Christmas and the relationship between the sisters. Guest appearances by characters from other Colgan books was fun. Thanks to netgalley for the advance ecopy.

The Christmas Bookshop is a sweet, holiday offering about a woman finding the place she was always meant to be. It is loosely tied to Jenny Colgan’s Kirrinfief series and fans familiar with those volumes will recognize some of the characters - and plot motifs - from those books in this narrative. You don’t have to have read them to enjoy this one though.

Carmen Hogan has worked at Dounston’s department store ever since she was in school and while she’s known for months that the storeis in trouble, it is still a huge disappointment when she is laid off. With zero savings and no other jobs available in her small town, Carmen is forced to move back in with her parents. They adore her, but being homeless and jobless is not what her mother wants for Carmen’s future. Desperate, Carmen’s mum appeals to her oldest daughter, Sofia, a successful lawyer, to find Carmen a new position.

Sofia doesn’t know what her mother expects her to do. It’s not like Carmen’s career in retail has exactly qualified her for a placement in a barrister’s office. Then it hits her: Mr. McCredie, a client who owns an ancient bookstore, needs to turn the finances of his shop around in the next several months or he will lose everything. Surely Carmen’s experience manning a till at a Dounston’s can translate into selling books and helping an old man save his business.

Carmen isn’t exactly thrilled to move to Edinburgh, into Sofia’s perfect house and help her care for her three perfect children as well as play babysitter to an elderly man with a failing enterprise. But before long, she finds she gets along very well with her nieces and nephew, has a knack for book sales - and there are actually moments where she almost, very nearly gets along with her perfect sibling. Carmen had made a wreck out of her old life, is it possible she can make a success out of this second chance?

Fans of Ms. Colgan know that a staple of her novels is the heroine type I refer to as ‘hot mess Cinderella’, gals who begin the tale in dire straits and find themselves saved by discovering the niche they were meant to occupy all along.  In Carmen’s case, Mr. McCredie’s bookshop is that niche. Recognizing a soul even more lost than she is - and realizing that she really does need to make a go of something or she will be serving as backup nanny for Sofia forever -  she tackles turning the dusty, dank, untidy store into a charming, quirky little boutique that - just in time for the holidays - carries unique and beautiful Christmas volumes. Ramsay Urquart, hero of The Bookshop on the Shore, turns out to be a huge help in this endeavor. As an estate sale shopper he discovers gorgeous volumes of yuletide classics for her to sell which are steeped in a nostalgia factor perfect for the well-heeled clients that frequent the picturesque area in which McCredie’s is located.

Pippa, Phoebe and Jack, Carmen’s nieces and nephew, prove quite adept at finagling their way into Carmen’s heart and ours. Far from being picture-perfect children, as Carmen had initially thought, they turn out to be all too human: Phoebe is something of a scaredy-cat brat, Pippa a bossy know-it-all and Jack is sports-obsessed. Their faults are sweet rather than irritating and they are an important part of Carmen’s transformation from a rather self-obsessed, whiny woman who behaves like a spoiled teen into a less whiny and more mature adult.

Equally important is the reconciliation that occurs between the two sisters. Carmen had always felt Sofia had lucked into her success but comes to realize Sofia has actually worked incredibly hard for everything she has. Letting go of past hurts and appreciating each other gives the siblings a new found closeness they never thought to achieve.

The author has a breezy, lighthearted writing style which always makes her books a pleasure to read. And she does a wonderful job of capturing life during the holidays and infusing it with all the imperfections and delights which make up the season. She left me longing to decorate and drink cocoa.

There are two potential love interests in the story. Blair Pfenning is a self-help guru whose popular books delight audiences the world over but who is secretly a grouchy narcissist. BBC Scotland decides to utilize McCredie’s to shoot an interview with him, and he begins a casual flirtation with Carmen. And then there’s Oke, a Brazilian Quaker lecturing on trees at a nearby university. A genial and charming young man, his calm, kindly demeanor is the perfect balance to Carmen’s more frantic and sharp-tongued nature. Carmen doesn’t connect with her hero till almost the end of the book and it is definitely not worth the wait. They have less than a dozen scenes together, most of which include other people and we are given no tangible reason as to why they would love each other.

This book felt a bit snarkier than Colgan’s last few novels. I’ve mentioned that Carmen is a tad snide and critical.  She openly admits she has a huge chip on her shoulder, based primarily on the choices she has made, but she has a tendency to take that out on others rather than indulge in self-loathing. At one point she asks someone if they believe in God with the same level of skeptical scorn one would apply to an adult who believed in Santa. Self-help books, healthy eating for children, and yoga all receive that same treatment. It’s done in a humorous fashion but the jokes definitely have a judgmental edge to them. Fortunately, she changes (a little!) as she slowly comes to terms with the bad decisions that brought her to Edinburgh and recognizes the good choices she has made since arriving.

Those are quibbles, though, and they definitely won’t matter to the author’s long-time fans. The Christmas Bookshop is a signature Colgan novel, redolent with all the features her readers love. I’m quite sure they will be delighted with this offering. Those who haven’t tried the author before might want to start with Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe or The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris. Those are slightly stronger reads which serve as an excellent introduction to her work.

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Another sweet read from Jenny Colgan. I love bookstores and I love bookstore books set during Christmas. And this one was perfect.

Another amazing novel from Jenny Colgan--who is quickly becoming one of my favorites! She writes charming characters with depth and heart.

Two sisters who seemingly can't stand each other are forced to live together... What will come of it? Well, as with any Jenny Colgan story, the ending doesn't disappoint! And the journey along the way provides sweet, endearing moments.

This also serves as a perfect holiday story with the elements of Christmas miracles that, this time of year, I can't get enough of!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this amazing book! The review will be live, at the link given, on 11/17/21.

Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal, and Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? Will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?

The was my first book by this author although I have seen her name for several years. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing of this Christmas story. Her descriptions of Edinburgh shows her knowledge of Scotland, and her characterization of the different people in the story are very good in showing how the sisters, especially, grew through the story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for introducing me to this wonderful author.

Oh my heart I adored this lovely story!! It is a perfect holiday read and now I want to read holiday reads and nothing else!
Carmen is having a rough go of things-she’s stuck living at home, she’s been made redundant at work and nothing to speak of in the love department. Her mom suggests she go and stay with her older sister who could use some help with her kids and has a house big enough she could stay in. Carmen reluctantly goes as she and her sister have grown apart over the years but once she gets there, they work on their relationship as well as Carmen’s relationships with her nieces and nephew despite their highly stressful nanny’s hesitance to let her influence them. Carmen’s sister gets her a job in the local bookstore that is failing due to the old man that runs it being set in his ways. Carmen flourishes in running the store and in turn, she falls in love with the town, her family and a very handsome visiting professor.
This has everything you could want in a holiday book and I hope everyone reads it when it comes out.
Thanks to William Morrow Paperbacks and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review.

Jenny Colgan is back with a stand-alone Christmas story about a failing bookshop and the woman that saves it. Carmen is stuck with no boyfriend, no job, and living at home, while her sister Sophie seems to have it all – beautiful house, great husband, a killer job, and 3 kids with one-more on the way.

When she realizes her client is going to lose his bookshop and home, she overs Carmen up for the job of turning the shop around, offering her a room at her house to boot.

But the long standing rivalry between the sisters is out in full force, Carmen seems to sabotage her own happiness in the romance department, and her bookstore boss might be hiding some family secrets that need uncovering.

A charming Christmas tale in true Jenny Colgan fashion, this heartwarming story also has some appearances from beloved characters from previous books.

A super happy book with all the feels with two sisters, one who does everything right and the other, who does the opposite. They’re forced together when Sophia, Ms. Perfect, but also likable, is close to deliver baby number four! Carmen, funny and snarky, loses her job and goes to LIVE with her sister to help out with her other three children while her husband is away on assignment far from home.

What starts out as, ‘this will never work,’ ends up a miraculous, holiday miracle with a little romance thrown in for good measure, all in beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland, at Christmas.

Sophia, a lawyer but home on maternity leave, needs Carmen to work at Mr. McCredie’s Bookstore to save it from closing. The problem is twofold, Mr. McCredie’s bookstore has never really functioned as a bookstore, as in it’s never sold any books, per se; and Carmen has never worked in a bookstore nor worked as a sales person, she’s good at window displays and department store setups.

Getting to know old Mr. McCredie and the background of his interesting shop is a detective story in itself. Carmen is fairly young and bright, if she puts her mind to this, she can certainly figure out how to turn this place around and decorate the windows for Christmas at least. Well, after she cleans them so people can see through them, of course.

Sophia’s three children, all with personalities of their own, eventually gravitate to Aunt Carmen and a bit away from the perfect yoga-centric, healthy-eater, nanny, Skylar. Hot chocolate with marshmallows is so much better than celery juice.

Plus, Carmen meets two men, one a handsome and famous author who pursues her despite her rejections to visit his hotel room. And the Ph.D. lecturer on trees, from Brazil who’s honest to a fault, polite, and cute. Such problems to have for a single woman.

Jenny writes the perfect Christmas story that has this reader smiling from ear to ear a half hour later! Exquisite! A must Holiday read. Yule be happy you did!

Thank you Netgalley, William Morrow, and Harper Collins Publishers, and Jenny Colgan

This is a sweet, Christmas-themed love story, with a warm subplot about sisters reestablishing their relationship. It's a feel-good read, but as a fan of the author, I couldn't help but feel that the story hewed a little too closely to the basic plotline of many of her other novels, so it didn't feel all that fresh to me. Still, it's a nice, enjoyable, entertaining read, with an overall cheery, upbeat feel.

3.5* rounded up

Protagonist Carmen is really immature and negative (often whiney). She’s so in her own head about feeling second to her sister that she’s turned her back on every opportunity to improve herself and her situation. As a result, at age 28, she finds herself with no job, no apartment, and no hope for the future. It takes the combined efforts of her mother and sister to get her to take a temporary job at an Edinburgh bookshop at threat of closing.

Despite her belief that her sister is perfect, with her high and mighty friends and obnoxious children (who she’s avoided their entire lives), and that she’s being set up for another failure if she can’t save the bookshop, she finds that her assumptions have been wrong. It literally takes a village, a nasty nanny, a trio of adorable kids, a smarmy, artificial self-help guru, a lovely, spiritual, tree-loving university lecturer, and a close look at the sad, lonely man who is her boss to open herself up to the possibility that she can be successful in both life and love.

As Christmas books go, it has more substance than most but the romance is tepid and some characters are truly unlikeable. One of the bright spots, however, is the rebirth of the bookshop itself and the beauty and wonder of the holiday season in this beautiful, quirky, historic city. If you’re a fan of Colgan’s Scottish Bookshop series, you’ll appreciate this, especially the reconnection with Ramsey from book 2.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from William Morrow through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Jenny Colgan and William Morrow for an early copy of this book!

What a fun treat this one was! This was such a cozy read to jump start the holiday season because let's be honest, we all know it starts as soon as the clock strikes midnight on Nov 1st.

This book is about two polar opposite sisters: one has her life together and the other does not. Carmen was let go from her job and her (very pregnant) sister (with the suggestion of their mother) took her in and provided her a job for the holiday season. Not only is Carmen living us book lovers dream and working at a bookshop, she is somehow involved in a love triangle.

This story was heart warming and I love seeing how Carmen's relationship grew with her nieces and nephew. The complexity between Carmen and Sofia is relatable to me even though I have a younger brother. I feel like I am Carmen and my brother would be Sofia. It was nice to see how their relationship changed & we see how they worked things out.

I won't spoil how Carmen works her way through the bookshop or how she manages her love triangle. I will say I was happy with the choice that she makes. If you are looking for a cozy, romantic book to read during the holiday season, Perfect for Hallmark Christmas movie lovers.

Rating: 3.75

MY HEART IS LITERALLY SO FULL I CAN FEEL IT IN MY THROAT. okay maybe I’m about to cry. IDK. All I know is I truly loved this book so much. This is now my current favorite of her books (I say this every time I finish another one lol). I loved Carmen so much. I loved that this was a sister story intertwined with all of the other relationships and watching the dynamic between her and Sofia change was wonderful (and also the mini sisters too!) I was rooting for Mr. Mcredie's store and was probably in just as much awe at it's transformation as he was. I am trying not to say "I love, I love, I love" too many times but when I tell you I loved every piece of this I am not lying at all. I had a smile on my face the whole time, I have a smile on my face as I am writing this review.

This will give you every warm Christmas feelings you need this year. It will keep your heart full until next Christmas too.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and William Morrow for this copy of The Christmas Bookshop. And thank you universe, for giving us Jenny Colgan.

This book was pure magic. Jenny Colgan has been one of my favorite authors since long before I joined Bookstagram. Her stories transport you and comfort you and bring me so much joy! They’re the first books I started describing to people as “a warm hug.”

This book was extra special for me - the newest chapter of the series that kicked off my love of her books (The Bookshop on the Corner & sequels!), a Christmas story, AND I started it on my birthday! Could it get any better?!? I love Christmas. A lot. It’s a personality trait at this point. So I’ve been looking forward to this particular book all year!

And my goodness, did it live up to everything I hoped it would be. The warmest of warm hugs! I felt soo *cozy* inside as I read - like I had a little internal Christmas choir singing along. And Edinburgh becomes its own magical Christmas character in this story, giving you all the holiday wanderlust. I put on cozy clothes, made hot chocolate, and had instrumental Christmas music playing in the background, and it was perfection.

A glimpse of the magic that awaits you: Edinburgh at Christmas. Old, atmospheric bookstores. Cozy reading nooks. Snow and twinkling lights. Adorable children. Blossoming romance. Families coming back together. Finding what brings you joy.

Bottom line - this should absolutely be on your list of holiday reads this year because it will leave you all smiley with a happy holiday glow inside!

Thank you so much William Morrow & NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.