The Book:
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
Published October 26th 2021 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Date read: November 12, 2021
The Characters:
Carmen
Sofia
Mr. McCredie
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
When the department store she works in closes for good, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. She doesn’t want to move in with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered Edinburgh life.
Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want Carmen there either. Her sister has always been sarcastic and difficult. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs a retail assistant for his ailing bookshop, so welcoming Carmen might still have some benefits for everyone.
At Sofia’s behest, Carmen is thrown into the daily workings of old Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the streets of the old dark city. Can she use her design skills to revamp the store and bring it back to popularity in time to benefit from Christmas shopping traffic? Can she choose between bad boy literary rock star Blair and quiet Quaker student Oke? And will she heal the rift with the most important people of all: her family?
The ending was adorable: earlier in the book the witch had given Carmen a potion to help bond sisters, and Carmen dismissed her as a crack because she was getting along fine with Sofia at that point. At Christmas dinner, while the adults were talking, Pippa and Phoebe accidentally spilled the potion and bonded over their secret. The potion was to repair their relationship, not Carmen and Sofia.
The Review:
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and to Harper Audio for a complimentary audiobook!
This adorable Christmas story exceeded expectations! I’ve been in a total Christmas mood lately and read a handful of holiday rom-coms back to back. I love everything about renovations, bookshops, and organization, so this was a delightful combination of all three.
I really enjoyed watching Carmen and Sofia mend their relationship and grow closer. Sister stories are another favorite of mine, and I liked how they realized they enjoyed each other once they spent some time together.
The little “omg” moment at the end was the absolute sweetest part, but you’ll have to read it to learn more!
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Looking for more holiday reads? Check out the full list here.
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