The Christmas Bookshop - Jenny Colgan

[goodreads]

Title: The Christmas Bookshop
Author: Jenny Colgan
Genre: Christmas, Chick-lit
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 328
Date read: December 2022, November 2024

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?


A lovely Christmas story that hits all the right notes for me.
- Detailing Christmas preparations? Check.
- Cute nieblings? Check.
- Spending time with (found) family? Check.
- Christmas in a (book)shop? Check.
- Grumpy person being convinced to come out of their shell? Check.
And added to that is the gorgeous setting of Edinburgh - a place that I've recently visited myself and absolutely adore.

All in all, a totally charming book that I think will be a regular reread.