25.11.13

Book Review: Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan

Rosie Hopkins is looking forward to Christmas in the little Derbyshire village of Lipton, buried under a thick blanket of snow. Her sweet shop is festooned with striped candy canes, large tempting piles of Turkish Delight, crinkling selection boxes and happy, sticky children. She's going to spend it with her boyfriend Stephen, and her family, who are flying in from Australia. She can't wait. But when a tragedy strikes at the heart of their little community, all of Rosie's plans for the future seem to be blown apart. Can she build a life in Liption? And what's best for the sweet shop, also what's best for Rosie?
This is Jenny Colgan's follow up to Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams but it is a stand-alone book. I hadn't read the first one but I thought that this was a delightful read.
Rosie gave up her life in London to run her aunt's sweetshop. It was only supposed to be a temporary measure but she's still there. Rosie is now living with Stephen, the heir of Lipton Hall; she is happy and content but when tragedy strikes, she begins to question what she wants. But before she can deal with it all, she has the small matter of her whole family arriving from Australia to celebrate Christmas.
Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop is a heart warming read. I loved the small village setting and I could easily imagine Rosie's beautiful sweet shop. In the main, I liked Rosie's character but there were a few instances where I thought she had a real chip on her shoulder.
There is a lot of humour in this book and I think that Jenny Colgan gets the balance right between warmth and wit.
Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop is a lovely festive read; romance, humour, sweets and tinsel- perfect!

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5
Publisher: Sphere
Pages: 432

Many thanks to Jo at Sphere for sending me a copy of this book, it is out now! 

4 comments:

Kim said...

This is on my Christmas list as I so enjoyed RH Sweet Shop of Dreams. Thanks for the review, Dot, I am even more excited to read it now.

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

This one sounds like it should be read with a bag of sweets in hand! :)

Dot said...

Kim- It's a really lovely read Kim!

Nikki-ann- Yes, sweets are definitely required!

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Hi Dot, Joining you from over at Dizzy C's - I was one of her book buddies last week.

Great review. This is a perfect book for the Christmas Spirit reading challenge I'm doing at the moment so thanks for the recommendation. Nice to meet you, best wishes TT.

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