Review & Giveaway - - Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

by Jenny Colgan

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: October 10, 2023

Reviewed by PJ

Christmas comes early—far too early—to McCredie’s little Old Town bookshop in Edinburgh. It’s summer, but an American production company has decided that McCredie’s is the perfect location to film a very cheesy Christmas movie. After all, who can resist the charmingly narrow historic street with its Victorian grey stone buildings and warmly lit shop windows?

Carmen Hogan, the bookshop’s manager, is amused and a bit horrified by the goings-on, but the money the studio is paying is too good to pass up. She uses the little windfall from filming to create new displays and fend off a buyout offer from an obnoxious millionaire who wants to turn McCredie’s into a souvenir shop selling kilts made in China and plastic Nessies. Still reeling slightly from a breakup, Carmen’s not particularly looking forward to the holidays. But just as snow begins to fall and the lights of Christmas blink on, all sorts of lovely new possibilities present themselves…for McCredie’s bookstore, and for Carmen herself. 

PJ's Thoughts:

Jenny Colgan takes readers back to Edinburgh, Scotland for part two of the story that began in her 2021 holiday novel, The Christmas Bookshop (read my review). Picking up where book one ended, this new novel follows Carmen and Oke (pronounced okay) through the next year as they navigate life's challenges together and then apart. 

I would describe Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop as women's fiction, or possibly contemporary fiction, though it also has strong romantic elements. The primary focus, however, is definitely on Carmen and her journey of growth which is filled with peaks, valleys, hilarity, and a fair share of awkward moments. I love the relationship that has developed between Carmen and Mr. McCredie, the quirky, elderly owner of the bookshop where she works. There's frustration, exasperation, gratitude, and a boatload of affection between these two. There are, in fact, a whole group of quirky characters who populate the quiet street in old Edinburgh where the bookshop resides. Colgan really brings them, and their street, to life in vivid detail, immersing me into their daily lives as they navigate the ups and downs of a changing landscape as a greedy purveyor of tacky tourist shops slowly worms his way into their neighborhood.

The tenuous and tricky relationship between Carmen and her sister is again front and center. Things are changing at her sister's house, where Carmen came to stay for a few months while getting back on her feet and has now been there a year. Family dynamics are another area where Colgan excels with realistic and complex tension between the sisters, children who steal every single scene they're in, and a new "manny" who provides laugh-out-loud humor along with surprisingly wise advice and more than a few temptations. 

The one area where I felt a bit let down in this second novel is the romantic relationship between Carmen and Oke. They break up at the beginning of this book, with Oke returning to his native Brazil for a six-month scientific expedition in the Amazon. We follow them individually through Carmen's POV in the majority of the book with Oke's POV popping up in an occasional chapter here and there and no communication between the two until the end of the book. Though I understand the importance of Carmen's individual growth, I enjoyed their scenes together in book one and really missed that in book two. 

Overall, I enjoyed Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop. It was engaging, gave me a taste of the holidays in Edinburgh, made me laugh in places, cringe in others, and brought home the happy ending I was hoping for. This is a book that I strongly recommend reading after you have read The Christmas Bookshop. 

Have you read Jenny Colgan?

Did you read The Christmas Bookshop?

What holiday books are you looking forward to reading this year?

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, November 5 will receive a print copy of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop. 

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

Thanks to Avon for the giveaway copy! 

 

Tour Review - - A Cosy Countryside Christmas

A Cosy Countryside Christmas

by Eliza J. Scott

Life on the Moors - Book 6

Publisher: Eliza J. Scott

Release Date: November 1, 2021

Reviewed by PJ

Ella Welford’s done with love. After having her fingers burnt, she’s been resolutely single for the last year and has sworn to stay that way.

Joss Campion’s still reeling from a messy divorce and has vowed never to open his heart to love again.

Growing up in the picturesque village of Lytell Stangdale, with the North Yorkshire Moors as their playground, Joss and Ella were best friends. The pair were inseparable.

Until the day something happened to ruin their friendship and Joss moved away.

An urgent telephone call summons Joss back to the village. His father’s been rushed to hospital and he’s needed to run the farm. When he returns, with his loyal canine companion, Sid, in tow, it isn’t long before he realises things aren’t as they seem. Why is his brother, Rich, being so evasive? And why does he get the impression the farm’s in trouble?

Teaching Assistant, Ella, has just broken up for the Christmas holidays and is looking forward to spending more time on her parents’ farm, tending her variety of rescue animals and recharging her batteries.

It isn’t long before the pair run into one another and sparks of attraction begin to fly - not that either of them will admit to it. But, just before Christmas, they find themselves thrown together in an unexpected turn of events as a fierce snow blizzard rages around them.

Could this be the moment that changes everything? Or is their past too big to ignore?

One thing’s for certain, life’s never dull in this little corner of the North Yorkshire Moors.

PJ's Thoughts:

I enjoy second-chance romances, especially when there's a solid foundation of friendship at their core. In this book it isn't only the reunion of childhood friends Joss and Ella that plays out against the small-town backdrop but also the reunion of estranged family. 

It's clear early on that this book is part of a long-running series with many community members in the forefront of the story. Scott does a commendable job of threading other couples in and out of the story without taking primary focus away from Joss and Ella or causing confusion for readers who haven't read the earlier books (like me).

 

I enjoyed the strong community spirit, the secondary characters who helped move the story forward, and the development of Joss and Ella, both as a couple and as individuals. I especially enjoyed the evolution of Joss's relationship with his father and the light thread of suspense involving his brother. Both were relatable and realistically portrayed. 

There is a thread in the first part of the book, however, involving Joss and a secondary character, that I did not enjoy. What happened, and how it was handled afterward, did not feel authentic to what I knew of Joss's character at that point and definitely impacted my feelings about him. The characters came to terms with what happened (very quickly, it seemed) but what occurred felt gratuitous to me and continued to have a negative impact on my enjoyment of Ella and Joss's relationship. I was happy for them at the end of the book, and other readers may not share my reservations, but my happiness was tempered by a shadow that, for me, still hovered. 

That quibble aside, my overall enjoyment of the book was enough to encourage me to seek out the earlier books in the series. I enjoyed this little village and there are several couples whose stories I would like to read.