The Christmas Bookshop

I love Christmas and I love books so this was perfect. I love the character development, the main character is very negative, jealous, cynical in the beginning, and there’s a contrast between her and her sister. The way both characters grew throughout the book was wholesome and heartfelt. It’s such a good winter, christmassy warmer although I wish we’d have gotten to be a fly on the wall between the sister and the nanny! I finished it in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down. I also love the attention to detail in the cover with the train set etc.

I enjoyed this book, but didn't fall in love with it the way I did the Mure series and other Jenny Colgan books. Loved the old bookseller and his backstory which I thought could have featured more majorly.Not too keen on some of the other characters - I know that was the point but i found the nanny particularly irritating and a little exaggerated.But overall, an enjoyable read with a delightful setting.

Sorry this book was boring and I found it a drag, I did finish it but the storyline and characters did not engage me. The only positive was that the book was set in Edinburgh over Christmas. Some of the descriptions were very good and as Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities this was my main reason for buying the book. I’m sure others will love the book, I prefer abit more excitement.

Another lovely story by Jenny Colgan. I loved the storyline and how we slowly got to know and like the children. I notice Colgan has such a lovely way of writing the children characters in her books. I loved this book and cannot wait for her next one.

Overwrought, over long. The ‘magic’ of the train dream and it’s associations simply didn’t work. The main character walking further into a dark wood with a railing phone battery rather than walking back to the road was just not believable and was obvious. In three different places words were used which jarred, almost as though only to show authors vocabulary range , and on page 317 the word ‘imprecation’ not only jarred but was used incorrectly. Stunned that the book has such high ratings.