I liked this book, although you could see where it was going from the first few chapters. I liked the description of the Christmas Market and why lots of people travel at Christmas to experience their magic. It's also good to see how the residents came together through the book so that they had a better community when they got home.

I found this book quite difficult to get into initially, but a few chapters in found myself absorbed by the characters, atmosphere and setting.
The writer clearly had fun writing the characters and developing the chemistry between them. I will certainly look out for her other books. Thank you

Jo Thomas never fails to transport us to amazing locations, with vivid descriptions of locations, residents and communities. With all her books, food and drink play a key role within the story. Mouth watering descriptions can have you believing you are right there.
This book is no exception, I was instantly in Germany and I could picture myself in festive, Christmas markets. It absolutely radiates Christmas spirit and is the perfect read for the festive season, even the most scrooge like person would struggle not to feel a little festive.
I adore all the characters; Connie is a brilliant leading lady but I also think the residents from the care home add some fabulous moments throughout. What a great array of quirky and fun people.
I cosied up in one sitting for this one, allowed myself to escape reality and enjoy what the german markets had to offer. I only hope for a real trip there one day!

Connie and the residents of the Lavender Hill retirement flats are off to the Christmas markets!
They are going to scatter the ashes of Elsie, their friend and for Connie to meet Heinrich. They have been emailing each other and seem like the perfect match. He is everything she wants - on her check list.
This story,  with all its Christian magic totally drew me in from the start,  and it proved to be a book I couldn't put down.
I absolutely loved it!
The author described everything so well and I could almost see the Christmas scenes and smell the gingerbread.
If you are a fan of Christmas you will love this book!

Aww Jo Thomas has done it again with another lovely seasonal book, this time set at a Christmas Market in Germany.

I read this over Christmas and felt it was the perfect setting!

I adored the vast range of characters in this book which really added to the wonderful storyline.

Fantastic as always.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Connie delivers meals to care home residents, and after numerous dating disasters, she is hoping the next will be The One. After being set up by one of the care home residents, Connie has a date at a beautiful German Christmas market...and takes a minibus of pensioners along for the trip!

A lovely escapist book, and easy to read, which took you right to the heart of the market; I could almost smell the gingerbread!

The characters are likeable, though did at times felt there were too many to keep track of (a whole minibus of pensioners). I did feel Connie was a little naive at times when it came to online dating, and perhaps that's the cause of her problems.

I loved the setting, and the bakery setting/baking element.

A great Christmas novel to curl up with!

Beautiful heart warming Christmas story about friendship and love. Made me want to visit Christmas markets in the snow, eat gingerbread and ice skate whilst holding loved ones tight. Left me with a lovely warm glow

I found this all a bit odd. Connie takes a bunch of old people to a christmas market in germany because she has met a man online that she has a date with. She meets him and it gets a bit creepy for me, it set off my spidey senses, but she then meets another man who is a much better match but she cant see it.

It took me a while to read it because its just so utterly absurd that it was not enjoyable to read because i wanted to slap connie for being such an idiot.

Ive read most of the authors previous books, but this one falls flat for me. Sorry Jo.

Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas was a great book to cozy up with and wander virtually round a Christmas market while on your sofa and nice and warm, I could almost taste the gingerbread. A great, lovely feel good read that has helped me get into the festive spirit.

The spicy smell of warm gingerbread, rich hot chocolate, good friends and a dash of romance. All the elements of a great Christmas can be found within the pages of Finding Love at the Christmas Market!

The story follows Connie, a care worker, as she travels across Europe with a group of her residents. They’re off to a German Christmas Market to spread the ashes of their dear friend, Elsie, who loved the festive season.

And while they’re over there, Connie is also planning to meet up with Heinrich. They’ve only spoken online so far, but Connie is absolutely sure that he’s the perfect man for her. He ticks every box, literally: she’s been using a checklist to vet potential boyfriends since she had her heart broken, and Heinrich is the first man to meet all her criteria.

But finding love isn’t as simple as mixing up ingredients for gingerbread. It takes a touch of magic as well, and only time will show whether Heinrich and Connie will find that magic spark.

I really enjoyed reading Finding Love at the Christmas Market.

And the characters in the novel are depicted so well. Connie is the main character of course, but the group of pensioners she drives across Europe often steal the show. Heinrich seems to be perfect at first, but his perfection appears a little one dimensional, so it’s no surprise that Connie’s head is turned by the more emotional and interesting William.

I loved the descriptions of William’s traditional family bakery, and there’s a very touching scene involving William and one of the pensioners towards the end of the novel.

But for me, the real star of the show was the German city that the group visit. Jo Thomas cleverly leaves this unspecified so your imagination can fill in the blanks.

In a year when opportunities for travel have been few and far between, this novel transported me over to a traditional German Christmas market. I could almost smell the lebkuchen and the rich, hot chocolate, not to mention the gluhwein!

Tucked up at home, with the Christmas lights on and candles lit, Falling in Love at the Christmas Market is the perfect read to get you in the festive mood.

A deliciously romantic Christmas novel with a good helping of festive fun: 8/10

No doubt about it, there has been such a wealth of fabulous Christmas books published this year and from the ones that I have read there has not been one so far that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. We need some festive cheer now more than ever after the year we have all endured and Jo Thomas provides this in spades in her new Christmas book Finding Love at the Christmas Market. This book just screams out make me into a Christmas film as soon as possible. It was just brilliant from start to finish and although I was sat on my sofa reading this, I truly felt like I was transported to a stunning Christmas market.

The descriptions throughout of every aspect of the markets were just fantastic and mouth-watering with so many delicious foods and fun activities on offer. The best way of describing this book is that it’s like a Christmas fairytale with a feeling of good versus evil as the Old Town battles to win the Christmas competition which they have not won for 10 years. This is an exciting and engrossing read with lots of Christmas sparkle, magic and delights with of course some romance added to the mixture for good measure.

Not one negative can I find about this book, not that I was really looking that hard as I was really enjoying reading about the escapades of Connie and the residents of the Lavender Hill retirement flats. Immediately we are thrown straight into the action as Connie is navigating her way down the motorway in a mini bus with the aim of catching a ferry to the continent, the final destination being a German Christmas market. The aim of what will turn out to be such a memorable trip is to scatter their friend Elsie’s ashes and Connie being the youngest and perhaps most steady is the chosen leader. She provides the meals to the residents on a daily basis run by a local catering company but really they are not up to much and Connie would one day love to have her own catering business rather than work for one.

The cast of characters we are introduced to in the first few chapters are hilarious and I could just picture them all crammed into the minibus eager to get going on this adventure that would be such a change for them all and which would bring such excitement. To be honest I don’t really think they knew what they were letting themselves in for but they were all along for the ride and would soon throw themselves at any new and unusual experience that came their way. Of which there were many. Pearl, Norman, Maeve, Alice, Ron, John, Diana and Graham make up the group alongside Connie but I will leave you to read for yourselves to discover more about their stories and their own personal reasons for going on the trip. But I will say recreating their own Christmas memories list at the markets was just such a wonderful added touch that brought such a smile to my face and of course plenty of well needed laughs too.

Connie has an ulterior motive for bringing her motley crew to the markets. For weeks she has been messaging a man whom she met on a dating website, she feels such a connection to Heinrich and really feels that he could be the one after having such a disastrous love life since her husband left her. Recipes and lists have kept her sane since the departure of her husband and she has written a checklist when it comes to men and so far Heinrich seems to be ticking all the criteria fairly well. She is desperate to meet him to see will the final pieces fall into place and whether her list will be completed once she sets eyes on him? That all consuming love she can feel is within her grasp.

She has five days to make all her dreams come true. To be honest I thought she rushed into things at such a frighteningly quick pace because she craved long term happiness so desperately. It was almost like she moulded things regarding Heinrich to suit her criteria even if there were warning signals that she was doing her utmost best to quash. I just didn’t buy that as soon as she met him that yes he was the one. I think she saw things that weren’t there because she was really worried about going back to the drawing board and starting from scratch again and really she didn’t go that little bit deeper and listen to her gut instincts when perhaps she should have.

Heinrich seemed way too good to be true. He carried out every little detail in relation to wooing Connie to perfection and he was determined that the New Town and his confectionary business would once again triumph in the annual competition and see the town emerge rich and victorious. Heinrich, in my mind, was blunt, refreshingly honest and truthful but this all came across as being arrogant. His actions had led to others suffering and I could sense he was desperate for love but was he doing the same as Connie and trying to change her to fit the perfect picture he had in his head and for what reasons was he really doing this? Through Connie trying to take control of her own life and find some happiness, she finds herself involved in a lot more than just finding love at the Christmas markets as a battle rages between old and new town.

New town has an alive, loud and bustling market with all the mod cons and attractions. It seemed very much like an outdoor Christmas themed amusement arcade and not really to the taste of Connie and the group. Old Town seemed much more up their alley and mine too with its timber framed buildings, cobbled streets, market square and chalet type huts selling all kinds of Christmas themed goods. That’s what really sets this book apart from some other Christmas themed books that are out there this year. The wealth of descriptions could have been overwhelming and killed the momentum of the book. Instead all the imagery I was reading about just added to my enjoyment of the book as a whole. I could picture everything so clearly and the food all sounded so tasty and just what you want to eat whilst strolling around market stalls or ice skating.

On the other side of the coin is the Old Town where the residents are struggling with their livelihoods as not many tourists visit their side of the town. They haven’t won the Christmas competition in years and baker William feels under enormous pressure that his creation this year will see Old Town emerge victorious. If not the consequences don’t even bear thinking about, both for William himself and the residents. I felt desperately sorry for William, he had such a weight on his shoulders not to mention his personal life wasn’t the best either. But I loved how Connie and himself eventually meet and the way their storyline developed was just pure perfection and so magical and this is where for me I felt like the good versus evil came into play. I loved also how the will they/won’t they amongst the main characters was just that the entire way through. You really didn’t know how things were going to pan out and that’s the way all books should be. I hate knowing too soon what the eventual outcome will be. I prefer the element of surprise and thankfully I found that here. As is mentioned in the book you can have all the right ingredients but if the alchemy isn’t right it’s a disaster. It was up to Connie to see whose alchemy she identified with the most.

Finding Love at the Christmas Market is definitely one of my reading highlights of this year. It gave me a much needed lift with lots of important messages to be taken from it. It’s a ray of light amongst the darkness of winter and reminds us that love can still be found when we think all is lost. That fun, laughter and companionship will see you through challenging and confusing times and provide plenty of laughs along the way. No one should forget the special and unique time that is Christmas that holds such a special place in the hearts of so many. If you need a pick me up or really just want to read a really good Christmas book that actually delivers on all things Christmas rather than pretends to, then do yourself a favour and read this wonderful book. As soon as you start, you’ll be dying to find out do all Connie’s Christmas wishes come true?

Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas

Love and Friendship under the sights and sounds of a Christmas Market

A lovely wee festive read, which transported me to a traditional German market as the descriptions had me imagining the sights and sounds as I walked along with the characters. Visiting for two very different reasons, Connie to meet up with the internet date and her motley crew of OAP’s who wants to (apparently illegally) scatter their recently departed neighbour’s ashes, in a happy place from her childhood.
Whilst Connie takes her dating seriously, being shown the very bright lights and sounds of the new town’s market, the pensioners are drawn in by the dwindling traditional Christmas market, acting out in the live Nativity, singing carols, and flying across the ice, they are almost like children again.

Though I did have issues with everything to do with the neighbouring town, including the love interest, I don’t see this as a negative as it is all part of the reading experience, but had I been taken to a baking factory for a date I would have walked out and legged it back to the traditional baker in a heartbeat!

I loved this book, not just because I am a hopeless romantic who could be mistaken for a Christmas elf with all my festive romances but what I enjoyed most about this book was the backstories of all the characters, and this insight into the mind of older people, how they can feel, especially at Christmas, and the fact that they still have dreams what have every chance of still coming true.

My thanks to #Netgalley and @RandomHouseUK, part of @Transworld, and especially @JoThomasAuthor for giving me the opportunity to read and review #FindingLoveAtTheChristmasMarket


Check out my latest book review of ##FindingLoveAtTheChristmasMarket by @JoThomasAuthor @ https://sloantate-mckate.blogspot.com/2020/12/finding-love-at-christmas-market-by-jo.html
My thanks to #Netgalley and @RandomHouseUK, and especially @JoThomasAuthor for giving me the opportunity to read and review #FindingLoveAtTheChristmasMarket


Purchase links:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0552176850/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Z6C1FbTTSW8JW
Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-love-at-the-christmas-market-jo-thomas/1138280590?ean=9781473573611
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/finding-love-at-the-christmas-market
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/finding-love-at-the-christmas-market/jo-thomas/9780552176859

And available from other retailers

FTC disclosure: I would like to thank Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for providing me with an advance reader copy via access to the galley for free through the NetGalley program.

This was such a sweet Christmas story. Loved the opening scene with life dynamic, getting right into both the middle of a story yet the beginning of an adventure.

I think anyone looking for a delightful, heart-melting, uplifting, lighthearted, yet meaningful Christmas tale will appreciate this book. It follows characters through relationships and the quirky things about aging, those learning to relish the little victories in life through grief and gain and finding satisfaction and purpose.

The story. With the foreshadowing of tidbits, coming full circle, made for a nice reveal of excitement and hope, the kind of feelings that come with Christmas. I loved the strides the characters made through the conflict.

The writing. I loved how Jo Thomas wrote. The authentic experiences, the setting, the character interactions, all were genuine. Gentle and not over the top, deep enough to bring real life into each character. She wrote appealing to all the senses and I adored the details in the baking scenes, and I especially adored the elderly insight and social activities. Nice way to shape the characters, coaxing them through their celebrations and dilemmas, all while providing entertainment and commentary along the way.

I would have liked a little more conversation of one certain relationship, to have developed a bit more in recognition of reconciliation. And one aspect teetered on less moral ground for my preferences. However I liked the inner monologue which helped to make the teetering situation more palatable for me, especially when the permissiveness and timeline of the situation, from this aspect of single and available both on paper and emotionally finally came to be.

I can't comment on the recipes as they weren't contained in the ARC I received. Bummer.

Overall the story was a well thought out plan. It kept my interest. Perfectly packaged but not without some bumps in the relationships, I loved the tension, the anticipation, the wonderings, the joy, the delightful way it all unfolded in this Christmas tale.

Can’t quite decide about this book. I really liked the setting in Germany with all the Christmas markets, and I liked the bakery, but I just couldn’t not connect with any of the characters - none of them! I also found some bits didn’t quite make sense but that could be because it’s an advanced copy. I’ll definitely try another book by Jo though before I make my decisions about her whether or not her writing/stories are for me.

What a lovely, easy christmas read!
Perfect for when you need a book that doesn't require too much thinking .... And we all know we have days like that!
Really warmed to Connie from the start, and all her elderly friends were lovely too and all had a story to tell that seemed to draw me in.
Great book that I would recommend

Loved this easy read, just what the doctor ordered for a stressful and poorly time. If you put aside all beliefs and take this book at face value, then it reads as a big hug and warm blanket on a cold and bitter day. I haven't read any books but this author before, but looked to see if it was a debut novel when I finished it, that way I could forgive some of the glaring factual errors but I suspect it just wasn't very well researched or proof read in this ARC. Hopefully the published version will be more polished?

Three and a half stars.

Connie is a divorced single mother of a college-age son. She delivers sub-standard meals on wheels for her employer to the residents of a care home for the elderly, supplemented by her home baking. She has been dating half-heartedly but has been conned out of her life savings by a man who ghosted her. Then one of the residents signs her up to online dating and Connie has been messaging a man called Heinrich who lives in Germany.

When her son announces that he is spending Christmas with his new girlfriend and her family skiing, Connie agrees to drive the care home residents to Germany to scatter the ashes of one of their friends at a Christmas market, they suggest combining the trip with a visit to meet Heinrich.

This book was a slow burn for me. I requested an ARC when I was in a festive mood but then didn't really engage with the interfering old people and found Connie to be a rather unbelievable 41 year old woman, too naïve and keeping a checklist of admirable qualities in a date just because her son told her to! But once the group reached Germany and the charming Christmas market the book began to pick up pace.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this but I would definitely place this in the Hallmark Christmas movie category. No-one ends up alone or unhappy, everything is resolved with a little bit of Christmas cheer. Recommended to read while sitting in front of a log fire, eating mince pies and drinking hot chocolate. If that sounds like your worst nightmare I would suggest avoiding this book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

If you are looking for a fabulous festive feel-good book then look no further than this one. Grab a big old mug of hot chocolate, put on your favourite Christmas jumper and snuggle into a warm blanket and settle down to read Finding Love at the Christmas Market.

Connie is a meal delivery driver and has made friends with the elderly residents at residents she delivers to. It was Elsie's last wish that she return to her home in Germany and so Connie and the residents get in the minibus to carry out Elsie's final wishes. Oh, and to make sure that Connie is ok when she meets Heinrichwho she met online and is now going to meet in person.

Connie is a woman who lives by her lists, but does ticking all the boxes mean she will succeed? The author throws a spanner in the mix in the form of William. While Heinrich is organised, neat and punctual, William is the exact opposite. So is it organised or chaos that will win the day?

Now, the residents sound like an amazing bunch and yes they older than Connie but this means they have experience and also a few hidden secrets. They are such an amazing bunch of characters and as I got to know them I got to adore their different personalities. Sharing their experiences of happy times definitely brought a lump to my throat.

I did mention earlier hot chocolate, I should also mention the gingerbread, this book just oozes delicious-ness with festive fare and the aroma of gingerbread. Once again the author has brought the sights, sounds and smells of the towns to life. Traditional and modern are mixed into this story along with rivalry, friendship, new acquaintances and fulfilling wishes and promises.

The spirit of Christmas in a more nostalgic sense is definitely here within these pages. It brings home that Christmas is about friends, families and making memories. It is a truly wonderful read that has a touch of humour, a dash of romance, a sprinkling of memories and is such a wonderful read that I cannot help but absolutely recommend it.

Connie delivers prepackaged meals to the residents of Lavender Hill retirement flats and sometimes she brings self – made cakes as well, stopping by for a chat and a cup of tea. When one of the residents dies, asking for her ashes to be scattered at one of the Christmas markets in Germany, Connie doesn’t hesitate and, together with an eclectic group of the residents, in a minibus, they start the long journey abroad.
But Connie has also her own reasons for going to Germany. Being single, she has been internet dating and she has met The One – at least according to her meticulously run notes Heinrich ticks all the boxes and now she wants to meet him in person. Only she doesn’t know that the trip is going to be full of surprises for all of them. But are they of the nice sort?

The beginning of this book was a little confusing, we were thrown into the whirlwind of actions and information and it took some time before the story set on the right pace and path and we were able to get a picture of who, why and where. There was a great bunch of characters in this story however they all didn’t feel to real or realistic. The group of octogenarians Connie was travelling with consisted of some really colourful and delightful characters, however they lacked in development. Connie herself was a character I couldn’t completely warm to, at the beginning I thought she must be much younger that she was in fact – she seemed too immature for her age. I mean, would you really think, after a bit of chatting on the internet and a brief meeting or two, that you would be immediately engaged to be married?
I also think that the characters were simply a bit overdone for the needs of this story, they were either brilliantly kind and nice or selfish and patronizing, so you really have to hate Heinrich with all the aspects of his life being planned, and love William, the struggling but incredibly fair baker.

The author has beautifully portrayed the old German town where the story is set and I loved her descriptions of the Christmas market – the Christkindlmarkt. They made my heart grow because I know those markets very, very well – living for more than 15 years in Germany I’ve visited some of the oldest and most popular ones and Jo Thomas has truly captured the essence of them. It also made my heart cry, those beautiful and vivid descriptions, because this year, as we all know, there won’t be any Christmas markets because of the Covid pandemy. At least I could immerse myself in Jo Thomas’s gorgeous descriptions of the atmosphere and the surroundings.

This book was, however, for my liking too simple – I mean, it had everything that a book needs, some twists and turns and of course troubles in paradise, but there was not enough depth in it, it was too superficial and predictable, and by predictable I mean not only the end but actually every single scene. And I’ve learnt that I can expect much, much more from Jo Thomas and it makes me sad that her last two offerings showed – for me, at least – a significant decline in quality. Don’t get me wrong, pretty please, it was a lovely, romantic and vividly written love – story, ticking all the boxes – but nothing more.

Nevertheless, do not feel put out by this cynic – as I seem to be in minority and people enjoy this book. Maybe I expected too much, maybe I wanted too much, not sure. I don’t mean that I didn’t like this book, it just didn’t live up to my expectations. But if you need an easy, light – hearted Christmas story that will put you in a festive mood and make you hungry (the descriptions of the food!!!) then don’t look further, „Finding Love at the Christmas Market“ might be this what you’re looking for.

After becoming single Connie doesn’t want to take chances with her heart and starts her online dating search with a tick list of requirements, leading her to Germany.

Taking the group of pensioners she has made friends with through work, they embark on a Christmas visit to Germany. Connie and the group of pensioners throw themselves into the Christmas scene of the markets, the nativity, ice skating and fulfilling each of their own Christmas wishes.

Meeting Heinrich her online date in person is daunting for Connie as they embark on finding out if they are the perfect fit...until she meets William.

When you learn that life and love is not simply a check list that goes to plan, only then do you feel love. With the snow falling will Connie get her christmas wish.