I read this book when it first came out in 2012 and loved it. Jenny Colgan is my favorite author and I look forward to reading more of her works!

I received an advance copy of, Sweetshop of Dreams, by Jenny Colgan. This is a really good book. It goes back and forth different generations. I liked the recipes in the book too.

Oh, Jenny Colgan, you did it again. Even though this book isn’t set in Scotland, or on a remote island off the coast of England, but instead in the English countryside, it’s just as delightful and charming as any of your other work. And how can one not love a book centered around a sweet shop, my second favorite place after a bookshop? So yeah, this book has everything: gorgeous countryside, adorable village, quirky and fun supporting characters, and of course the heroine for the modern age, filled with spunk, sarcasm, and love. As ever, I swallowed this book in 24 hours and loved every moment,

I have put down and picked up this book so many times that I know I will never finish it. The characters irked me, the descriptions of sweets got old quickly, and I didn’t like the dual timelines at all.

Adorable and fun, including the recipes! A sweet book that flips between two time periods (present day and WWII) interesting and easy to follow. A nice respite from the already crazy year of 2021!

Two story lines in two different time periods and thankfully they came together just perfect at the end. Lillian is an elderly woman who never left the hometown that she was born and raised in and never married, she tells her story of her adolescence and young adulthood in this small town. Rosie is her niece and has moved to this small town to help her great-aunt settle her affairs and move her into an elderly home, she may fall deeply in love with this small town.

I loved the mix of historical as Lillian's story was in the middle of war time as the men are being called to fight and the modern storyline with all the fantastic feels of a small town just trying to make it by. Rosie was a fantastic character to tell her story, she wasn't too whiny and showed resilience and tenacity. It was easy to want to root for her and hope that she finds happiness.

My one hiccup with this book was the repetitiveness at times. There were a few moments where I felt like the author copied and pasted and it made me feel like as a reader I was being reminded a few too many times how the character was feeling.

Charming, cute, slightly predictable, with candy recipes. Very sweet (ha!) with dry humor and readability. Not fine fiction, but an enjoyable read, a good respite, much like the other Colgan books I’ve read. Flipping between two time periods (present day and WWII) was well done and easy to follow. A good break from current day doom and gloom

Another "sweet" story from Colgan. Love how she sets her stories in small English villages where everyone knows everyone and welcome new community members. The flashbacks in this story do a good job of complimenting the main narrative and giving an explanation for why things are as they are.

A sweet rom-com in which Rosie, an auxiliary nurse who lives in London with her lazy boyfriend, finds a chance at new life in an unexpected place. She goes to the small country village to help her aging Aunt Lilian, who needs to sell her house and candy shop and go to a nursing home for care. A dual timeline flips between the present and the 1940s, when Lilian was young and attractive and had a crush on Henry. The story lags at times and Rosie and Lilian can both be annoying as they adjust to each other. But they grow on each other and on us, and as their stories unfold, we’re taken by the lush descriptions of the countryside, mouthwatering mentions of every candy imaginable, and the joys and heartaches of romance. A warm and cozy escape!

Note: This is the newest edition of the book, released originally as “Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams” in 2012.

4 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 13 Apr 2021
#SweetshopOfDreams #Netgalley

Thanks to the author, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

So, this is sweet and cute, but this is also an old book. Released quite a few years ago, so I’m guessing this is just a re-release? The story is gentle and sweet, so it’s a nice read with not too much drama (IMO).

So incredibly adorable and a perfect antidote to 2020! Loved Stephen and Lilian and their chemistry! The way food and rom-com mixed was just everything I wanted!!

Thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced read!

What a sweet book - no pun intended!

Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian s sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong.

Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton s sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets.

This delightful story is exactly what I needed - light hearted and funny with relatable characters. I was already a fan of Jenny Colgan and this book did not disappoint. A very pleasant, enjoyable quick read.

Told in alternating time periods, from both Rosie and Lillian's perspectives, this is a story that will require a lot of willpower to read.....not because it's terrible, but because you'll be reaching for a new candy every page or so! The book begins with a simple request to go look after a family member, but as they get to know each other, Rosie and Lillian share their experiences and learn from each other. Lillian's story takes place in the 1940s and involves a lot of tragedy, as per the period. There's so much history here tucked into a fictional story that will keep you reading until the very end...

This book felt strangely familiar in points, but I believe it's a re-release of a title first issued in 2012 under a slightly different name. Regardless, it was indulgent and sweet (all puns intended) told with humour and heart. Colgan has taken an ordinary sleepy little village with it's farmers, crotchety old folks, and peculiar locals, and made it a place of dreams and belonging. This was my first read of 2021 and I couldn't have started it off with a better mix of all the delights that make for an enjoyable and well-paced work of romantic comedy fiction.

My thanks to the publisher for granting my wish for this title and providing a complimentary copy for review via Netgalley.

Sweetshop of Dreams is a very immersive,long winded story of how a woman finds her true self and happiness in a village while helping her elderly great aunt.

As a general rule I don't "do" chick-lit these days. I find them a bit "samey". You know. Girl moves to Ireland after breakdown of relationship. Lead to believe girl is a bit dumpy and average. Girl turns out to be a stunner that bags the hottest guy in the village, but not without all sorts of complications. I'm not cynical. I just find them a little repetitive and predictable.
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In many ways, this was no different but at the exact same time it was completely different.
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Whilst the majority of the novel is written from Rosie's point of view, the narrative is interrupted with flashbacks of Aunt Lilian's story. We get excerpts from her self-published book too which are quite frankly hilarious and it captures the very essence of her. This mix of style really helps with the pace of the book which is almost 500 pages.
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I found the ending predictable but it didn't take away from the warmth, charm and sweetness of this book. Somehow, the nostalgia of childhood sweets is completely captured which makes this a truly lovely read.

*This book was received as a free Advanced Reader's copy from NetGalley.

I was in the mood for something light. Something sugary, something that was quick, fun, and delightful. This book fulfilled some of those needs, but not all of them.

Rosie finds herself in a small town, so different from London, to help out a relative who's having health problems and general just being old problems. While she's supposed to be there to get the relative right again and help her sell her business and home and move into a nursing home, once there, Rosie realizes that there are aspects of country life that are appealing, and maybe a bit tempting to keep her from returning to the city. Running the sweetshop of course, is its own appeal.

The characters are really what make this book 3 stars for me. I love the plot idea in general, the sweetshop, the mentions of candy, the snarky "excerpts" from the aunt's candy book, and a lot of other elements. But the characters can be quite frustrating. Most especially, Rosie herself. I know I have the benefit of looking on as a reader and seeing her choices from that perspective. But yikes, what terrible taste in men. And I'm not just talking about the initial boyfriend either; I felt the same by the end of the book. She lets all the good ones get away. Her aunt too had some questionable random emotional swings (the mention of the lord of the area, what was that??!!).

The sweets though, that's where it's at. I enjoyed the descriptions (and have a few sitting in my cart now to try), especially when it came to everyone's favorite candy. There were also recipes in the book, and while I probably won't try most, there was one for coconut ice that sounded easy enough.

Cute book, quick read, I just wish the characters would have been a bit more sensible.

Review by M. Reynard 2021

Jenny Colgan's latest novel gives her readers exactly what they hope for - classic Colgan stories that remind us that there's good in our world. And she does it with gentle humor and a lot of heart. Sweetshop of Dreams is quite special.

This book was received as an ARC from Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book brought warmth to my heart and I could not stop reading and could not put it down. I loved the sentiment and the relationship Rosie and Lilian had when Rosie came and helped her with the Lipton Sweetshop and Rosie found that the candy wasn't the only thing that is sweet there at the shop. She grows fond of the life she has created working in the sweetshop and meets Stephen who brings more than mystery in Rosie's life and finds a new path that was unexpected. I totally can see this book becoming a Hallmark movie and I know it will have a lot of ratings to bring positivity and joy to any circumstance and that is just what the world needs right now.

We will consider adding this title to our Adult Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I read athe orginal book when it was published in 2012. I thought maybe it had been changed so asked to read it again. It hadn't, but thtat adoesn't make it anyless enjoyable the second time around.