Charming and cozy. Loved the sister relationship and how it grew and changed as well as Carmen’s relationship with her nieces and nephew. And of course the bookshop and Mr. Mcreedie were adorable.
Heads up though…this is definitely a character driven book with not much plot at all. Enjoyable if that is what you are looking for but could be considered slow by those looking for more plot based books.

Loved this latest Book by Jenny Colgan. Set at Christmas it is a perfect read by the fire or tree, as you imagine yourself in Edinburgh for the holidays. Carmen’s story, one of finding oneself and discovering the true connections of family is set in the best of all places, a bookshop. While Carmen struggles to revive the bookshop she makes connections with the people around her and discovers true friendship and love. A great read!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book because it not only had the coziness of your typical Christmas book, but there was some added depth because of the family relationships that were dealt with throughout the book.

I could not wait to dive into Jenny Colgan's The Christmas Bookshop (William Morrow, 2021; 335 pgs) and so did just that. If ever there was a book to settle on the couch in front of the fire with a mug of hot chocolate, this would be it.

Carmen is down on her luck, having just lost her job. Moving in with her too perfect sister with her too perfect life is not exactly what Carmen wants to do, but she does not have many other options to choose from. Her sister, Sofia, is not exactly thrilled to have her younger sister move in either. She has enough on her plate with another baby on the way, her job and a husband away on business.

Thanks to Sofia, Carmen gets a job working at an old bookshop in need of serious inspiration. Mr. McCredie will lose the shop if he is not able to raise enough money by the end of the Christmas holidays. Carmen is hoping her design skills will help bring new life to the bookshop, but will Mr. McCredie, who is set in his ways, be willing to give her the chance?

What better setting for a Christmas novel than a bookstore in Edinburgh? I wish I could step into the pages of the book and visit the historic street where the bookshop is located. Carmen realizes right away she is in over her head but is determined to make it work. I really liked both she and Mr. McCredie. While they did not always see eye to eye, they do make a good team. Mr. McCredie has long held himself back from getting too involved in the community around him for fear of his secrets getting out. That changes when Carmen comes into the picture though. The neighboring shop owners are all very supportive of each other and do not hesitate to welcome Carmen and Mr. McCredie into the fold. Among the interesting cast of characters in Jenny Colgan's novel are Blair, a rather self-absorbed self-help author who takes to Carmen right away--she's someone he can be himself with rather than always playing the part of who his adoring fans expect him to be--and the kind and quiet university student and lecturer, Oke, who frequents the bookshop.

The relationship between Carmen and her sister plays a significant role in the novel as the two face the conflict between them head on after years in the making. I loved the relationship Carmen builds with her nieces, and, boy, did I dislike that nanny! The sister dynamics that exist between Carmen and Sofia are similar to those between the two nieces, which I thought was a nice touch on the author's part.

Carmen grows quite a bit over the course of the novel and I appreciated the depth of the characters and that everything did not always come easy to any of them in terms of resolution. At times charming and definitely heartwarming, I found The Christmas Bookshop to be a great holiday-themed book to read.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I love Jenny Colgan's Christmas books. She does such a great job of capturing not only the spirit of Christmas in her books, but family dynamics and a love story as well. I really enjoyed watching Carmen find her way while revamping the bookshop for Mr. McCredie (whom I wanted to jump in the book and hug!). I wanted more focus on the relationship between Sofia and Carmen's portion of the book was probably my favorite. I really enjoy watching a sister relationship that has so much animosity grow and heal. I couldn't stand Blair. What a pompous ass that guy was! I did love Oke though. Sweet, humble, thoughtful Oke was a great character. Overall, I had fun with this book and would recommend it if you are a fan of Jenny Colgan.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and William Marrow and Custom House for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

This was a lovely Christmas story revolving around a bookstore in Edinburgh with a cast of characters that were all (mostly) lovable. I haven’t read anything else by Jenny Colgan, but if her other books are as wholesome and well-written then I know I will love them. So glad I was able to get to this before Christmas!

A gorgeous cover. Descriptions of Edinburgh, Scotland at Christmastime that would make anyone want to be there, even a snow grinch like me. The Christmas Bookshop is another delightful novel by Jenny Colgan, with a little bit of romance, and a great amount of family and bookshop life. Have you noticed, though, a common trope in bookshop stories? There’s the elderly man who lets his bookshop become shabby and dusty, rundown so it’s not attracting business. And, a young woman swoops in, taking a job she doesn’t want, and saves the bookshop.

Every year Carmen Hogan argues with her mother about the family Christmas. Carmen feels as if everyone compares her to her older sister, Sofia Hogan d’Angelo. Sofia is a successful lawyer, married, with three children and a fourth on the way. Carmen never went to university, and she works at a rundown department store that is the last holdout in their dying industrial hometown. Predictions are right. When the store closes, Carmen has no education and no experience.

That doesn’t mean she wants to move into Sofia’s basement, help with the children when the nanny, Skylar, isn’t available, and take a last-resort job at a failing bookstore. But, Mr. McCredie, one of Sofia’s clients, is going to lose the shop if it doesn’t turn a profit by Christmas. Sofia doesn’t tell Carmen there’s a deadline. She’s just counting on Carmen to work a miracle.

Well, maybe a little dusting and a window display. Everyone in the shopping area seems to be decorated for Christmas except Mr. McCredie, who loves his antique, dusty books. Carmen has an idea, though, to turn the bookstore into a Christmas bookshop for the holidays, and sell everything she can with a Christmas theme.

The Christmas Bookshop isn’t a cozy mystery in which two guys are fighting over the same woman. Instead, two men, vastly different, show up at the bookshop. One is a bestselling author who isn’t at all the self-help guru he professes to be. The other is a professor specializing in trees. While Carmen is interested in both, they are each swept up by other women.

This novel is really about finding family, even when that family was always there. As Carmen observes with her nieces and nephew, though, sometimes family doesn’t quite fit. It takes time and effort to understand each other, and sisters aren’t always willing to make that effort.

If you’re looking for one more book to add to your list of Christmas reading, you won’t go wrong with Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop.

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan. Pub date: November 16, 2021. Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟. If you’re looking for a warm and cozy Christmas book with a bookshop as a focal point, then this book is for you. Carmen moves in with her sister to help with her sister’s children and is set up with a job to help an older gentleman save his failing bookshop. It’s Christmas time and the town is festive with lots of holiday cheer. Filled with romance, family, Christmas joy and bookshop vibes, it was a cute and joyous read for the holidays! Thanks to William Morrow Publishing and Netgalley for this free e-arc in exchange for my honest review! #bookstagram #bibliophile #igreads #williammorrow #netgalley #jennycolgan #thechristmasbookshop

The Christmas Bookshop is a brand new Christmas story by Jenny Colgan. It follows two sisters who have completely different lifestyles and are reunited during the holiday season. There are trials and tribulations through out that help the characters grow and truly find themselves. Plus, the beautiful Christmas backdrop helps everything come together.

Carmen works at a department store or at least she did until the doors were recently closed for good. Broke and single she moves back in with her parents struggling to find her next move. Enter her sister Sophia who finds her a job at a struggling bookstore. Carmen moves in with her sister and nieces and nephew, and the drama begins

Carmen and Sophia are polar opposites. Sophia is a lawyer, married, and has children with another on the way. Carmen has struggled and does not have the most ambitious lifestyle. So when these two characters spend time together, there are multiple clashes. However the move time they spend together Carmen is able to form a relationship with her sister and nieces and nephew which was so nice to watch as a reader.

There is a bit of a love triangle in the story which I found completely lack luster. One of the potential love interests is an advice guru who is flashy, over the top, and can offer Carmen things she had only dreamed about. The other is a soft spoken college professor who is a Quaker and studies trees. So just like the dynamics with the sisters, the love interests are polar opposites. I just didn't buy what the author was trying to sell me with them. There was no chemistry and Carmen's attachment to either did not feel believable at all.

The saving grace really is the book shop. I enjoyed reading about the changes which Carmen made in order to help salvage the shop. The shop that is there when she enters is not the shop that is there at the end of the book. I also enjoyed learning the history of the bookstore and its quirky owner. I wanted to visit this bookshop and see it for myself, especially with the heartwarming Christmas decor and setting of Edinburgh.

The Christmas Bookshop is a book you cannot help but smile at due to the relationships that are formed. Yet two of these relationships had me cringing throughout. If the focus had remain on the bookshop and less on the romance, I think I would have enjoyed it better. After all the title is The Christmas Bookshop! Fans of Jenny Colgan will likely enjoy this story overall though.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an electronic advanced reader copy of The Christmas Bookshop in exchange for my honest opinion. This is probably my my 3rd Jenny Colgan book. While I really enjoyed the first 2 that I read, this one just wasn't quite for me. I loved the idea of Christmas in a bookshop, and the main character, Carmen, using her talents to bring the bookshop back to life. The story just seemed to have a lot of characters and side stories that made it harder for me to connect and follow along. One of my favorite things, was watching the relationship between Carmen and her neices and nephew evolve throughout the course of the novel. This is a great novel that many I'm sure will enjoy, it just wasn't the feel good Christmas story that I had been hoping to read. I still look forward to picking up other Jenny Colgan novels in the future.

This was my first time reading a Jenny Colgan book. As a bookshop owner it felt like a charming choice for my December book club even if it wasn't usual read.
It was lovely to spend time in Edinburgh, which may be my favorite city in the world. I could picture many of the settings so clearly in my head having had the pleasure of visiting in December one year.

The main characters are hard to connect with, but there are some lovely supporting characters. The plot is a little convoluted and thin, but peppered with moments that brought out a genuine smile.

Loved this book. Comforting. Sweet. Interesting. I was annoyed at the main character in the beginning for being so snotty. I should have known that was the point! And her development is what made it interesting. Colgan skillfully makes her change so subtle that I, as the reader, wondered if it wasn't me changing along with her. So good!

Jenny Colgan is my new favorite author! I love her books set in Ireland and Scotland. These are towns, cities, and counties I want to visit and eventually live in! This new book by Jenny Colgan does not disappoint! Carmen is forced to live with her sister after she loses her job. Her sister, Sophia, has the perfect life, three great kids and one more on the way, a dotting husband who travels a lot, and doesn't need or want her sister underfoot. It is a match made in "Colgan-land!"

I have not read this author before but the book sounded interesting and I loved the cover, so I requested the book for review.
However, I did not connect to the characters, and the sister's constant fighting at the beginning was very frustrating. I have several siblings, and we do not act like this and bicker back and forth. I felt like they were not acting like adults. I usually connect with the children in stories, but Sophia's children were spoiled brats, making them hard to like. The story felt disjointed and had too many characters for me to keep up with.
I did appreciate how Carmen, who seemed lazy at the beginning, got into trying to keep the bookstore alive. She started to take pride in her work and really cleaned the bookshop up. I liked her character growth in the story.
Overall, this was not an enjoyable book for me. There were too many thread lines, so the main story seemed to get lost.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. I was not required to leave a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to #NetGalley for letting me read this as an eARC, though I didn't read it as quickly as I might have.

I really enjoyed this book. The set up is fairly unique, the City of Edinburgh is a character in the novel, and the human characters are a lot of fun. There's also a guest appearance by some old friends from a different Colgan series, and it's nice to see them again.

This is 4 stars in the romance genre; there are not a lot of surprises in the plot, but a few twists that are a bit unusual. Our heroine is forced to move to the big city and live with her perfect sister because she needs a job after the retail store where she worked closes. Her sister has set her up to help a failing bookstore -- and its clueless owner -- who has only until the new year to turn things around. She is surprised both by her sister's children and the people who come into the bookshop, and is almost enjoying her new life...when things get complicated.

Review will be posted on 12/14/21
Sophia and Carmen are sisters, but polar opposites. Sophia lives the "perfect" life with her family and is a well off attorney, and Carmen is a little bit lost. She lost her job at a department store and in turn, has moved into Sophia's house to help out with her kids as Sophia is expecting another child. Carmen also plans to help one of Sophia's clients, Mr. McCredie, who owns a bookstore that is struggling. To further complicate things, Sophia and Carmen's relationship hasn't always been the best. Maybe this holiday season, things will heal between the two. However, working at McCredie's bookshop is a challenge for Carmen. It's dilapidated, antiquated, and not making money at all. Carmen is going to help modernize it a bit and gain more foot traffic, which she hopes shouldn't be too hard as it's at a prime spot in Edinburgh. The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan is a charming holiday read with an outstanding setting.

Carmen and Sophia are interesting characters in their own right in The Christmas Bookshop. I was especially drawn to Carmen and found Sophia to be a bit off-putting at times. Sophia's nanny isn't much better either. Cue the eye rolling. However, I was rooting for Carmen to mend her relationship with her sister and there's no better time to do that than during the holiday season.

What really drew me to the story was the bookshop in The Christmas Bookshop. Colgan does a great job of bringing this setting to life. It was almost like I could smell the dusty stacks, the antique books, wander the winding aisles, and the hear adjacent bustle of the Edinburgh streets. I adored the bookshop and desperately wanted it to find success.

Now The Christmas Bookshop wouldn't be a holiday tale without a little romance and there is a bit of a love triangle in this novel, but it's well done. Readers will be hoping Carmen finds love by the story's end and they won't be disappointed.

While Carmen is working on herself and her relationship with her sister, she is also transforming the bookshop. I love how Colgan used these two parallel story lines within The Christmas Bookshop and it fits the holiday message of second chances at life and love.

If you have read Colgan before, you know her books are utterly charming and The Christmas Bookshop is no different. So, are you a fan of Colgan? Is The Christmas Bookshop on your shelf? Let me know in the comments below.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

3.5 Hearts This is a very sweet story with a bit of romance but more about the story of two sisters finding their way back to each other.

Carmen has been set to the task of saving an old bookstore after her sister has found her the job. Carmen also has two men wooing her. How will Carmen choose between the good boy and the bad boy?

I really enjoyed the children in this book. So many times the children are written either too old or too young for the ages but not in this book. The kids are a great addition.

A charming book to sit by the fire with a cup of cocoa and enjoy during the holidays.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been binge reading all of these holiday books this year and I am loving every single moment of it this one is definitely on my list to share with all my friends

This was a nice easy Christmas read. I did only give it 3 stars because I didn’t manage to get fully into it.
Something I couldn’t pinpoint bothered me and kept me from really enjoying the story.
I did enjoy being in beautiful Edinburgh and the bookshop is one I would love to visit in real life. The characters were okay, but I did not think them amazing either.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for providing a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This will get you in the holiday spirit! I love Jenny Colgan's Christmas books and this was another screaming success. The old bookshop set against the backdrop of a snowy Edinburgh will make you want to curl up with a cozy blanket and enjoy this lovely read. The chaotic family atmosphere will be relatable for many people, and the topsy-turvy direction that Carmen's life takes here down is a nice reminder that we don't all have to be perfect to find happiness. This is an absolute must-read for anyone wanting to add a festive feeling to their life!