The Christmas Bookshop A Novel

Loved this book!!

Welcome to my First Festive read of 2023 and what an enjoyable read it was; After several recommendations from friends, I decide that I want to give it a go and when I was gifted this for Christmas last year, I just knew that it had to go on this year’s TBR pile for festive reads!

This Christmas Romance is set to the beautiful backdrop of Scotland, Carmen Hogan is back to living with her parents after having lost her retail job. She is pushed to move to Edinburgh to take a job at a failing bookstore to try to help the old fellow who owns it turn a profit before Christmas. She will live with her hyper-successful lawyer sister; Sofia has her life together. She’s a successful attorney, has a beautiful house, a solid marriage, and three gorgeous children (with one on the way). She’s tired of bailing her sister out, but she can’t stand to hear their mother beg, so she gets Carmen a job helping a client with his struggling bookshop.

This book is such a heart-warming story; set to the picturesque backdrop of Scotland and a bookshop, what is there not to like. I enjoyed the Characters and the storyline which had the perfect mix of humour throughout the story. This book looked at sisterhood, family, community and learning about who you really are.

The author did an amazing job at brining that all to life throughout this book; this is the perfect enjoyable, light-hearted read.

Cozy Great cozy Christmas read. Carmen gets a job in a bookshop. She moves in with her sister and her family. Good characters and great writing.

More of a 3.5

This book is like the lost Christmas episode of Fleabag - I dare you to not picture Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Carmen. I liked this one a lot - not saccharine sweet romancey, but more of a how real people makes choices (and mistakes). The characters, even the children, are each distinct, and the family scenes which often go very Hallmark were instead heartwarming. Also, I actually cared about what happened next. I definitely recommend as a Christmas read.

A really delightful and atmospheric Christmas read. It would be hard to not feel the festive spirit when reading this book. I adored the bookshop setting and exploring more of Edinburgh in these pages. 

this was the most refreshing reads in a long while. protagonist was relatable in many ways, and the storytelling was different than anything I’ve read in awhile in a very pleasant way. I also love Christmas and I’m such a Christmas spirit that this really made me feel all ooey gooey inside.

I enjoyed this audiobook a lot. The bookshop is such a lovely place that I simply wish to visit there. The characters are all interesting and I love how they are so complex and so different from each other. I love the kids a lot and I’m glad they play such a big role in the book. I also really enjoyed the Christmas setting and atmosphere. Edinburg is such a lovely city and everything was a so real like that I wished to be there. All in all a lovely feel-good Christmas book with a hint of romance

the best part about this audiobook was the way the narrator said the name Phoebe

I absolutely loved this! It was a beautiful, perfect Christmas book. I enjoyed the fact it wasn’t in first person because we got to hear the thoughts of many characters, and the ending really touched my heart!