This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Kay Brooks
Rosie’s thoughts are full of idyllic Christmas card scenes that she hopes will become reality this year. The little Derbyshire village of Lipton is blanketed with snow. Her sweetshop is decorated accordingly and stocked with festive delights. Knowing that she is going to be spending the season with her boyfriend, Stephen, Rosie genuinely thinks life cannot get better. A phone call from her mother informing her that she, along with her brother’s family, will be flying in from Australia only adds to her joyful anticipation.
As always is the case, life takes unexpected twists. When a car containing a young man and his confused elderly father enters Lipton with catastrophic consequences for residents of the village, a perfect Christmas seems far from attainable and Rosie’s plans need to change. All of a sudden, many of the villagers need her help, but the one person who needs her the most is pulling away.
Colgan’s novel arrived through my letterbox just like an early Christmas present, full of promises of an excellent festive read and recipes, which I am looking forward to trying out! Being a massive fan of Christmas stories, I couldn’t wait to dive in. The novel opens with a foreword from Jenny Colgan, explaining that this is a sequel to a previously popular novel entitled Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams, but she promises that the reader needn’t have encountered this to enjoy the new novel they have in their hands. There were times when I felt this was not entirely true. Colgan refers to events from the previous novel that have obviously shaped the development of the characters and I felt myself at a disadvantage in understanding them. For example, quite near the start, I was informed that Lilian, Rosie’s eccentric and lovable aunt, did not allow the sweetshop to stock Topics due to something that had occurred during the previous summer. That was all the information I was given. For certain parts of the plot, this isn’t the case. Colgan does explain how Rosie ends up running Lilian’s sweetshop and living in her cottage. On the whole, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the novel, but made me wish that I had read the first Sweetshop instalment first.
Colgan claims that this novel was written as a response to an overwhelming reader affection for Rosie Hopkins and I find that easy to believe. She is friendly, open and caring. I knew that I was taken with her too when she gives her heart so readily to a scruffy, little puppy, she lovingly calls Mr Dog.The novel is full of laughter and heartbreak, as Lilian’s history develops into a subplot and Rosie’s Australian family descend completely unprepared for the freezing Derbyshire weather.
This is a wonderful, bittersweet Christmas read that I would definitely recommend reading, but I would advise reading its predecessor first as, from the clues throughout this novel, I should imagine that it is even better.
7/10
Jenny Colgan's Website