Review: A Bookshop Christmas

Title: A Bookshop Christmas

Author: Rachel Burton

Publisher: 2nd September 2021 by Aria & Aries

Pages: 416 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: romance, Christmas, women’s fiction 

My Rating: 5 crowns

Synopsis:

A snowstorm. A stranger. A spark. And it's Christmas!

It should be the perfect start to the perfect love story.

But real life is far messier and more complicated than in the pages of the books in Megan Taylor's family bookshop – the last few years have left this young widow in no doubt of that. Moving back home to York should have been a fresh start, but all it did was allow her to retreat from the world.

When prize-winning author Xander Stone rams his supermarket trolley into her ankles and then trashes her taste in books, Megan is abruptly awoken from her self-imposed hibernation. It's time to start living again, and she's going to start by putting this arrogant, superior – admittedly sexy – stranger in his place.

Just as she is beginning to enjoy life again, the worst happens and Megan begins to wonder if she should have stayed hidden away. Because it turns out that falling in love again is about more than just meeting under the mistletoe...

My Thoughts

“I think the world is divided into people who have held onto their childish excitement about Christmas and people who haven’t.”

What’s not to love when you love books/bookshops and you love Christmas - combine the two! For my annual Christmas reads, I was absolutely delighted with Rachel’s latest offering as it contained all my favourite things in a real feel-good story at this special time of year. I have read and loved her previous book and smiled at the Easter Egg included from that particular read from the famous Tea Shop.

‘My heart lay in the actual words that surrounded me every day. The words on the pages that sat upon the sage green bookshelves all around me. I was passionate about stories, about those stories being told in the best possible way and read by as many people as possible.’

A Bookshop Christmas has everything you would expect for this seasonal read … but then Rachel adds some real depth to it. Christmas in a  bookstore doesn’t get much better for me, however, when the love interest is between two people who have experienced recent traumas, it's wonderful to watch them grow and start to live life once again. There are layers that need peeling back as they both are dealing with grief and I think Rachel handled this really well. 

‘Running the bookshop had been my way of finding some sort of control in my life after the unthinkable had happened, but I knew now that I had no control over anything, not even over the survival of the bookshop.’

Added to this is the setting in York which was idyllic for this time of year. I also appreciated how Rachel highlighted the struggles of a local independent bookshop. She then brought light to this shade with a cast of fun characters - the Regency Christmas party preparations and eventual celebrations a real added bonus. There are some real fun moments (I was highlighting like crazy) and tea lovers will appreciate Xander’s purist preferences:

“Is that Lapsang?” I asked, pointing at Xander’s teapot. “No sadly, just Earl Grey,” he replied. “But at least it’s not a teabag.” “I really wouldn’t have had you down as a tea snob.” “What did I tell you about pigeonholes.” He smiled lazily. “Besides, it goes right alongside being a book snob.”

Of course this is an overall light and fluffy read but isn’t that what Christmas books are meant to be about on the whole? To escape our rushing reality and slip into the magic of Christmas to be left feeling lighter and happier? Well, that’s what A Bookshop Christmas did for me and now I feel more filled with festive cheer. 

“But those happy endings are important,” I insisted. “When a reader picks up a romance novel they know that happy ending exists. They don’t have to worry about what will happen and they can just get totally immersed in how it happens. Sometimes when life deals you a few blows that kind of thing is important.”

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This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.