Saturday, January 6, 2024

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

 


Do you have any favorite Christmas shops that you frequent?  I love shopping at Christmas stores, but I don’t have one favorite.  I do love to buy people presents at Seroogy’s Chocolate shop and they have nice Christmas items in that store every year that I like to pick up.

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop is a follow-up to last year’s The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan.  Carmen’s happily ever after has not quite turned out as it seemed it would.  Her boyfriend, Oke, has returned to Brazil with many questions about the future of their relationship unresolved.  She has worn out her welcome at her sister Sophia’s house and needs to find a new place to live.  Her boss is thinking about selling his shop to have money to fulfill his travel dreams.  With all of this going on, will Carmen be able to get her life back on track and have a merry Christmas?

I enjoyed getting back to the characters of the Christmas Bookshop series and seeing what they’ve been up to.  I love Colgan’s characters, especially the children in this one.  The setting is also wonderful, and I really want to visit this part of Edinburgh someday.  I always love the humor in Colgan’s books as well.  This novel was not as good for me as the first one, mostly because Oke is just gone for most of it with the total loss of contact with Carmen.  Carmen was struggling through most of the book.  There wasn’t as much Christmas spirit in this book.  I did love how she was able to live in what sounds like a fabulous apartment in the upper levels of the bookshop and she did make some new friends.  I’m hoping there will be a next book where Carmen has things more together and it’s more focused on Christmas.

It would work best to read Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop after reading the first book The Christmas Bookshop.  I don’t think it would work well as a standalone novel.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley and William Morrow Books. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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