Christmas at the Island Hotel (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I always seem to have mixed feelings about novels by Jenny Colgan. I’ve read several and a friend remarked that I have quite a collection, given that I’m not a huge fan of her writing. And I keep putting more of them on my wishlist. I was given ‘Christmas at the Island Hotel’ last Christmas. Although it’s not remotely seasonally appropriate, I decided to read it over the past few days.

The reason I wanted this book is that it’s part of a series about some people who live on the (fictional) island of Mure, in the Scottish Highlands. I didn’t read the first two books, and that didn’t much matter, but I quite liked ‘Endless Beach’, and ‘An Island Christmas’, which I read in August 2020. The characters were not particularly memorable, but there were some quite interesting subplots and I was intrigued to know how it would continue.

When I started ‘Christmas at the Island Hotel’, I did mostly recall, vaguely, some of the story from the previous book. It helps that there’s a MacKenzie family tree at the beginning, followed by a list of all the other characters. Mure is a small island and everyone knows everyone else. However although the MacKenzie family still feature significantly, they’re not really the main focus of the book.

Instead the story revolves around the opening of ‘The Rock’, a hotel bequeathed to Finton MacKenzie by his deceased husband. Finton is mourning and really doesn’t want to run a hotel, so his sister Flora starts to get involved. Flora is technically on maternity leave from her work running a cafe, but although she loves baby Douglas, she finds it very frustrating and somewhat tedious being at home with him. Her partner Joel, by contrast, seems absolutely besotted and takes to fatherhood easily.

But these are really side stories. The Rock has to employ some new staff, including a chef - and they get the temperamental Gaspard, a French chef who shouts, swears and smokes, but is a superb cook. One of Flora’s former staff, Isla, also goes to work there, and there’s a new kitchen boy called Konstantin, from Norway - but the reader knows (though nobody on Mure does) that he’s from a wealthy family in the nobility, banished by his father because he’s such a lazy, arrogant and rather useless playboy.

The style of writing is very informal, and once again I wished there had been a bit more editing. Some sentences are so convoluted I had to read them two or three times to make sense of them. There are some stream-of-consciousness passages, where a character's thoughts spill out, and that mostly works, but in other places I’d have preferred shorter sentences. There are a handful of literary references, too, which is fine, although I was irritated at mention of Edward (rather than Edmund) and turkish delight. An editor should have spotted that mistake.

In the first half of the book, I began wondering why I’d asked for yet another book by this author. I didn’t much like any of the characters, who all seem rather two-dimensional and caricatured (particularly Gaspard), and I found the frequent viewpoint-switching annoying - sometimes several times in just one scene. And yet… as happens with all the Jenny Colgan books I’ve read, around the half-way mark I realised I was interested in the storylines, and intrigued to know what would happen.

I don’t like the assumption that people are going to leap into bed at the first hint of attraction - it’s not something I’ve been aware of in any of my circles of friends and acquaintances, and there seems to be rather a lot of it in this book, albeit (thankfully) without any intimate details. The fact that everyone seems to do this in the book is another aspect of two-dimensionalism, and adds little to the story.

But there are some good subplots too - will Dr Saif ever find out whether his long-lost wife is still alive…? Will Flora find the right balance between motherhood and work? Will Konstantin learn to wash pots and peel potatoes…? Will the spoiled and obnoxious five-year-old Agot stop yelling, and start feeling a bit of empathy for others…? And what will happen to the new, huge and unexpected Christmas decoration?

Most of these questions are answered, and the ending is, on the whole, satisfactory. By the time I had finished, I liked it rather more than I thought I would, although I don’t think I’ll be looking for the next book in the series (unless I find it in a charity shop or church book sale…). Recommended in a low-key way as light holiday reading, particularly if you've read some of the earlier books in the series.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews

Working Wonders (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

On the whole, I have liked the books I’ve read by Jenny Colgan. They’re light women’s fiction, often based around some kind of food shop or other small village establishment. So when I saw ‘Working Wonders’ at a church book sale towards the end of last year, I picked it up. It’s been on my to-be-read shelf until I picked it up to read a few days ago.

It starts well enough. Arthur and his girlfriend Fay are getting up, and clearly not getting along very well. They don’t seem to communicate, and Arthur’s beginning to feel as if they’re an old married couple with little spark in their lives.

Arthur works in a rather depressing office in Coventry, with some caricatured colleagues: there’s Sven, who is Scandinavian, large and smelly, who takes his even smellier dog Sandwiches to work with him. There’s Marcus, who’s an accountant, and there’s Cathy, who isn’t particularly happy at home, but tries really hard to please everyone in the office. None of them is really three-dimensional and we mostly see them from Arthur’s rather cynical viewpoint.

On this particular day, everyone has to re-apply for their own jobs. Arthur finds this very frustrating and becomes quite violent. But - and I didn’t entirely understand how this happens - he ends up in charge of a group of people, overseeing a project to turn Coventry into a European city of culture. The book was published in 2003, and I’ve no idea if something of that nature happened - but it’s a work of fiction. That’s okay.

One of the problems with this book is that alongside the story - with its exaggerated suggestions and gradual bonding of the team - is a somewhat surreal, almost fantasy element that doesn’t really fit. After Arthur’s violent incident he wakes up in an office he’s never seen before, with a bohemian looking woman called Lynne, who tells him she’s the company psychotherapist. She then randomly appears to Arthur, and at one point tells him he’s descended from the legendary King Arthur, and has a mission. But very little is made of this and no explanation is offered.

There’s a lot of crude and other bad language in the book, far more than feels either appropriate or relevant. I’ve never met anyone who speaks that way. I know a lot of books include ‘strong’ language, and occasionally, in a dramatic context, it isn’t a problem. But almost every page in this book is peppered with it.

Then there’s a chapter set in Denmark, in snowy wastes, with a sleigh being seen as the normal mode of transport. My geography knowledge isn’t great, so I checked - and Denmark doesn’t actually have much snow at all.

The blurb on the back calls this a ‘delicious comedy’, which suggests that the person writing it had not read the book. I didn’t find anything delicious or amusing in the book - Arthur is likeable enough, but mostly either worried or depressed, or wondering how to speak to women. We never discover quite why he’s so unwilling to talk about his feelings - the blurb implies that there’s something in his past that is discovered, but unless I missed it somewhere, there’s nothing of that nature.

And while I might have just shrugged and put the book away after finishing if it had continued in the same kind of vein, I found the climax to the book extremely disturbing - partly because there was no hint that something terrible would happen. Not that I was emotionally affected, as I hadn’t developed any kind of affinity for any of the characters, but it felt quite wrong in context. I don’t see the point of it from a fiction point of view - and while a big deal was made of Arthur having to make a ‘right choice’, it appears at the end that he’s worse off than he was at the start of the book.

On the plus side, I did keep reading - I was interested to know where the story was going, although by the end I rather wished I hadn't. It's not a difficult read and the pace is good. I won’t be reading this again, and really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but it won't put me off trying other Jenny Colgan books in future.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews

An Island Christmas (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I have liked most of the books I’ve read by Jenny Colgan. They’re not my favourites, but they’re mostly good light reads, with satisfactory endings (and, in some cases, recipes at the back). I wasn’t going to put any more on my wishlist, but then last year I read ‘The Endless Beach’, and realised it had a sequel. So I put ‘An Island Christmas’ on my wishlist after all, and was given it last Christmas.

It would have been more appropriate to read it in the winter, of course, but I decided to pick it up a few days ago, in the heat of summer. I quickly remembered the people from the earlier book: Flora is the main character, although I found her rather featureless and immature. Her boyfriend Joel is a high-powered American lawyer, who comes from a seriously traumatic childhood and carries around a lot of negative self-esteem. I didn’t much like him.

Flora’s best friend Lorna is a teacher; she’s a little more likeable than Flora, but in this book she can’t stop thinking about Dr Saif, a Muslim refugee who lives in the Scottish island of Mure where these novels are set. Dr Saif has two sons who are slowly integrating into the community, but has no idea what happened to his wife. He fears the worst, but still loves her, and doesn’t want to get involved with anyone else while there is any hope at all.

There are many other characters, too, most of whom I vaguely recalled from ‘The Endless Beach’. Their stories interleave nicely as the novel progresses, some of them quite poignant. There’s an ongoing story about how Saif and his sons adapt to a very Western (and chilly) Christmas, something they have never previously celebrated. There’s a story about Flora, who discovers something early in the book that worries Joel immensely.

There are also much more serious storylines: the ongoing search for Saif’s wife, for instance, leads to a quite traumatic scene in Glasgow. And there’s Colton, the gay multi-millionaire who is dying, attended by his husband, Flora’s brother Fintan. Colton’s brother arrives, bringing some antagonism and politics, and a bit of conflict.

Although I couldn’t really relate strongly to any of the characters, and found many of them quite two-dimensional, I l found the book very readable. The plotting is good, and the pace just right (in my view).

Having said that, there were some irritations. I don't mind the informal style, but in at least two places I found lengthy sentences that didn’t make sense at all, no matter how many times I tried to unravel them. Some proofreading should have spotted those. One of them said, grammatically speaking, the opposite of what it was evidently supposed to say.

Then there’s a bedroom scene which doesn’t feel entirely realistic in the way it happens, out of the blue in unlikely circumstances when two people suddenly decide they need to ‘get together’. And then there’s considerably more detail than I could want.

My other gripe about the book is the child Agot, the four-year-old daughter of one of Flora’s other brothers. There’s clearly something very wrong with Agot: she doesn’t appear to have any conversation appropriate to a child her age, but every so often she yells, at full volume, with speech patterns like those of a child of around two. I wondered if she was supposed to have Down Syndrome; if not that, she must have some other learning disability: but it’s not mentioned at all. I had been puzzled about it in the earlier book and hoped that it might be addressed as another storyline from this book. But it wasn’t. Perhaps it’s covered in the book which I haven’t read, that takes place before ‘The Endless Beach’.

‘An Island Christmas’ ends in a bittersweet way, tying up some of the threads of the story, seeing some conflicts resolved. Yet there are still some open questions so I wasn’t surprised to learn that there’s a sequel to this, although not yet published. So I will probably have to get hold of that…

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews

West End Girls (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read quite a few novels by Jenny Colgan over the past few years. They’re not the greatest literature, but on the whole I have liked them. They tend to be light-hearted, featuring likeable people with satisfactory endings. So when I saw ‘West End Girls’ in a church book sale, I decided to buy it. I thought it would make undemanding reading at a busy time.

Unfortunately, I found it rather too trite and unrealistic. The story is about the adult non-identical twins Penny and Lizzy, who have lived with their hard-working mother on a council estate all their lives. Lizzy is overweight and eats a lot of junk food, but she’s a pleasant enough person, who appreciates what their mother has done. She is a lot more responsible than Penny.

Indeed, when we first meet them, Lizzy has been sleeping and is awakened by Penny, coming in very late, drunk, after a disappointing evening out. This is rather typical of the entire story. Lizzy likes to sleep, and isn’t too keen on partying. Penny is selfish, materialistic, and not very bright. The only thing the two have in common is a desire to escape their roots.

The opportunity arises when their grandmother - who they haven’t seen for years - sends a message asking them to look after her flat in the West End, while she is temporarily in a care home. It all seems to happen rather quickly, and their mother - bizarrely - decides to take up a college place that she has deferred since her daughters were born.

Most of the story takes place in the West End. The girls meet new people, including some appalling neighbours who take Penny out to parties and generally look down on her. I assume they are caricatures, and possibly intended to be humorous, but I didn’t find anything amusing about them.

Lizzy manages to find a job working in a restaurant with a Portuguese owner, and gradually learns to cook. She also starts to take care of herself a bit more, and eats more healthily. Lizzy’s story is quite an encouraging one, and had it just been her making her way in the new environment, I would have liked it more. She’s kind, and loyal, and caring. Penny is none of these things and I could barely believe in her, let alone sympathise in any way.

I understand that this was one of Jenny Colgan’s earlier books - evidently her style changed, and her stories grew more well-rounded and believable. I’m just surprised this one was ever published. The language is bad, the morals of many of the characters are non-existent, and the twins’ relationship with their mother isn’t developed at all.

The ending is satisfying in a somewhat predictable way, after an unexpected climax to the book which sorted out several of the problems facing Penny and Lizzy. But I wouldn’t recommend this and don’t suppose I’ll read it again.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

The Endless Beach (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read a few books by Jenny Colgan since first coming across her contemporary novels about six years ago. Many of them involve chocolate or cakes, and they’re quite light-hearted on the whole. I’ve picked up a few at charity shops, and have also put one or two on my wishlist after recommendations. One of the latter group is ‘The Endless Beach’. I was given this for my birthday a year ago but have only just read it.

The main character is Flora, a young woman who lives and works on a small Scottish island. She works in a popular tea shop, providing high quality home-made cakes and other goodies, but these are not such a large part of the story as I had expected. Flora is in a relationship with Joel, a high-powered American lawyer who regularly flies around the world on business. She’s feeling a bit neglected, as if she’s only there for him when he wants a bit of a rest. She is not at all sure how their relationship will develop.

I learned in the introduction that this book is a sequel to one called ‘The Summer Seaside Kitchen’, and also has characters introduced in the short ‘quick read’ entitled, ‘A Very Distant Shore’. I wondered briefly whether I should put ‘The Endless Beach’ aside for a while and try to acquire those first, but decided to continue reading it. The brief summary at the start was more than sufficient to give a background to some of the characters, and it wasn’t really necessary as the book is complete in itself.

I found the early chapters a tad ‘fluffy’; the writing is quite informal, and there’s a fair amount of innocuous chatter which doesn’t seem to advance the story much. Viewpoint characters switch regularly, which allows for quite a number of storylines, but makes it hard to see the characters are three-dimensional. There’s one relationship which I felt was a tad unreal, almost as if it were there for the sake of political correctness. However it becomes an important part of the plot, with some unexpected and poignant twists towards the end.

More significant, in my view, is a subplot involving the island’s doctor, a Syrian refugee called Saif. He has lost contact with his beloved wife and young sons, growing increasingly sure he will never hear of them again. Then he gets news from the mainland. What follows feels entirely authentic, demonstrating the plight of many refugees, and the traumas that can beset families in this situation. Saif must also fight a temptation on the island, something that causes sadness to someone else but demonstrates his integrity and moral standards. He is an excellent character.

As for Flora, I found her a bit flat on the whole. She’s a kind-hearted person, unwilling to charge locals more than they can afford, and baking more than she needs so that she can give food away. When a local woman takes advantage of her generosity, it looks as though Flora’s business may become bankrupt. But it was hard to feel much sympathy for her. She works hard, but seems naive and unrealistic. I didn’t find any of her brothers particularly likeable either, and her young niece who yells in broken English is sometimes amusing but more often rather annoying.

Joel’s story is mostly tied up with that of his boss, but again I didn’t find either of them particularly realistic. Joel is persuaded to do things against his better judgement, which left me rather confused until an unexpected revelation later in the book. He and Flora seem entirely unsuited, living in different worlds with different standards and expectations, and very little in common. Perhaps their relationship would feel more believable if I had read the earlier book.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book, increasingly so as the story developed. I’m impressed that Jenny Colgan has introduced some quite serious contemporary issues into the plot, and has covered them sympathetically and authentically. My only real gripe is the repetition of the unnecessary adverb ‘incredibly’, which appears on almost every page. This is something the editor or proof-readers should have spotted - it detracted rather from the storyline when I was looking out for the next instance of this annoying word.

While I’m in no hurry to buy the first couple of books in the series, I am pleased to learn that there is a sequel to this, which I hope to acquire at some point. Not that I care particularly what happens to Flora or Joel, but I would love to discover how Saif’s journey continues.

Recommended if you like light women's fiction with a bit of depth; this would make excellent holiday reading.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

The Good, the Bad and the Dumped (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read a few of Jenny Colgan’s novels, mostly involving cakes of some kind. They’re light-hearted fun, mostly well-written with engaging - if caricatured - people, and satisfying endings. So when I saw this book in a thrift shop a few months ago, it was an easy decision to buy it.

‘The Good, the Bad and the Dumped’ is about a young woman called Posy, whom we first meet at the top of a mountain. Her sporty boyfriend Matt has brought here there, and she’s pretty sure he’s going to propose. All goes well until she starts to get second thoughts, a few days later. She’s filled with insecurities, and decides that she needs to find out what happened to her three exes, who are in far-flung places around the UK.

It was hard to like Posy at first; her sister and best friend discourage her from doing this, and she doesn’t even tell Matt. Yes, she’s had a difficult life, as we learn through subsequent chapters, with flashbacks to her childhood, and conversations with her remarkably self-centred mother. But her sudden insistence on delving into the past leaves her open to all kinds of disasters.

It’s all rather too tidy, as well. Chris, the first boyfriend, was comfortable, needy and liked being looked after. Adam, the second, was exciting and taught her a great deal, but commitment phobic. And then there’s the one she never talked about; the one who broke her heart. Evidently he’s the one she still hankers after, in some way, and is keeping her from feeling certain about Matt.

The ongoing hints about the third boyfriend are a clever device to add a little mystery and to keep the reader interested. And, frankly, it needed something like that. There really wasn’t much story with the first half of the book; just lots of conversations, and flashbacks, and Posy’s memories. It’s not all told from Posy’s viewpoint, which is a bit confusing; we suddenly see snippets of thoughts from other people interspersed with Posy’s story, and that made it all feel less personal.

I kept reading, because the style is engaging, and I was interested to see how it all panned out. The ending of the story is nicely satisfying and the epilogue is quite clever, if a bit predictable. But none of the characters grabbed me at all. They’re all rather one-dimensional. Some of them (such as Posy’s step-brother) are so caricatured that they are annoying. I don’t know why he was included at all.

Even the eventual meeting with the third boyfriend is fraught with drama and then a ridiculous episode before Posy drives home. She’s come to a new revelation by then, and needs to see yet another person from her past… all of which is rather obvious, and I kept hoping the story would start….

Oh, and the chronology at the end is confusing, and the blurb on the back - which I didn’t read until after I’d finished the book - was apparently written by someone who hadn’t actually read the book.

I sound negative, but it’s not a bad book. Jenny Colgan has a very readable light-hearted style that I like. I kept reading, often several chapters at a time. It made a pleasant few evenings’ reading, and would be a good novel to take on holiday for someone who likes women’s fiction, and doesn’t want to have to think too much.

Review copyright 2017 Sue's Book Reviews

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read by Jenny Colgan: they’re usually light-weight but with interesting people, and very often with a cookery or baking theme. I was pleased to note a new one on the Bookbag site, available for review, and immediately asked if I could have it.

I loved the introduction. It explains that this is a book for readers who love books, and outlined with light humour the places where the author recommends settling down with a good book. I related strongly to the idea of reading in bed, and forgetting who is whom as I drop off to sleep; this is my usual mode.

The story itself is about Nina, a twenty-something librarian who loses her job. She’s a quiet person, not prone to adventures, who loves to work with books. She admits to a dream of having a travelling book van; then one thing leads to another, and soon Nina finds herself with a van, aiming to drive it down from Scotland to the Midlands.

A nasty incident on a railway crossing nearly causes Nina to lose everything… and she’s thrown into a new lifestyle and location with no idea whether or not her plan will be a success.

It’s a pleasant character-based story, and I found myself relating strongly to Nina at times. Some of the other people are a bit caricatured but that doesn’t matter; it makes it easy to remember who is who, even while reading in bed…

There are some lovely sub-plots. I particularly liked one involving a teenage girl who is neglected and impoverished, but who loves to read. Nina has a gift of discovering the right book for everyone, even the most reluctant of readers, and I like to think it might be possible to do this.

There’s an inevitable romantic thread running through the book too; I wasn’t so keen on this part, since one ‘hero’ turns out to be unsuitable, and I never saw the attraction of the other. The ending was a bit abrupt, too, everything falling rather too neatly into place.

Oh, and - unlike others I have read by this author - there are no recipes at the back.

Nevertheless, this made for an enjoyable few days’ reading, and I appreciated a story about such an unlikely heroine. The writing is good, the conversations mostly realistic, and I think it would make ideal holiday reading for anyone who likes light women’s fiction starring quieter people.

You can also read my slightly longer review of 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' at the Bookbag site.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's Book Reviews

Christmas at the Cupcake Café (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve enjoyed the handful of Jenny Colgan books I’ve read so far, and added this one to my wishlist some time ago. I was given it for my birthday last year, then forgot to read it in December, as I had planned to. So I decided to read it when the weather’s hot and humid instead…

‘Christmas at the cupcake café’ is a sequel to ‘Meet me at the cupcake café’ which I read a few months ago. I had vaguely remembered the story and people concerned, but was pleased to find a useful overview at the start, reminding me of the key characters and their families. Issy is the main protagonist; she started a café with some redundancy money and used her extensive baking skills to provide delicious treats for passers-by.

This book starts a year after the previous one finished. Issy has moved in with her banker boyfriend Austin and his 11-year-old brother Darny. Things seem to be going well… except that Austin has gone on a visit to New York where it becomes more and more evident that he’s being head-hunted. But there’s no way Issy would leave her café behind, even though she has competent staff in the form of Pearl and Caroline…

As the title suggests, the story begins mid-November and takes us through December, culminating in a Christmas celebration, and - eventually - a satisfactory conclusion. I hadn’t seen where the plot was going, and certainly hadn’t expected the final scenes, but it worked very well.

Pearl is a single mother bringing up a delightful four-year-old; Caroline is - or was - very image-conscious and has little idea about what it means to have financial problems. And then there’s Helena, Issy’s best friend, who has a year-old baby whom she’s bringing up by a wide range of theories… and hasn’t acknowledged that she’s struggling.

They’re all caricatured to some extent, but their problems and worries are real, and I found some of their trials quite moving. The people in New York are stereotyped even more; I found this mildly amusing but can imagine that some from the United States might find it insulting.

I did find the same minor annoyance that I had with the first book; the viewpoint keeps switching, even within a scene, so we’re told what everyone’s thinking but have no chance to get inside anyone’s head. But still, I liked the feeling of going back to read about people I’d come across before, and I enjoyed the story.

It’s a light-hearted book on the whole, and makes very light ‘chick-lit’ style reading. Each chapter begins with a recipe, some of them real and some obviously intended as a joke. My favourite Christmas cake recipe is there, used by permission, and I was pleased to see that the author, in the guise of Issy, explains that this is the perfect recipe, one which should not be deviated from at all. I entirely agree.

I’m not sure I’ll try any of the other recipes, except perhaps the sticky gingerbread, which is quite different from the recipe I normally use, but they make a nice feature of the book. As with the first, there’s also a very basic guide for cake-making beginners at the back.

Overall I thought this an enjoyable read. It didn’t require any deep thought, and it was light enough that I finished it in just a couple of days. It stands alone but I think is better read as a sequel to the first ‘Cupcake cafe’ book, and would probably appeal to anyone who likes this kind of fluffy ‘chick-lit’ with a baking theme.

There’s some bad language but it’s not excessive, and in other respects the book is pretty much PG although I doubt if it would appeal to anyone under the age if about 15.

Review copyright 2015 Sue's Book Reviews

Meet me at the Cupcake Café (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read three books by Jenny Colgan in the last few years, and mostly liked them. They’re light chick-lit with culinary themes and I quite like the style. So I added a couple more of her books to my wishlist a while ago, and received this particular one for my birthday. I’m surprised to find that it was two years ago; it’s taken me that long to pick it up to read!

‘Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe’ is the story of a young woman called Issy who works as an administrative assistant, but her passion is baking. She shares cupcakes with her colleagues at work, and the people she meets on the bus. She learned to bake from her grandfather, who, as the book starts, is suffering the early stages of dementia and is in a nursing home. However, on good days he can recall some of his special recipes, and he sends copies of them, with personal instructions, to Issy in the post.

Issy loses her job and also her boyfriend. After much soul-searching and research she decides to invest her redundancy money in a small shop, which she renovates, and turns into a café that specialises in cupcakes. The main part of the book is about the way she gradually builds up her business, and also includes a low-key romance, as well as tension when her boyfriend tries to ease his way back into her life.

I found myself disappointed at first. I don’t mind light and fluffy writing, and I enjoyed the cupcake recipes, which appear at the start of each chapter. But the viewpoint keeps switching from person to person; and there are quite a few people in the book, some of whom are more interesting than others. I don’t mind multiple viewpoints, but when - sometimes - it changed almost every paragraph, telling me what people were thinking and why they were doing certain actions, I felt myself frustrated as I couldn’t relate to anybody. I don’t know why the book’s editor didn’t correct this.

I also got a bit bored with the lengthy details about how Issy and her new friend Pearl went about renovating the cafe, and the various equipment and ingredients needed. Perhaps it was necessary to include these, but I skimmed quite a bit in the hope of getting to the story. It was very slow to start. As was the café...

However, around half-way through, a sudden potentially tragic incident turns out to be a tremendous boost for Issy and her shop, and things start to turn around. At that point, the book become more interesting, and various sub-plots started to come to life too: Pearl, who lives in a council estate, has been having a hard time with her little boy Louis, who is not making friends at his nursery. Helena, Issy’s flat-mate, is rather shadowy but starts to come to life, and a somewhat snooty woman called Caroline helps Issy and Pearl solve a difficult problem…

The characters are a bit stereotyped, but that has the advantage of making them more memorable. I liked Issy’s grandfather very much, and his gradual slide into dementia is poignant. Two-year-old Louis, too, is rather cute, although it’s a bit odd that his language and grammar do not seem to improve even when he turns three. Pearl and Caroline are very much caricatures of their type, and I didn’t find either of them particularly appealing, but Issy is likeable enough, if naive and rather a contradiction of confidence and despair.

I’m surprised to learn that this is considered an amusing book; I thought it light-hearted but found the digs at healthy eating rather unnecessary, and while I love cakes, the focus on high sugar eating was a bit depressing. Still, the writing - other than the viewpoint changes - is good, and in the second half, the book is very readable and difficult to put down at times, even though the outcome, both in terms of the shop’s success and Issy’s love life, are rather predictable.

Not too much bad language, and no details of bedroom scenes, so that’s good; however I was a bit irritated by the epilogue, which seemed to assume that readers would not already know how to make cupcakes. I found that rather condescending; then again, I’m not really the target audience for this kind of book.

This would be okay for holiday reading, and it’s evidently very popular; but I didn’t think this as good at the other books I’ve read by Jenny Colgan.

Review copyright 2015 Sue's Book Reviews

The Christmas Surprise (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I mostly like Jenny Colgan’s books, so I did not hesitate when asking if I could have this to review for the Bookbag site. This particular one is third in a series about a young woman called Rosie Hopkins. She lives in a small village in Derbyshire with Stephen, and runs a sweetshop.

While each book stands alone (this comes with a helpful summary at the start) 'The Christmas Surprise' picks up where ‘Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams’ finished, and takes us through another year.

Rosie and Stephen start the year on a high, then tragedy strikes, and the rest of the year includes an unexpected trip abroad and a new experience which is to change Rosie and Stephen’s lives forever.

There are depths to this book which I was not expecting, and some very moving scenes. While many of the minor characters are somewhat caricatured it means they’re easy to remember. Rosie and Stephen are more believable and I found myself relating well to them both.

The ending is perhaps rather too tidy, involving someone behaving rather out-of-character. I liked it a lot, but it did feel a bit forced, as if the author was tying up a lot of loose ends in a happy-ever-after fashion.

At the end there are a few Christmas recipes, which made a nice extra feature.

My one gripe with the book is the amount of bad language. The occasional expletive doesn’t worry me, but there was more than I’m comfortable with. This means I’m less likely to recommend this to some of my friends who would otherwise have enjoyed it.

The writing is informal, well-paced and with a good amount of conversation. I found it an easy read, ideal for the run-up to Christmas, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a light but thought-provoking novel.

Available in Kindle form as well as print.

You can also read my longer review of 'The Christmas Surprise' at the Bookbag site.

Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn't read anything by Jenny Colgan until earlier this year, when I read - and enjoyed - 'The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris'. So when I spotted another of her novels on the Bookbag shelves, it was the work of a moment to ask if I could review it. I was delighted to receive a very attractive hardback, just the thing to read in the run-up to Christmas.

The story is about Rosie Hopkins who lives with her boyfriend Stephen in the village of Lipton. Rosie is a town girl who came to look after her great aunt Lilian a year or so previously. Lilian has moved to a lovely care home, and Rosie runs her traditional sweet shop. Chocolate and sweets seem to be a theme in Jenny Colgan's books.

This book is actually a sequel to one with an equally unwieldy title, ‘Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams’. However, as the author tells us in a prologue, it doesn’t matter. She gives a quick overview of the first book, explaining all that needs to be known, and indeed it proved to be sufficient - mostly. I could get right into the story immediately, but there were some moments when I felt a bit like a newcomer in a room of old friends.

The story moves forward apace, balancing Rosie’s worries with her day-to-day work, and Stephen’s early days as a teacher in the local primary school. The small village setting means that everyone knows everyone else, and it was easy to feel almost as if I were a part of Rosie’s life for a few weeks.

While most of the minor characters are somewhat caricatured, and the plot is full of dramatic, even clichéd situations - including: a nerdy child whose ‘earth mother’ is about to have a new baby, a lovely gay doctor, , a confused elderly man, a threat to the school - it’s a very readable book with one or two quite moving sections.

Fluffy chick-lit? Undoubtedly. It was well-written, and mildly amusing in places, with a bonus of no explicit intimacy, despite a bit more bad language than I’m comfortable with. All in all, it was a pleasant read which I enjoyed, with the added bonus of some simple sweet recipes at the back.

Recommended if you enjoy this kind of light women's fiction. Available in Kindle form as well as hardback; it will be released in paperback too at the end of 2014.

You can also read my longer review of 'Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop' on the Bookbag site.

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris (by Jenny Colgan)

(Amazon UK link)

For some reason, I had not previously read any books by Jenny Colgan, despite having read several reviews of her work. They sounded interesting enough that I put a couple on my wishlist, and was then delighted to spot one on The Bookbag site, so I asked for a copy.

The cover of 'The loveliest chocolate shop in Paris' is attractive with a hint of nostalgia, and a 'chick-lit' look about it that was quite appealing. I decided to read it at the airport and on a five-hour flight - and it was ideal for the purpose.

The main character is Anna who has been working as a supervisor at a chocolate factory. She’s 30, and recently split with her boyfriend. Then a freak accident at work, followed by a nasty infection in hospital leaves her unemployed, apathetic and with no idea what her future holds.

While in hospital, Anna becomes friendly with Claire, who - years previously - was her French teacher. To pass the time, Claire teaches Anna some more French and then Claire suggests that she might take a temporary job in Paris with an old friend of hers.

The story is mostly set in the 21st century, following Anna as she sets out into the unknown. But interleaved throughout is the story of Claire’s own adventures in Paris when she was 17. Although the two women are a generation apart in age, and grew up in different circumstances, their stories intertwine beautifully as each begins to experience a new culture. Claire as a teenager was entranced by the chocolate maker Thierry; it’s his shop, now famous throughout France, where Anna is now working. Thierry has become seriously obese as he has grown older, and it’s his son whom Anna finds oddly attractive.

There are romantic threads, but there’s also a lot about French culture, and some detail about the process of chocolate-making.  I felt as if I had learned quite a bit, yet at no point did I feel that I was being coerced into education. The writing flows well, and it was an ideal book for me to read on the flight.

Recommended for anyone who likes a story that’s both light and poignant. Available in Kindle form in both the US and UK, as well as paperback.

You can also read my slightly longer review of 'The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris' at the Bookbag site.