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A review by maurakeaney
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
3.0
I'm a sucker for the pretty-much-guaranteed features of a Jenny Colgan Scottish escape novel:
* a heroine starting over after a job loss, relationship breakup, or both
* a local small business in Scotland in need of rescuing
* a fish out of water who finds purpose and belonging among quirky, charming locals
* romance
* a happy ending
As I've found in many of her past books, though, a reader also has to put up with insufferably obnoxious children (written by someone who either has no children or hates children?), often unlikeable love interests, and at least one aspect of the audiobook narration by Eilidh Beaton that drives me bonkers. The Christmas Bookshop delivered on all of the positive guarantees as well as the negatives in abundance. What this book had that most of her others do not, though, is a thoroughly unlikeable main character whose unlikeability is magnified a thousandfold by Beaton's grating narration. At least 50 times while listening I thought to myself, "Wow, Carmen's words alone are WAY less obnoxious than the tone of voice of the reader...why are the producers allowing Carmen to be portrayed as so irredeemably, rudely, awful?"
What I appreciated about the book:
* an escape with a well developed sense of place in Edinburgh
* the Mr. McCready storyline - he was charming, likable, interesting, and someone whose happiness I rooted for
* Eilidh Beaton's ability to create a wide variety of very different realistic voices (and thankfully, this time, she avoided the worst of her extremes of bratty Scottish child accents)
* a little escape time of imagining a Christmas holiday in Scotland
What I didn't enjoy:
* the main character...she only became remotely likable about 70% of the way through the book and I wasn't particularly invested in her happiness. I rooted for her success for Mr. McCready's sake
* the asinine love triangle -- one man who was so over-the-top unlikeable that even the unlikeable main character didn't like him, and the other man whose identity and storyline was so random and quirky (a Quaker dendrologist from Brazil?) that he seemed more like a post-it note character sketch than a real person
* Beaton's narration of the main character, which exponentially exacerbated her obnoxiousness
What I LOVED:
* the fact that my 8 year old son could listen in at various points and enjoy the book along with me
* the scene with Carmen doing her first holiday storytime for children, My son and I howled with laughter in the car while listening to this scene, which was fresh, unexpected, SO true to life and expectations about children's literature, and simply delightful. I had tears running down my face while listening, in a good way. That scene alone was worth the price of the book, as howling laughter like that has been rare for me through COVID.
Overall, my instinct to give this a 2-star rating belies a truth of my relationship with Jenny Colgan's Scottish books (and I hear this truth in Eilidh Beaton's voice): I will absolutely, positively read the next one. That truth as well as the strength of that one hilarious scene bumps this up to 3 stars.
* a heroine starting over after a job loss, relationship breakup, or both
* a local small business in Scotland in need of rescuing
* a fish out of water who finds purpose and belonging among quirky, charming locals
* romance
* a happy ending
As I've found in many of her past books, though, a reader also has to put up with insufferably obnoxious children (written by someone who either has no children or hates children?), often unlikeable love interests, and at least one aspect of the audiobook narration by Eilidh Beaton that drives me bonkers. The Christmas Bookshop delivered on all of the positive guarantees as well as the negatives in abundance. What this book had that most of her others do not, though, is a thoroughly unlikeable main character whose unlikeability is magnified a thousandfold by Beaton's grating narration. At least 50 times while listening I thought to myself, "Wow, Carmen's words alone are WAY less obnoxious than the tone of voice of the reader...why are the producers allowing Carmen to be portrayed as so irredeemably, rudely, awful?"
What I appreciated about the book:
* an escape with a well developed sense of place in Edinburgh
* the Mr. McCready storyline - he was charming, likable, interesting, and someone whose happiness I rooted for
* Eilidh Beaton's ability to create a wide variety of very different realistic voices (and thankfully, this time, she avoided the worst of her extremes of bratty Scottish child accents)
* a little escape time of imagining a Christmas holiday in Scotland
What I didn't enjoy:
* the main character...she only became remotely likable about 70% of the way through the book and I wasn't particularly invested in her happiness. I rooted for her success for Mr. McCready's sake
* the asinine love triangle -- one man who was so over-the-top unlikeable that even the unlikeable main character didn't like him, and the other man whose identity and storyline was so random and quirky (a Quaker dendrologist from Brazil?) that he seemed more like a post-it note character sketch than a real person
* Beaton's narration of the main character, which exponentially exacerbated her obnoxiousness
What I LOVED:
* the fact that my 8 year old son could listen in at various points and enjoy the book along with me
* the scene with Carmen doing her first holiday storytime for children,
Spoiler
reading the Little Matchstick Girl, and the absolute horror among the children as they realize it's a book about a physically abused child who freezes to death on the street.Overall, my instinct to give this a 2-star rating belies a truth of my relationship with Jenny Colgan's Scottish books (and I hear this truth in Eilidh Beaton's voice): I will absolutely, positively read the next one. That truth as well as the strength of that one hilarious scene bumps this up to 3 stars.