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obsidian_blue 's review for:
Sweetshop of Dreams
by Jenny Colgan
I may be a terrible person, because this book irked my soul. It had so much going for it, but Rosie was a hard protagonist to lie. I read the second and third stories about this character, but finally got around to reading the first story. It's funny, if I had read this first, I am doubtful I would ever have continued the series. The book doesn't hang together very well. We have insights about candy (I assume told by Lilian) and then we jump from 2012 (Rosie) to the 1940s (Lilian). The flow of the book was just lopsided and I found myself getting bored while reading. I just wanted to get to the end already.
"Sweetshop of Dreams" follows 30 something Rosie Hopkins. Rosie's mother Angie living in Australia with Rosie's brother Pip (I laughed a lot every time I read that name) calls and asks can she help out her mother's elderly great-aunt, Lilian. Lilian runs a sweetshop in a remote village and apparently with her arthritis and health issues needs some help getting the shop ready to sell. Rosie is feeling at loose ends since she's a auxiliary nurse and her long-time boyfriend Gerald has still not committed to marriage. When Rosie arrives in Lipton though, she sees another way of life and ends up thinking that possibly she can have a different dream than the one she thought she always wanted.
So the characters in this one read dull except for Lilian. The book showing us her life during War World II in Lipton were heartbreaking at times. When we would switch back to Rosie, I just ended up feeling annoyed. Her running around and having three men (well really two) she thought she had a chance with when she had a boyfriend had me going eh. And it didn't help that her feelings for one of the men it seemed came out of nowhere. It didn't help that I thought Rosie was awful to Stephen's mother and her comments about her parenting were just awful. I thought that whole storyline showed she could keep her mouth shut since she didn't know everything. Plus it didn't help that her own life was and is a mess that she thought she should comment on anyone else's.
The writing was so-so. I just found the flow the worst part to get past. The book just drags.
The setting of Lipton felt very ghost townish to me. It seemed only 15 people lived there since those were the only people that Rosie ever met/mentioned.
The ending just made me shake my head.
"Sweetshop of Dreams" follows 30 something Rosie Hopkins. Rosie's mother Angie living in Australia with Rosie's brother Pip (I laughed a lot every time I read that name) calls and asks can she help out her mother's elderly great-aunt, Lilian. Lilian runs a sweetshop in a remote village and apparently with her arthritis and health issues needs some help getting the shop ready to sell. Rosie is feeling at loose ends since she's a auxiliary nurse and her long-time boyfriend Gerald has still not committed to marriage. When Rosie arrives in Lipton though, she sees another way of life and ends up thinking that possibly she can have a different dream than the one she thought she always wanted.
So the characters in this one read dull except for Lilian. The book showing us her life during War World II in Lipton were heartbreaking at times. When we would switch back to Rosie, I just ended up feeling annoyed. Her running around and having three men (well really two) she thought she had a chance with when she had a boyfriend had me going eh. And it didn't help that her feelings for one of the men it seemed came out of nowhere. It didn't help that I thought Rosie was awful to Stephen's mother and her comments about her parenting were just awful. I thought that whole storyline showed she could keep her mouth shut since she didn't know everything. Plus it didn't help that her own life was and is a mess that she thought she should comment on anyone else's.
The writing was so-so. I just found the flow the worst part to get past. The book just drags.
The setting of Lipton felt very ghost townish to me. It seemed only 15 people lived there since those were the only people that Rosie ever met/mentioned.
The ending just made me shake my head.