I enjoyed the narration of this book. The pace of the story was too slow for me. The writing is good, so I’m sure others will enjoy it.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

A Bookshop Christmas by Rachel Burton was such a fun and festive read. What could be better than a romance novel set during Christmas time, in a bookshop? NOTHING!

Publication Date: September 1, 2022

Megan Taylor's family owns a bookshop that has been in the family for years. As a young widow, Megan moved back home to York to help her family with the shop. To get more business, they have been having author events and Megan is thrilled to welcome famous author Xander Stone to her bookshop. But, will egos collide as the two try to navigate this event?

A feel good story that is sure to make you laugh and smile. There is so much holiday cheer in this story, I even felt it in a heat wave in August!

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Narrated by Laura Brydon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Great voice

A Bookshop Christmas by Rachel Burton ⭐⭐⭐
What I loved most about this book was that it didn't follow that I hate you until the very end trope. (and I appreciated the author bringing that up as well)

First time trying/hearing of this author and after listen to this went to the Kindle store and bought
The tearoom on the bay. Looking forward to starting that next.

A sweet story about a current bookshop owner 3 years after her husband's death, trying to move on. For the first time, she noticed an attractive man, a man who was rude to her in the supermarket. It turns out he is the author she booked for her shop. I always like a grumpy MC but I did feel like the shop owner was a little too forgiving and understanding sometimes.

I listened to the audiobook and I felt the narrator did a good with the voices of each character.

I would love to participate in a regency Christmas party like that in the book, but no way would my husband ever. LOL!

very cute christmassy season story! Overall I enjoyed the story but there was a few times I couldn't understand the narrator. Overall it was great!

Really cute book, you can't go wrong with a Christmas themed book set in a bookstore. Unfortunately, the audio version, for me, was difficult to get through. The narrator sounded like a robot (with a wonderful accent, still a robot nonetheless!). As a book, I'd highly recommend. As audio, I'd suggest my customers listen to a few pages and then proceed.

A cozy romance set in a bookstore during Christmas really checks a lot of boxes for a pleasant reading experience for me. I wouldn’t say A Bookshop Christmas was the greatest thing I’ve ever read in this general category (or in any of these subcategories might be the better way to put it), but I still found it charming and it had me wishing for an end to summer.

3.75⭐️

This is my second time reading this book and it was a lot of fun to give it a go via audiobook! It was neat because I knew the story and characters, but it had been a while since I had read it, so it was coming back to me in small pieces!

A fun Christmas story with a serious undertone, I did enjoy my second round with the characters. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows here, but each hard truth and bit of emotion from each character makes the story and it wouldn’t be the same without it. I think I actually preferred the audio to the digital, though I wouldn’t necessarily say I loved the story any more one way or the other. The author did a great job narrating and it was easy to distinguish the characters and follow along.

One to add to your Christmas TBR and definitely consider the audio version!

Thank you to Rachel Burton, Saga Egmont Audio, and NetGalley for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!

Books that are about bookshops are in general- my favorite. They just feel so much more personal to me. I like that this one had a pretty surprising turn in it too which made the story more interesting.

🌀Synopsis
Megan has been helping run her family’s bookshop since the death of her husband. She still feels guilt about losing him and hasn’t been ready to move on. With the help of her friends in the book club she slowly starts to see how recluse she has been.

Xander Stone comes into town to do a book launch, and it just so happens that one of their book club members knows him more than she initially let on. The planning for a special book club event allows Megan and Xander to get to know each other better but a secret he’s keeping threatens to ruin it all.

A Bookshop Christmas was a sweet and Christmassy story. I really enjoyed getting to know the ladies in Megan’s book club, and the Renaissance Christmas event they organised was so fun! I think my favourite thing about the book was the nods to romance books – the characters do a lot of talking about their favourite (and least favourite!) tropes, and there are a few cute moments where the characters acknowledge that they seem to be living some of those tropes which I found quite charming.

Megan’s story is deeply rooted in the grief of losing her husband to leukaemia, and this is persistently on the page throughout the whole book. The book opens with Megan at the hospital, returning to her husband’s room top learn that he had passed away while she went to get a coffee, and this scene is recalled numerous times through out the book. I actually found the continued references back to the loss of her husband, and this scene in particular, a bit too much. I appreciate that in real life grief would be persistent, but for the purpose of a book I really felt like I kept being told something I already knew and it started to pull me out of the story a bit.

I thought the Christmassy-ness of the book was great. The wintry setting really added to the cosiness of the story, and the bookshop made for a great setting. While, as I’ve mentioned above, there was a lot about grief in the book, I did think that Megan’s emergence from that worked really well. I thought Xander Stone was a great character too, and the way his story complemented and contrasted with Megan’s worked really well.

I also wanted to mention this was my first time reviewing an audiobook through NetGalley – previously I have only had ebooks from there. I really enjoyed listening to it, and will certainly be requesting more audiobooks for review.

A beautiful story about second chances because life is worth living even if you get to deal with losing someone you love, grief and taking a leap of faith and start to live again. Megan and Zander's lives during the last almost four years has been full of sadness and grief but when they met little did they know thst their heartd are reay to love and trust again. Great story and better audiobook

A stranger. A snowstorm. A spark. And it's Christmas.
Megan has been widowed for a few years now and moved back home to York for a fresh start. When prize-inning author Xander bumps into her with his supermarket cart, she is awoken from her hibernation and decides to start living again.
This was a slow burn holiday romance that will surely put you in the spirit! The characters make fun of all the Hallmark romance tropes they are actually living. I listened to the audio book, and the writing and narration were great. It was predictable, but I enjoyed the ride.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.75 stars, rounded up.

This book was surprisingly entertaining. I went into this book expecting a cliché hallmark-esque style book with a relatively clean holiday romance. While that is exactly what I got, I also got book that was rather funny.

The romance takes place in a small-town bookshop (a favorite of mine) between an author and a bookseller/editor, who attend a chaotic book club. The story also covers topics of dating after loss/grief and divorce. The book makes a lot of references to bookish jokes, popular tropes, bookish debates, etc. Including, the ongoing of discussion of taking the romance genre seriously.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Laura Brydon, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Saga Egmont Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly,

I couldn’t get past 25% of the book. The plot was great and I loved everything about this cute holiday read. I simply couldn’t get the most out of this book as the narrator proved difficult for me to engage with. The one person many voices thing just wasn’t doing it for me.. it almost took away from how good the book is in my personal opinion. Just wasn’t for me and I couldn’t get into it.

Adorable! I am a sucker for a charming holiday love story....albeit somewhat predictable....and this one fit the bill! 😍

When brooding and troubled Xander Stone rams his shopping cart into Megan Taylor's ankles, who knew it would be love at first sight? Well... almost. At least, she couldn't stop thinking about him. And then he shows up at her bookstore late one night, confusing her even further.

I really enjoyed this story. As an author, editor and publisher, love stories set in bookshops appeal to me. And this one did not disappoint! While Megan's romance book club pokes fun at all the various love story tropes, she also charts the course of her own love story with Xander through the typical stages of such novels, making the story all the more entertaining.

I highly recommend it! There are great characters, an interesting storyline, and swoon-worthy moments awaiting you ahead in this clean HEA romance.

Thanks to Rachel Burton, Saga Egmont Audio and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

A lovely cosy Christmas story with some heart rending moments. There were several moments that made me smile too.
The setting of York was perfect.
Perfect for a cosy afternoon.

Three years ago Meghan’s husband died from cancer. Since that time, she’s thrown herself into her family’s bookstore as she coped with her grief and guilt. But when famous author Xander Stone comes charging into her life, she realizes that it’s ok to live again. It’s set in a little bookshop in York, England, and filled with a romance-loving book club who are determined to have an authentic Regency Christmas party.

📚 My take:
Whew. Major mixed feelings on this one… There is a lot to love and, um, not love.

♥️ What I loved: All the women in this story are fantastic. Meghan and her mom are wonderful, strong and compassionate. Meghan’s friends helped her find her way in her grief. And even the oldest and feistiest book club member, Trixie, is a force of nature. And the portrayal of Meghan’s grief and healing are superb.

💔 What I didn’t care for: The men in this novel are awful. From Meghan’s irresponsible father who abandoned them in selfishness and still gets a pass, to the snotty little bookstore worker, Colin.

💔 And our MMC. 😭 Xander starts out so promising! Most grumpy characters find their softness with the FMC, and that started. But then, after thanking Meghan for her trust, Xander irrationally goes insane on her. And while Meghan doesn’t let him get away with his nonsense, she does justify it in her head. “But he already admitted he’s very reactionary.” Red flag! Red flag!

💔 And to make it worse, even though Xander explodes on Meghan when he thinks she’s leaked his secret, when he finds out who actually did it, it’s no big deal. What?!

🤷🏻‍♀️ Ugh. I realize that I have an unpopular opinion on this book, but Meghan and her mom would have been better off ditching the men, reigniting their bookstore with the help of their trusty crew of women and creating their own HEA.

Audio narration on this one is superb though! I really enjoyed the narrator’s inflection. She seemed to genuinely enjoy telling this story!

Christmas bookishness alights in this snowy romance as the main characters work through their own issues and begin to move on... with each other The poignant plight of independent bookstores and the shared death of loved ones is balanced with the hilarious and historical Regency Christmas party and the romance book club to end all book clubs.

A fun Christmas story with a little twist. I loved listening to this and hated when I had to put it down.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own