Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Series: Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop #1

Publisher: Sphere

Genres: Womens Fiction – Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction

Pages: 465

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

Were you a sherbet lemon or chocolate lime fan? Penny chews or hard boiled sweeties (you do get more for your money that way)? The jangle of your pocket money …the rustle of the pink and green striped paper bag …Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian’s sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong. Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton’s sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets. Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams – a novel – with recipes. *Winner of the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013*

Rosie is an auxiliary nurse in London. She’s in a steady relationship with Gerard but not everything is as simple as it looks.

Rosie loves London and she really doesn’t want to move away but, when she gets a call from her mum asking for a family favor – to go and care for her Great Aunt Lilian in the countryside – Rosie is not thrilled at all. But after some time, she realizes that this life isn’t at all as boring has she expected it to be, and she starts to love being there.

In the end Rosie has to choose between returning to the life she’s always known, or make a new and better one.

 

I don’t read much Chick-lit novels, but I got the second book at my local book store in promotion and the cover was super cute, and I wanted something to read in December related to Christmas. I obviously didn’t know it was the second book, so… I had to buy this one afterwards.

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams was my first book by Jenny Colgan and I absolutely loved it! The covers are super cute and so is the book. It was an easy, fluffy story with a pop of deliciousness. I think the book is done in a spectacular way and I couldn’t possible put it down.

The story’s told in an alternating narrative between Rosie, whose chapters are told in the present, and her Aunt Lilian, whose chapters are told in the past tense – taking us back as far as 1942, when she was a teenager. It was super sweet and endearing. 

The characters are actually pretty interesting and different. There were a lot of them and I loved how every character played some important part sooner or later. (Edison is so cute!)

I really liked Rosie. I mean, sometimes I wanted to slap her… But she is a nice person, a bit stubborn and childish but with a big heart. She is a bit lost in life, but she always manages to do her best, which I admired in her. I love how her relationship with Lilian evolves and how she was able to sort her life in every aspect.

I did love Lilian tho. She is an amazing person that doesn’t want to show it. She acts as grumpy and stubborn (which she is), but in the end she has a golden heart. She had a difficult life and it made me happy that in the end she got someone more near her, to help her and to love her.

Each chapter started with some fun fact, opinion, or recipe of candies. That would represent Lilian’s book. It made it even more special. I love how the book was so easy to visualize. The shop, the candies, I loved it! I am officially a fan of Jenny Colgan’s writing.

I would love to visit Rosie’s sweet shop so much and try all the old fashioned sweets they talk about! It seems lovely!!

Do you read Chick-lit?