Christmas Reading Challenge: Jenny Colgan - Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop

Rosie Hopkins is looking forward to Christmas in the little Derbyshire village of Lipton, buried under a thick blanket of snow. Her sweetshop is festooned with striped candy canes, large tempting piles of Turkish Delight, crinkling selection boxes and happy, sticky children. She's going to be spending it with her boyfriend, Stephen, and her family, flying in from Australia. She can't wait.

But when a tragedy strikes at the heart of their little community, all of Rosie's plans for the future seem to be blown apart. Can she build a life in Lipton? And is what's best for the sweetshop also what's best for Rosie?

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardback

Last year Jenny Colgan brought us Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe and now we have Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop, a Christmas follow up to Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams.

Although it's stated that this book could be read as a standalone, and Jenny has given a summary at the front of the book about the previous book, I personally would still recommend that you read the first book beforehand so that you can get a feel of the characters and the village.

Rosie is settling into her new life in the sleepy village of Lipton with boyfriend Stephen where she loves running the old-fashioned sweet shop that she's taken over from her great-aunt Lillian whilst he's now teaching at the local primary school.  But it looks like their quiet life is about to be disrupted with the arrival of her mum, brother and his family from Australia who have plans of their own regarding Rosie and a tragic event happens that has repercussions for the whole village.

Once again I was entertained as soon as I started reading and didn't want to put it down, it had everything I could have wished for and more - drama, heartache and romance.  Having loved all of her books that I've read, I cannot wait to read Jenny Colgan's next book Little Beach Street Bakery which is due out in March plus I'm hoping that there'll be another Christmas follow up next year and, if so, I wonder which book will it be?

I'd like to thank Jo at Sphere for sending me a copy of this book to review.