The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan

The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Rosie Hopkins, newly engaged, is looking forward to an exciting year in the little sweetshop she owns and runs. But when fate strikes Rosie and her boyfriend, Stephen, a terrible blow, threatening everything they hold dear, it's going to take all their strength and the support of their families and their Lipton friends to hold them together.

After all, don't they say it takes a village to raise a child?

Jenny Colgan has become a favourite for me; you know what you are going to get with her, a good storyline, good characters and a feel good factor and this novel lived up to all of those. If you have not read the others in the series it is of little importance as this could easily stand alone and Jenny does give a little update of where we are with Rosie at the start so it's easy to pick up where the previous novel left off.


There's no point in my retelling what happens and I'm not into 'spoilers' although it's not difficult to guess what will happen.


Yes it was predictable and easy to guess what was going to happen but somehow it didn't really spoil the book because the characters are so well developed and 'familiar' that the reader takes the journey with them confident that everything will always work out OK. It is a happy ever after kind of book but it is so charming, so full of descriptive narrative and realistic dialogue that you just want it all to work out for them.


All the characters from previous books are here, Lilian, Tina, the relationship between Rosie and Stephen and of course his haughty snobby mother and all the problems that come along with all the characters. We meet Pamela Stephen's sister and learn another aspect of this dysfunctional family and their dynamics which brings a welcome slant on this otherwise predictable novel.


I love Jenny Colgan's writing, in many ways she reminds me of the successful Sophie Kinsella in that she can laugh at and with her characters in such an entertaining way that reading her novels is so easy.


Breezed through this book, thoroughly enjoyable and although it was not entirely about Christmas it was a good seasonal read - definitely worth a 4 star rating.


I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.