When readers first meet Carmen, not much in her life is going well. Unemployed and living with her parents, the future looks bleak. Bending to pressure from their mother, Carmen's super successful sister Sophia offers Carmen a place to stay (in Sophia's basement next door to the nanny) and recommends her for a job. The job entails working for the eccentric and shy owner of a book store. It is an understatement to even call the place a store as it wasn't exactly set up to sell anything. With no other options currently available, she soldiers on. However, there is a condition-the bookshop needs to show a profit by Christmas. Something it has never done before. Can she turn things around?
This book is an absolute delight to read. The dialogue is witty and priceless. Infused in the story are bountiful doses of humor. The setting is Edinburgh and the author vividly brings it to life. Carmen and the varied cast of characters are an endearing group. There are touching moments, romance and strong themes of family and friendship depicted in this beautifully told story. It is a wonderful story for any time of the year. Highly recommended.
Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal.
Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.
Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?
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