A Bookshop Christmas, a bookish holiday read by Rachel Burton

416 pages Aria publisher Pub Date: 02 Sep 2021 original publish date September 2, 2018

About The Book

A snowstorm. A stranger. A spark. And it’s Christmas! It should be the perfect start to the perfect love story.

But real life is far messier and more complicated than in the pages of the books in Megan Taylor’s family bookshop – the last few years have left this young widow in no doubt of that. Moving back home to York should have been a fresh start, but all it did was allow her to retreat from the world.

When prize-winning author Xander Stone rams his supermarket trolley into her ankles and then trashes her taste in books, Megan is abruptly awoken from her self-imposed hibernation. It’s time to start living again, and she’s going to start by putting this arrogant, superior – admittedly sexy – stranger in his place. Just as she is beginning to enjoy life again, the worst happens, and Megan begins to wonder if she should have stayed hidden away.

Because it turns out that falling in love again is about more than just meeting under the mistletoe…

My Thoughts

This really was a lovely book.
Megan’s family is running a bookshop and after her husband’s death she moves back to York to help them out with it. It’s been in her family since before her birth and because it’s now failing, she is sad to see an old standby will be going away when her parents sell it.
A Regency Christmas party is being planned along with Regency costumes, whatever types of foods they ate in the time period and lots of Jane Austen talks. Sounds like the place to be.
Popular author, Xander Stone is planning a book launch at her bookshop. His assistant is so overbearing. I’ll confess she is the only character I didn’t like. She needs to be the center of attention, talks loudly and knows everyone’s business. Grabbing snacks at the grocers the night before the book launch, she is run into with a trolly by a rude and grumpy guy. Heaven forbids, it turns out this is the famous author that shows up for the book launch. Makes you kind of gulp and laugh at the same time. After their rocky meeting things do settle down a bit and they get to talking. He’s lost his mother; she’s lost a spouse and he’s also divorced.
Neither quite ready to jump out of their sorrow they’re feeling for themselves yet, they do find out they have a lot in common. She was an assistant to author’s but gave it up to care for her ailing husband. She hasn’t realized how much she’s missed it until now when she starts working with Xander. In this enemies to lover’s trope, I enjoyed seeing how they encourage each other to come alive after grief. With a bit of drama added, because after all no relationship is smooth sailing with no misunderstandings. I devoured this book in one day and loved following along with Xander and Megan’s relationship.

Pub Date 02 Sep 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

The Author

Grab a Copy Here

Rachel Burton has been making up stories for as long as she can remember and always dreamed of being a writer until life somehow got in the way. After reading for a degree in Classics and another in English Literature she accidentally fell into a career in law, but eventually managed to write her first book on her lunch breaks. She loves words, Shakespeare, tea, The Beatles, dresses with pockets and very tall romantic heroes (not necessarily in that order) and lives with her husband and two cats in Yorkshire. A Bookshop Christmas was a finalist in the RNA Romantic Novel Awards 2022.

Find her on Instagram as @RachelBWriter

Have a relaxing weekend and thanks for stopping in.