Book Review: Welcome To Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Name: Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams
Author: Jenny Colgan
Publisher: Sphere
Release date: 28th March, 2012
Summary:

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.

Review:

Firstly, this book makes me want to scoff a LOT of sweets.

It does make me think of getting pick a mix as a treat when I was a child.
What am I talking about? I cannot deny I've always had a sweet tooth.
I loved Jenny's last novel 'Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe' although that also made me seriously hungry.
I love the fact that in 'Welcome To Rosie Hopkins Sweet shop of Dreams' you get the present and past tense, giving you lots of background on Lilian and on the wondrous world of sweets.

Did you know the Mars Bar came to our lives in 1933?

Now is Rosie speaking and in the past it's Lilian.
I loved the way Jenny has written this, the past tense is quite like going through a dreamlike state, as a reader you're on edge as each past entry ends leaving you wanting more.
You can see why Lilian tends to come across quite rude.
Poor Rosie gets herself into some compromising positions, as a reader I feel for her, yet I also see the humour.
I loved the way Lilian and Rosie's relationship started very tense, yet they became so close.
Rosie's an agency nurse and when her mum Angie calls her from Australia to ask her to go help out a relative she hardly remembers.
Rosie is a little put out, Lilian see's Rosie as a relative who is ready to pack her off.
I don't think either of them realised how much they'd need each other.

Jenny Colgan creates loveable characters and Rosie is your typical loveable heroine.
She's funny, naïve and very caring.
Maybe too caring, but remember she is a nurse that's surely part of her job description.
This story will make you laugh, you'll definitely want to eat sweets.
There are moments when you'll also be cringing at some of the situations Roise gets into but you will also smile.
There was some twists I was not expecting, proper shock moments.
I truly enjoyed this feel good read.
I also loved that there was a comment from Jenny too, I think little touches like that add to the enjoyment of the book itself.

Jenny has yet again surpassed herself and I'm still a huge fan..