Blog Tour: Christmas for the Shop Girls by Joanna Toye

SYNOPSIS

'For Lily Collins and her fellow shop girls at Marlows Department Store, another Christmas with ration books, shortages of goods and staff not to mention a store coping with war damage will be a real challenge.

But the girls rally round and put their worries aside to make this, the hardest wartime Christmas yet, one that their families, and their own town, will never forget.'

REVIEW

Christmas for the Shop Girls feels like a warm hug in a time when everything in our own lives are not quite sure, but reading this, shows that there is more hope than one can imagine. There are many layers to this book, which unravels slowly like a present being unwrapped on Christmas Day and many twists and turns that are a nice surprise in some cases and sad in others.

There are also a lot that can be learnt from this book, whether that is about the history of the time period, what it means for friendships, relationships of all shapes and sizes and what it truly means to be in the spirit of Christmas in a time when they had to make the most of what they have got.

The main thing that I loved from this book is the sense of family and how important loved ones are in a troubling time. We can have Christmas, presents, turkey, but the one thing that is truly significant is the people around us. That is what makes Christmas, love of all around. Even if it is a colleague at work giving you a cup of tea or a person to talk to. We are all different, but one thing that makes us the same is our compassion for others in times of hardship. What I found particularly poignant is Sam's compassion towards Lily and her family, the Canadian who had been stationed who somehow took it upon himself to help those who needed help in one of their most terrifying times. He risked everything he had to provide his friends with the best possible chance of being saved from something wrong.

Because of how this book is mainly based around a department store, it is also nice to see stories of other characters who work there and what it means to them to be around people at this time. For instance, Gladys has an interesting piece about her and her upcoming nuptials which is probably very likely that this story was the same as many others at the time. It opens up a side where we realise how different this world is now in terms of acceptance and how far we go to do the right thing. But also how the worldview about certain topics that would have been seen as being taboo, has changed on how people can live their lives.

Now that I finished reading this story, I have an overwhelming feeling like I need to read the previous instalments pronto. Like right now, just drop everything I'm doing at this very moment. If that doesn't show how much you need to read this, then I don't know what will.

RATING: **** (4 STARS)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanna Toye joined the production team of The Archers after reading English at Cambridge University, and became a scriptwriter for the programme for over twenty years. She has also written a number of spin-off books about the long-running radio drama. On television, she has written for Crossroads, Doctors and EastEnders.

WHERE TO BUY

Amazon: Christmas for the Shop Girls: Festive and heart warming – the new WW2 wartime saga in the uplifting historical fiction series (The Shop Girls, Book 4): Amazon.co.uk: Toye, Joanna: 9780008298753: Books

Waterstones: Christmas for the Shop Girls by Joanna Toye | Waterstones

Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/3917/9780008298753

Disclosure: If you buy books linked to this site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

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