Skip to main content

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.

FOLLOW THE BLOG TOUR








Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

What can we truly know of the universe? Is the universe simply beyond our comprehension or are we just too ignorant to see what is actually in front of us? What if there is life beyond Earth? What if we can discover it for ourselves? What if, our curiosity gets the better of us all? This book seems to pose many questions to what knowledge we already possess yet, are we looking at life in the right way and how we come to use the environment of Earth around us. It takes us through the story of the human race and how we have expanded our skills and knowledge to become a race which is both rational and intelligent enough to discover the final frontier, space. But what comes after all of this? This is just as an important question as the one in which we ask of how we all got here in the first place. The great thing about this book is that I feel like if you read it before watching the film, you would probably have a better appreciation for Kubrick's vision. In fact, it could be believed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Tour: The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King

  SYNOPSIS John Carver has three rules: Don't drink in the daytime, don't gamble when the luck has gone, and don't talk to the dead people who come to visit. It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time. Desperation has pulled him back to Afganistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.
Post a Comment
Read more

Teaching with the Enemy by Jacqueline Snowe

  SYNOPSIS Gilly Carter has kept her lofty inheritance a secret from her coworkers, knowing first-hand how money changes people. But when she's forced to rely on more than her bank account, will she rise to the task? After winning teacher of the year last spring, she's pumped to begin the new school year. Her fantasies of rainbow coloured bookshelves and students giggling at her maths puns are dampened when she discovers Christopher Callahan, a one-night stand who ghosted her, is not only her co-worker, but they're paired together to teach first grade. While he's kind to everyone else, Christopher doesn't even try to hide his distaste for Gilly. He turns his nose up at her extravagant classroom decorations and accuses her of not teaching from her heart. When Christopher challenges her to a spirit week competition where neither of them can spend a cent, Gilly doubles down: she freezes her funds for the entire month, vowing to live off her teacher's salary alone. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

History of a Drowning Boy by Dennis Nilsen

  SYNOPSIS Dennis Nilsen was one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, jailed for life in 1983 after the murders of 12 men and the attempted murders of many more. Seven years after his conviction, Nilsen began to write his autobiography and over a period of 18 years he typed 6,000 pages of introspection, reflection, comment and explanation. History of a Drowning Boy - taken exclusively from these astonishing writings - uncovers, for the first time the motives behind the murders, and delivers a clear understanding of how such horrific events could have happened, tracing the origins back to early childhood. In another first, it provides an insight into his 35 years inside the maximum-security prison system including his everyday life on the wings; his interactions with the authorities and other notorious prisoners; and his artistic endeavours of music, writing and drama. It also reveals the truth behind many of the myths surrounding Dennis Nilsen, as reported in the media. Nils...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Wedding in the Country by Katie Fforde

  SYNOPSIS Lizzie has just arrived in London, determined to make the best of her new life. Her mother may be keen that she should have a nice wedding in the country to a Suitable Man chosen by her. And Lizzie may be going to cookery school to help her become a Good Wife. But she definitely wants to have some fun first. It is 1963 and London is beginning to swing as Lizzie cuts her hair, buys a new dress with a fashionably short hemline, and moves in with two of her best friends, one of whom lives in a grand but rundown house in Belgravia which has plenty of room for a lodger. Soon Lizzie's life is so exciting that she has forgotten all about her mother's marriage plans for her. All she can think about is that the young man she is falling in love with appears to be engaged to someone else...
1 comment
Read more