Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop by Jessica Redland

 

When master chocolatier, Charlee, takes the leap to move to the picturesque seaside town of Whitsborough Bay, she is determined to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and set up a chocolate shop.

Luckily, she finds the perfect location for Charlee's Chocolates on beautiful Castle Street... Now she just has to refurbish it in time for Christmas!

With a useless boyfriend and countless DIY disasters, Charlee doesn't know if she'll make it in time. With no 'traditional' family to support her, she feels lost in her new surroundings and the secrets of the past are weighing her down.

But the warmth and festive spirit of the Whitsborough Bay community will surprise her, and when plumber, Matt, comes to the rescue, it might be that all of Charlee's dreams could come true this Christmas, and she could learn what family really means...

I can not resist a book that is set around a chocolate shop even if it means disaster for my diet so even though it is only September I was excite to get lost in the pages of Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop by Jessica Redland.

Our heroine is Charlee and what a little diamond she is, after her grandmother passed away she inherits her house but with no family left her partner Ricky convinces her to start a new life and move to Whitsborough Bay with him. This is a big change for Charlee and she is determined to make this next step in her life be a positive one as she embarks on opening her own chocolate shop for her to use her passion and creativity as a master chocolatier.

Finding the perfect premises on Castle Street, the home to other much loved characters of Jessica Redland that we have met in her other novels, Charlee soon finds herself engulfed in a friendly and supportive community. As everything starts looking up for her career things don’t seem so full of roses in her relationship with the less than supportive Ricky.

I loved Charlee and really wanted to see all her hard work and ambition pay off, I got wrapped up in the excitement of shop hunting and the opening of the chocolate shop and the buzz of activity around the shop at Christmas time made it all feel so exciting and left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

I had alarm bells ringing in my head from the start of the book when it came to Ricky, he was a vile excuse of a man that did not deserve to have someone as generous, hardworking and caring as Charlee, it was plain to see he was taking advantage of her nature and at times I really wanted to shake her but as they say love is blind and it is easy to see flaws looking in on a relationship yet when you are in it you will find every excuse under the sun to excuse their behaviour.

This is a storyline that just keep giving, and just as you think things are starting to wrap up something else comes to light in the storyline to keep you addicted and not giving you a safe point to put this book down!

If you are looking for an uplifting storyline that has festive spirit, mouthwatering chocolate goodies, a rollercoaster romance and a community that will envelope you in a welcoming hug then this book will tick all the boxes.

Kindle                       Paperback

Christmas at Carly's Cupcakes by Jessica Redland

It's December on Castle Street; the fairy lights are twinkling, snow has settled and the festive season is in full swing.

For Carly, the owner of Carly's Cupcakes, it's the busiest time of year getting everyone's Christmas treats ready on time. However with her clumsy sister, Bethany, as a co-worker, it's proving a difficult task. They say you shouldn't mix work with family. Maybe they have a point...

As Christmas approaches, Carly is also eagerly awaiting the return of her best friend to Whitborough Bay. Liam has no idea he's been the object of her affection since their schooldays. After years of pining after him, can Carly pluck up the courage to finally tell him how she really feels by 25th December?

The last two books I have picked to read I really struggled to get into, one of which was a favourite author of mine and I was unsure if I was losing my reading mojo or if it was just a case of the wrong book at the wrong time. I decided to browse through Amazon to see if I could find a light read and that was when I saw the wonderful festive cover of Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes and me being a sucker for a cupcake shop novel, I instantly downloaded it to my kindle.

How far would you go to support your family?

Carly wants to be there to support her sister Bethany when due to terrible circumstance she is unable to return to her job but Bethany is anything but a natural when it comes to cake decorating! With a whole host of mistakes, it starts to become detrimental to Carly’s business but how can she let her sister go?

With the stress of this situation Carly is desperate for the return of her best friend Liam who is serving in Afghanistan but having this distance between them has made Carly question is her feelings for Liam is purely friendship.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Jessica Redland this is the first book in a long time that I have sat down to read and ended up finishing the whole thing in one greedy sitting. From the opening chapter I was pulled straight into the storyline and took an instant like to our main character Carly who is such a selfless and hardworking woman who puts others needs before her own. Her and her sister Bethany are completely different characters but I also loved Bethany and my heart went out to her as she was so lost and felt like she failed at everything that she turned her hands to which I am sure is something many of us would have experienced at one point or another in our lives.

As I mentioned before I am a complete sucker for books that are set around running businesses especially Bakery or Café these call out to me from the bookshelves and I am never able to resit but on some occasions the storylines don’t really go into any detail about the business but this was not the case with this storyline this one had me dribbling and I could visualise all the intricate details of the personalised cakes that Carly created.

I loved the friendship that had built over many years between Liam and Carly and I could see why Carly was worried about admitting her feelings for him incase it would put their friendship at risk. Although I thought the love story was predictable this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the storyline I enjoyed watching everything coming together.

There is a sprinkling of festivity but this book could easily be read anytime of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and found the characters incredibly engaging, the storyline pacey and heart warming. I have found a new author in Jessica Redland and I am already looking forward to reading Starry Skies over the Chocolate Pot Café next.

 

My next read by Jessica will be