Sweetshop of Dreams
By: Jenny Colgan / Narrated By: Beverley A. Crick
Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
Chick-lit, and chocolate, and crotchety kooks—what a delight!
Rosie Hopkins is staring down the wrong side of thirty. With a job she kinda sorta likes (a kinda sorta but not really nurse in an emergency room), and a chubby aging boyfriend who won’t pop the question but who WILL tell her she doesn’t cook like his mum, and well, it’s no wonder that she’s the one her own mum calls when a relative out in the middle of nowhere needs help. Cuz Rosie doesn’t really have a life to disrupt, does she?
Rosie agrees to help elderly Aunt Lilian and to do SOMEthing with Lilian’s sweetshop, and she moves to the tiny (And naturally charming) village to be of assistance, thinking it’ll take only a couple of weeks.
Turns out, however, that things always take a bit longer than one thinks they would. Rosie gets sucked into village life, helping the town doctor on various calls—even having some success with the town’s surly and bitter recluse, Stephen. And there’s sooo much to do with the sweetshop. And there’s sooo much that Lilian needs. And, actually: Isn’t it all rather engaging and exciting? To be needed, to do something new, to meet new people after spending so many years practically leg-shackled to a middle-aged boyfriend who acts like a 5-year old.
Other reviewers groused about the jumping timelines; they found it to be distracting and poorly done, but I don’t think so. I really loved going back in time to see what Lilian was like, to hear of her one true love and the trauma that occurred, enough to make her a self-determined spinster. I esPECially liked that Lilian’s story involved WWII as anything with WWII in it makes whatEVER very much a treat to me.
Make no mistake, tho’—war doesn’t add any weight to the story—and this is a light listen. There’s a bit of mystery, a lot of friendship, and quite a bit of romance (With one of the sweetest romances for Lilian I’ve listened to, quite charming)! And it’s a bit of a coming of age story as well as Rosie is baaaaarely getting around to doing all the things young women do, the things she missed out on cuz she’d been busy cleaning up after jowly Gerard, her boyfriend, doing his laundry and ironing, and basically mothering him.
Beverly A. Crick does her usual stellar job with the narration. I did so love the Haven Manor series, and a lot of that was due to her capable narration, her ability to make the male voices just as palatable as the regular female ones. You always know you’re in for a good story when Crick is doing the vocal honors.
Also expect some history of candy. And of course with this type of book: Heavy on the food with some recipes thrown in.
Sweetshop of Dreams wasn’t what I’d call a gem, but it certainly was a delectable and delightful little escape. And what can I say? It inspired me to hit the candy shop down the street just so I could breathe in the heady scent of chocolate!
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