🎄Christmas Book Review ~ The Six Tales of Christmas by Anne Marie Ryan

🎅Welcome to my week of Christmas Reads to get you in the festive spirit🎅

Trapeze
October 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this book

It's almost Christmas and snow is falling in the Cotswolds. Simon and Nora are gearing up for the festive season - but their bookshop is in trouble.

Nora is delighted when a customer buys a book that's been on the shelves for years, but that won't be enough to keep the bailiffs away.

Fuelled by mulled wine and mince pies, Nora and Simon hatch a plan to rouse community spirit, sending out six books to lonely villagers. The books change the recipients' lives, but is it too late to change the bookshop's fate?

🎄What did I think about it..

The bookshop in the pretty Cotswold village of Stowford is right at the heart of the community and the owners Nora and Simon Walden are doing everything they can to make the book shop succeed in a world where online sales and cut prices supermarkets are taking the heart out of book selling. With sales diminishing this would appear to be the last Christmas for the book shop, but determined to bring a bit of cheer into lives which need a bit of a boost, Nora and Simon send out six very different books to six recipients, quite unprepared for the effect that their thoughtfulness will have on the lives of these six quite different people.

What this story does so cleverly is highlight the plight of independent book shops and shows how they can be the heart and soul of a community, not just by selling books which is, of course, their raison d'etre, but also sharing in the lives of those for whom the book shop is a real lifeline. I liked Nora immediately, she's a real softy, and genuinely cares for her customers who she considers to be her friends, however,  her infectious enthusiasm for books is what really makes the story come alive.

The Six Tales of Christmas is a lovely festive feel-good story which focuses on some pretty tough issues, especially about the decline of the independent book store, not just in small villages but also in our major towns and cities. It also highlights the importance of having friends and family around us in difficult times.

🎄Best Read with Nora's gingerbread biscuits and a bottle of good red wine..

About the Author

Anne Marie Ryan works as a book editor and has written several successful children's fiction series under a variety of pseudonyms. THE SIX TALES OF CHRISTMAS is her first novel for adults.

Twitter @AMRyanAuthor #TheSixTalesofChristmas

@TrapezeBooks