The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane (ePub)

I don't know the tale of the nutcracker, but Nia lets us in on the main facts and references to this fairytale repeatedly (and to other festive characters as well). No wonder then that the whole story feels quite magical. With two protagonists that get on very well from the very start, without any major crisis between them. Both are such kindhearted characters, and although one of them is supposedly a Christmas-Grinch - he is also extremely nice and handsome. Like a Prince Charming! Men like that only exist in fairytales, don't they?

This is what Nia thinks, and if I'm honest I also think that James sounds too good to be true. But on the other hand I appreciated it very much that he is not cast in a "bad boy" role, where he acts grumpy for half of the book - for some concocted reason.
Instead, Nia and James connect with each other immediately, but then take things veery slooow. Mind you, I did like the fact that they become good friends first instead of having a rushed ONS and then feeling all the more awkward for it. Their whole relationship just seemed a bit off from reality.

However, since I did like both characters very much, I also enjoyed their story together. I liked being on Nutcracker Lane, which apparently is like a Christmas market in Germany and Austria, only that the stalls are bigger and more like small wooden huts instead of booths with a front window sale. Nias ideas to save Nutcracker Lane are actually great! Not for the first time Jaimie Admans has proven that she could have made a career in marketing & sales (with her great ideas of saving a bookshop / a café and a whole high street / a Christmas tree farm) as well as a writer.

I'm glad she chose the latter option! And I know she has never written a sequel to one of her books so far, but I sincerely hope she will do so for the Nutcracker Lane. I would really like to know where all of them are one year later!