2021 EDIT: I swear this has had a much more profound effect on me than when I read it the first time, and I barely remember it the first time! But 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' is a sweet, funny, lovely, sensational and touching book for escapism, that's smarter and more thoughtful than it appears. It is full of surprises.
Aside from a few niggling, annoying things, one main criticism I can give it is that, from reading it, you'd think there was never a poorly-written book. Ever. Everything put on paper and published is the bees knees, a life changer; even 'Fifty Shades of Grey' isn't criticised (though 'Mein Kampf' is, in a throwaway line, and that really is the bottom-of-the-barrel standard for what constitutes bad books in this book).
'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' is wonderful contemporary fiction for book lovers - "chick lit" is a compliment - that may have been powerful enough to rejuvenate my love of reading again, when I've been in a lethargic slump for too long. There's a fairy tale, happily-ever-after quality to that sentiment. Or maybe I am a romantic at heart, a fantasist in need of a reality check, like Nina Redmond.
I can't believe I haven't been to Scotland yet! I simply must!
Read my original review for more.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
This isn't a genre I normally read.
I don't tend to look for romances. In fact I never do, period. A good, well-written, necessary and genuinely passionate and believable romance is hard to find, speaking from experience, and it can either make or break a story and its characters. A lot of stories are better off without a love plot, but they are shoved in anyway because that is what is expected. Especially for a female target demographic.
"Chick lits" are generally overlooked, mocked and ignored due to sexism; the infuriating assumption that all girls and women consume and care about are anything featuring hot guys, regardless of the quality of the book they read (and of how the hot guy treats the female lead *shudders*). This could be a factor into why a) heteronormality is still so prevalent, and b) stories with female protagonists, whatever the genre, are labelled "chick", and are therefore not recognized and held up to the high, "award-winning" standards of male-centered titles.
I had a point here, didn't I? Anyway, I don't like contemporary (or historical) romances that are always aimed at women readers. I never liked the "romances" (a.k.a. gendered power dynamics reinforcing the status quo) portrayed in them, giving women wrong ideas and expectations about life and men. The underlining message, intentional or not, is usually that no matter what ladies do, no matter how successful they are in their careers, they are failures if they don't have a good-looking guy pining after them. Any porn and escapist fantasy is good and healthy, but when this female-focused plotline is so common in the mainstream - when it is so normalised it finds it way into absolutely everything - it gets problematic.
Yet, with all that in mind, I enjoyed Jenny Colgan's 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' (US title 'The Bookshop on the Corner'). I was first drawn to it solely because it is about a bookworm protagonist, and it focuses on her passion for reading more than anything else, even her love life. It delivered warmly, like raw chocolate chip cookie dough.
I never thought I'd describe a book as being "cuddly", but oh glorious books and ribbons, I fell for 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After', hook, line, sinker. Pure, lovely popcorn lit. It is an adorable read - perfect for chilling out with on any season and occasion. Summer or winter, it relaxes you and lets you forget all the troubles of the world.
Yeah, like a lot of "chick lit", it isn't very realistic, and the scenarios and meet-cute romances are too good to be true (even centering on a train, the most romantic form of transportation in existence), but this kind of escapism is good for the soul. And it is my philosophy that fiction can not only reflect reality, but show how reality can be better.
In fact, the love - for books and for guys - in this little escapade is well developed. The inevitable, dreaded love triangle manages to be tolerable - due to its barely-there focus - while the men - love interests or not - are interesting and genuinely sexy (the nice, exotic foreigner and the gruff, buff, brooding loner tropes are present, but it's endearing rather than annoying, with added twists).
I loved the sweet, shy, introverted main lead, Nina Redmond. She is a twenty-nine-year-old Birmingham librarian who's recently been made redundant, who knows more about the worlds of the books she devours than how things are in reality. I could immediately identify with Nina and her love of books, and her realising her ambition of running a cosy little bookshop, which, far from being a pipe dream, she ends up doing far from home, in Scotland, and in a van! After getting past her fears and insecurities, telling herself how she is not fit to take huge risks alone like this, that even her close friends think she is being foolhardy, her changing her life works.
And she could not have done so at a better time.
Because, as it turns out, people from areas where libraries and other bookshops have tragically closed due to cuts - they are hungry for the books Nina has in her 'Little Shop of Happy Ever After' book mobile! Over the years she had horded hundreds of them in her old rented apartment, shared with her best friend/former landlady Surinder. It paid off well!
Huge points for the representation of dynamic, (semi)supportive, realistic and complex female friendships, too. However, Surinder's commenting on how strange it is that a man would not take advantage of Nina when she fell asleep in his home is really inappropriate, and she isn't called out on it. Nina's book love and lore also extends to all kinds of books, even ones starring Christian Grey, unfortunately. Odd considering that she does call men out on their sexism, thinking a "wee lass" like her can't handle driving a big van. When it comes to literature, it seems there is nothing Nina Redmond doesn't like.
I was thrilled by the Scottish countryside setting, the fish-out-of-water element, and that this was a quick, few-days-read. The cold, the warmth, the moorlands, the trains, the Scottish community, the animals, poverty, and life on the farm; these are all written in wonderfully and authentically. Serious issues are discussed, and yet everything is just so positive! I want to squeeze this book until all its fluffiness falls out!
I was also quite disappointed to find out that a lot of the books described within this book, by Nina, don't actually exist. They sound so interesting; magical like this novel.
'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' should be heart-shaped and delivered to readers everywhere like a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day. It is fluff, but it is mostly harmless. I liked the romance, and all the characters. It's light with shades of mist not too dark. It's comfort reading, and that's fine. A quaint, soft-hearted bookworm's fantasy tale set mostly in Scotland.
Now this is my relaxing chick lit escapism!
Final Score: 3.5/5
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