Brooke's Reviews > Christmas in London: A Novel

For all of my reviews you can click here-> http://lattesandpaperbacks.com


Louisa Graham is a hardworking New Yorker who works at a bakery on the Lower East Side and loves everything about baking. So much so that she is working 12 hour shifts in order to save up to open her own restaurant by next Christmas. Louisa puts her heart and soul into these pastries and dessert so much her appearance and social life are a bit lacking, but Louisa is willing to sacrifice her want for a pet, and other frivolous things in order to get her restaurant. What Louisa wasn't expecting was a handsome man to walk in at the last minute and beg her for the cinnamon rolls she just baked for tomorrow. People wait in line for over 30 minutes for her cinnamon rolls why would she give them to this guy?

Noah comes rushing into a bakery on the Lower East Side at the last minute hoping to procure some kind of dessert for Bianca to have on set her nationally syndicated show. Luckily, this is the last bakery that is open, and he sees some killer cinnamon rolls. Noah convinces Louisa to give him the cinnamon rolls as long as he pays for them and they are mentioned on the show, so that their bakery can get some advertisement. Louisa's cinnamon rolls were a huge hit with everyone, except Bianca. It turns out that Bianca is allergic to nutmeg and her lips swell up really large. Noah is freaking out because they are supposed to leave for London tomorrow for a huge show being produced by his Boss Kate. So now he has to find a replacement for Bianca in a short amount of time. SO who else is there to ask other than the one woman who made such an amazing batch of cinnamon rolls that everyone loved?

Louisa is taken aback when Noah asks her to come to London for the week before Christmas, but how can she say yes when the week before Christmas is the busiest for the bakery?? Louisa finds a way to make it work with a friend and heads off to London for the week! Then ensues the beautiful scenery, dilemmas, and love that cant seem to leave everyone alone.

Louisa is such a loveable character that no doubt has a few flaws, but who doesn't. I appreciate that Anita made each characters with flaws of their own. Even if they didn't always compliment the situation they were put in.

I loved how Anita always made sure to world build so much in this book! It really set the scene and made it that much better for the ambience of everything happening. I absolutely loved how well the scenery was described, because those of us who haven't been to London rely on pictures and descriptions to be able to see what the characters are seeing. Another thing I really liked about this book was the dual perspective from each woman. It gave a great setting to each side of the track. Although I wish there would have been a male perspective in the mix, but that would have warranted a longer book. BUT it still gave great background to the characters past for Kate and Trevor, but there wasn't much of a back story for Louisa and Noah, which I wish there would have been because I think she could have explained a few things away for both characters.

The only issue I had was with how the characters reacted to a situation, instead of them really having an argument most things were very passive and were just walked away from until maybe they come back to the issue at a later time. Most people don't always approach issues like this, there is a huge argument, blow up, something more than what there was for these characters. And I wanted to see more passion from these characters in regards to their dilemmas, and why they wanted things to be different.

I also wish that there would have been a better scene with Louisa and Digby towards the end. There could have been so much more dialogue and happenings between the two in order to really shake the scene up instead of it just being she says this and he does this. There was not much to the scene and it was lacking in a huge way. If that scene could have been redeemed there would have been a much better way to show that there was more substance to the book.

Even with the few grievances that I have voiced, this book was lovely, and I couldn't have picked a better book that to start December with! I hope that you will give this book a chance and see what great areas of the book and story that there are incorporated. And you may need a snack and a drink with this one and all the food discussed!


Thank you so much to Get Red PR, St. Martin's Griffins, and Lori for sending this beautiful book to me for an honest review! All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by the exchange!