ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #BookReview – A Christmas Wish at Woolworths by Elaine Everest

It’s my stop on the blog tour for A Christmas Wish at Woolworths by Elaine Everest. I love this series so much but reading this new book was bittersweet because Elaine very sadly passed away in August. She has left an enduring legacy of her wonderful books and if you’re a saga lover who hasn’t read them yet then I highly recommend this series and the Teashop Girls series to you.

My thanks to the publishers for asking me to be a part of the tour and for sending a copy of the book for review.

Kent, 1953. The Woolworths Erith store, a beloved cornerstone of the community, faces closure if the December turnover fails to increase. And, as if store manager Betty Billington doesn’t have enough on her plate, personnel shortages and a troublesome new employee add to the strife.

With Christmas on the horizon, Betty and her staff must strive to find solutions to improve business and keep the store running – from special events for late-night customers to a festive group trip into central London. The Erith Players pantomime also promises to draw a crowd, injecting excitement into the local community.

With the store festooned with decorations, lifting the spirits of customers and Betty, can a Christmas miracle save their beloved store?

A Christmas Wish at Woolworths is the next instalment in Elaine Everest’s much-loved Woolworths series – a heartfelt tale of resilience, community and an unwavering spirit during hard times.

This is the tenth book in the Woolworths series, following Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls.

A Christmas Wish at Woolworths takes us back to Erith, Kent in the run up to Christmas 1953. Once again we meet with the characters that I have come to love. Whilst the men are strong characters in their own right, it’s the women who always stand out in Elaine Everest’s books, the ones who pull together to work out any problems and save the day.

Some of the problems in this story are to be faced by Betty Billington, the manager of the town’s Woolworths store which faces closure despite still being a popular place for shoppers. Maisie and her family also face opposition from their new neighbours who seem to have taken a real dislike to them. Despite all this, each generation from matriarch Ruby and her husband Bob, to Sarah, Freda and Maisie, and down to the younger members Clemmie, Claudette and Bessie, is determined to join together and get through it.

I loved this instalment of the popular series. It’s easy to read and transported me back to the 1950s. I’ve always particularly enjoyed the scenes set in Woolworths itself and there’s plenty of those, but it was also nice to accompany the characters on a trip to London and to the pantomime, and to see what a thrill it was for them to do something out of the ordinary. As this will sadly now be the last book to carry on the characters’ stories (although another Woolworths book will be published next year, it has a different focus) I was pleased that it ended on such a lovely note and I closed the book with a very contented smile on my face.

This book brings together community spirit and friendship to provide a completely heart-warming and joyful read. I know a book has done its job with me if I wish that I could step into it and spend time with all the characters myself. This book did that for me and I recommend it (and the rest of the series) for all saga lovers.

Elaine Everest, author of bestselling novels The Woolworths Girls, The Butlins Girls, Christmas at Woolworths and The Teashop Girls, was born and brought up in North-West Kent, where many of her books are set. She was a freelance writer for twenty-five years and wrote widely for women’s magazines and national newspapers, both short stories and features. Her non-fiction books for dog owners have been very popular and led to her broadcasting on radio about our four-legged friends. Elaine has been heard discussing many other topics on radio, from canine subjects to living with a husband under her feet when redundancy looms.