The 12 Books of Christmas: Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas

Finding Love At The Christmas Market Photo credit: Melissa Young (Young Creative Press)

I was given an ARC of Finding Love At The Christmas Market in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Penguin Random House and Jo Thomas.

(There are very minor spoilers in this review, none of them are big enough to ruin the plotline)

Long story short Connie is going on a trip to Germany with a group of pensioners from retirement flats where she delivers food. After the death of Elise, which we only hear about and do not experience. The group are going to Germany, where she was born to scatter her ashes.

There is also another reason why they are going, so Connie can meet up with Heinrich whom she had been talking to online for the past few months. This all takes place in The Old and New Town where each year they hold competing Christmas markets.

Finding Love At The Christmas Market was the first Jo Thomas book I have read. I wouldn’t say I loved it. Liked it yes, but not loved.

The cover and title of this book are what really drew me in, I thought it was going to be a lovely cosy Christmas read. However, for me, it fell a little flat. The festiveness was pleasant and the romance was not too cliche so all in all it makes for a nice, quick read.

The story was fun and I really liked some of the characters. Mostly the retired pensioners who accompany Connie on the trip. However personally, I found Connie to be a very two-dimensional character and I felt that she had little to no personality other than her love for baking.

She was completely blind when it came to seeing what Heinrich was really like. I couldn’t believe she didn’t figure this out until the very end. It was obvious almost instantly who she was going to end up with. However, I won’t say who as I don’t want to spoil anything for those who are thinking of reading it.

So far it sounds like I really didn’t like this book, I did I promise. I love all things Christmas and baking so I really enjoyed the moments spent at the markets. Also reading about all the food that was being made.

The descriptions of the landscape and the markets were really nice and I did at times feel that warm and cosy feeling you get at Christmas.

The pensioners were very endearing and I loved the idea of the Christmas memories list. However, you didn’t really get to see any of that happen as the book was too focused on Connie and Heinrich. Which I know is the whole point of the book, but I didn’t enjoy reading their parts together as I could tell that something was off with him.

I am still giving Finding Love At The Christmas Market a good rating as I did genuinely like it and at times I thought it had great potential. The fact that it was a quick read is another reason. The book kept a good pace and nothing felt like it was being dragged out.