Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams (62 page)

‘Are you a sweetshop or a bookshop?’ asked a curious Edison one sunny, frosty Saturday morning. ‘I think you should be both. That would be good.’

Rosie looked up from where she was unpacking the box of Lilian’s self-published book she’d found in the bottom of her wardrobe, propping the copies up beside the ancient cash till.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not a bookshop. We’ve only got space for just this one.’

People think love should be popping candy; always surprising and exciting and fresh to the mouth. Or like dark chocolate; mysterious and adult and bitter. Or the tough candy shell of a Minstrel, waiting to be cracked; the friable crumbling burst of a honeycomb; spiky as peanut brittle; as painful as a sharp shard of toffee.
I think love is caramel. Sweet and fragrant; always welcome. It is the gentle golden colour of a setting harvest sun; the warmth of a squeezed embrace; the easy melting of two souls into one and a taste that lingers even when everything else has melted away. Once tasted, it is never forgotten.
And that is all I have to say about that.

DON’T MISS THE NEXT IRRESISTIBLE
NOVEL FROM

Indulge yourself and your sweet-toothed, baking-mad friends with Jenny’s new novel, simply bursting with Christmas cupcake recipes and seasonal sugar-fuelled fun.

Coming in Autumn 2012

MEET ME AT THE CUPCAKE CAFÉ

Jenny Colgan

Come and meet Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Café.

Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that – Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe’s bakery, she has undoubtedly inherited his talent.

When she’s made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment. Armed with recipes from Grampa, and with her best friends and local bank manager fighting her corner, The Cupcake Café opens its doors. But Issy has absolutely no idea what she’s let herself in for. It will take all her courage – and confectionery – to avert disaster …

‘Sheer indulgence from start to finish’

Sophie Kinsella

978-0-7515-4449-7

WEST END GIRLS

Jenny Colgan

The streets of London are paved with gold … allegedly.

They may be twin sisters, but Lizzie and Penny Berry are complete opposites – Penny is blonde, thin and outrageous; Lizzie quiet, thoughtful and definitely not thin. The one trait they do share is a desire to DO something with their lives and, as far as they’re concerned, the place to get noticed is London.

Out of the blue they discover they have a grandmother living in Chelsea – and when she has to go into hospital, they find themselves flat-sitting on the King’s Road. But, as they discover, it’s not as easy to become It Girls as they’d imagined, and West End Boys aren’t at all like Hugh Grant …

‘A brilliant novel from the mistress of chick-lit’

Eve

978-0-7515-4332-2

OPERATION SUNSHINE

Jenny Colgan

Evie needs a good holiday. Not just because she’s been working all hours in her job, but also because every holiday she has ever been on has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting – sometimes all three at once. Why can’t she have a normal holiday, like other people seem to have – some sun, sand, sea and (hopefully) sex?

So when her employers invite her to attend a conference with them in the South of France, she can’t believe her luck. It’s certainly going to be the holiday of a lifetime – but not quite in the way Evie imagines!

‘Colgan at her warm, down-to-earth best’

Cosmopolitan

978-0-7515-3762-8

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND

Jenny Colgan

Sophie Chesterton has been living the high life of glamorous parties, men and new clothes, never thinking about tomorrow. But after one shocking evening, she comes back down to earth with the cruellest of bumps. Facing up to life in the real world for the first time, Sophie quickly realises that when you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way is up.

Join her as she starts life all over again: from cleaning toilets for a living to the joys of bring-your-own-booze parties; from squeezing out that last piece of lip gloss from the tube to bargaining with bus drivers.

For anyone who’s ever been scared of losing it all, this book is here to show you money can’t buy you love, and best friends are so much more fun than diamonds …

‘Jenny Colgan always writes an unputdownable, page-turning bestseller – she’s the queen of modern chick-lit’

Louise Bagshawe

978-0-7515-4031-4

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DUMPED

Jenny Colgan

Now, you obviously, would never, ever look up your exes on Facebook. Nooo. And even if you did, you most certainly wouldn’t run off trying to track them down, risking your job, family and happiness in the process. Posy Fairweather, on the other hand …

Posy is delighted when Matt proposes – on top of a mountain, in a gale, in full-on romantic mode. But a few days later disaster strikes: he backs out of the engagement. Crushed and humiliated, Posy starts thinking. Why has her love life always ended in total disaster? Determined to discover how she got to this point, Posy resolves to get online and track down her exes. Can she learn from past mistakes? And what if she has let Mr Right slip through her fingers on the way?

‘A Jenny Colgan novel is as essential for a week in the sun as Alka Seltzer, aftersun and far too many pairs of sandals’

Heat

978-0-7515-4030-7

Has Rosie Hopkins got your mouth watering?

Mrs Kibble has created a special blend of nostalgic sweets, inspired by the story, especially for you!

When Mrs Kibble opened her first old-fashioned sweetshop in the heart of London's busy West End, it was the first traditional sweetshop of its kind in London. Following the amazing success of her first shop, Mrs Kibble opened her second retro store.

Visit a Mrs Kibble store and you can expect to step back in time and feast your eyes upon a visual delight. Filled wall-to-wall with brightly coloured sweet jars crammed full of all the old favourites, your only problem will be wondering what to choose from the amazing selection of sweets, confectionery gifts and personalised sweet jars. But if you don’t live in London don’t panic! You can browse the virtual shelves at Mrs Kibble’s online store.

www.mrskibbles.com

Take yourself on a trip down memory lane – with no Pick ‘n’ Mix in sight
.

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