Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop

This one started really well but went completely downhill once the writer decided to introduce Rosie's paranoia of a family. And the worst thing is that she allowed her heroine to become totally inconsistent to herself and her principles. She became a vulnerable, meek creature, manipulated by that thing she called ‘‘mother''. It was beyond cringe-worthy, it was painful...I kept reading to see whether Rosie would have the guts to utter a proper punch line to her mother and put her in her place, but it didn't happen...

I began to doubt whether she was worthy of Stephen, and most of all, whether she had the will to grasp her life into her hands. Plus, the Henry Carr sub-plot was highly implausible. It seemed to exist just for the sake of added - and utterly failing- melodrama.

Not even close to the first book. It was as if it had been written by a different writer.