Ali Harris

This was the perfect read for leading up to the Christmas season, especially as I’m not normally a huge fan of chic-lit books. The story was your typical ‘girl gets dumped, then has two choose between two men’ type of story and didn’t contain any huge surprises, but it had a fantastical quality that made it easy to become swept up in the tale. There was definitely an old-fashioned feel to the book, mainly due to the love and loyalty the characters felt towards Hardy’s which you show more wouldn’t necessarily see in today’s world. I also felt there was some influence from the Mary Poppins character here in the way that no matter what classic style Evie aimed to achieve, the perfect items were always found lurking in the back of the store room, just waiting to have their potential unleashed. This may not have worked in a standard book and may have been just a little too convenient. However, in a Christmas story it was just the right amount of magic! show less

This is a nice story of Evie Taylor, a practically invisible person who works in the stockroom of Hardy's department store on Regent Street. She's getting a bit fed up of being called Sarah, the name of the person who worked in the stockroom before her, and being treated as an unpaid nanny by her sister. When she overhears that Hardy's may be about to close unless there is an upturn in its fortunes, she sets to work to transform each department one by one until they are back to their former show more glory.

It's a pleasant read, and nice and Christmassy, but it is also a little bit on the twee side, and Evie was a bit holier than thou sometimes. Why on earth she didn't just tell people her name was Evie I don't know. I suppose it would have spoiled the story a bit. I did love the descriptions of vintage items that she kept finding in the stockroom and using in her transformations, and I love books about shops so this one was great in that respect.

I wouldn't rush to read another book by this author, but this was one certainly a nice easy read over the Christmas period. show less

I rated this book so highly just because of the emotional response it stirred within me. When I first started, I wasn't keen on the jumping forward and backwards in time, but about half way through, I realised I was hooked and couldn't wait to find out more about Molly's life. When the "twist" came, I was shocked and couldn't put the book down without knowing how the story panned out. By the end I felt like I knew the couple, which was helped by Molly's life being quite similar to my own (I show more worked out that I am only a few years younger than she would be) and so could relate to the Friends and Take That references ;-) I would highly recommend this book, but be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster! show less

It was a cute storyline and there were aspects that I enjoyed, but I didn't get that into the story.

Evie works in the stockroom of a legendary department store. It's been around over a hundred years and is very beloved. But no one shops there much any more, the store feels stale. Evie finds out that the store will be sold unless it makes a huge turn around in profits in the next few weeks.

Evie decides to make it her mission to save the story. It means a lot to her personally.
I enjoyed the show more parts of the store detailing the changes she made to the departments.

She wants to help the store but she also feels invisible. Most of people at work think he her name is Sarah.
Then she meets a very charming, handsome man...who thinks her name is Carly.
She doesn't correct any of them.

I guess that's the part of the story that didn't work for me. I know Evie had really low self esteem, but for all the time she spends feeling invisible, she is atleast somewhat responsible for that because she never even clarifies that no one seems to know her name. show less