Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

Although I have read cosy books from time to time, I am not really a fan of the genre but this one is set in a town with which I am familiar and I liked the idea of the window displays so I thought I would give it a try.

I did enjoy it and I think it is a very good example of its type so for that reason I am going for 4 stars. I will say, however, that with so many books on the TBR list, I probably would have been better giving the time to something else.

The windows competition is well described, the people in the book are all lovely (or at least have a reasonably good reason for being not so lovely) and everything is rosy. There is a villain who causes considerable havoc but somehow there is no real sense of catastrophe. So, as I said, a great read in its way.

There are issues however. The book is tell rather than show. There is no tension or conflict and really nothing to learn about or research further. I found the sacking of Gary's father to be entirely unbelievable - any employer sacking someone like that would surely lose an unfair dismissal case at a tribunal. Why was his widow left penniless - surely she could have not have claimed benefits?

Linlithgow is a fascinating place but apart from one mention of the loch and Palace and a mention of a black female dog (IYKYK) I was disappointed that there is no feeling of it being set in Linlithgow.

All in all it is like a serial in The People's Friend magazine and I do not mean that in a bad way. I really hope it reaches its ideal audience.

this book is set in Scotland on high street. it is about the people who own businesses and homes there. someone is set on revenge.

the cover of this book was gorgeous.and the feeling i got when i first saw that carried me right into and all the way through my time with this book.
i enjoyed it so much. i do love stories like this. where we are getting a snippet into peoples lives. we dont need crash bangs or hits. we dont need some huge leaps and bounds of story lines.. but there doesn't make it any less engaging or sometimes impactful. we are simply watching people, seeing how humans with highs and lows live. there are the humans totally likeable and those not so much. we see how dynamics in a community can change or always stay the same. we see like a window into this community and all the people within it. i enjoyed getting to know all the characters and the little twist of someone in their mist being set on making mischief and then some.
Anni had a lovely writing style. and you need something like she has for this type of book. because it makes the read quite a beautiful thing to be part of. and you sit there fully immersed in the scenes she sets and just want to cosy up and read more from it.
id really like to read more from Anni and i hope she gets the same person to do her next covers.

I enjoyed this more for how it was written than the plot itself, which was enjoyable but a little bit too straightforward for my twisty tastes! The windows are described so beautifully and I felt like I could see the town and its streets so clearly thanks to the authors descriptive prose.