Showing titles in Holidays

It's a big day for Charlie Bell - the grand reopening of her aunt Pansy's long-closed tea rooms in Tremevissey, a quaint Cornish seaside resort. But not everyone is chuffed for Charlie. The tea rooms are cursed, locals say. For Pansy was cruelly jilted by her lover and walked out into the Atlantic Ocean, never to return. Charlie dismisses the 'curse' as superstitious nonsense, of course. But by the end of the first day, her world is in tatters, and she's not even sure the tea rooms can open for a second day of trading.

Calling Major Tom is a funny, uplifting tale of friendship and community about a man who has given up on the world...but discovers in the most unlikely way that it might not have given up on him. We all know someone like Thomas. The grumpy next-door neighbour who complains to the residents' committee about the state of your front lawn. The man who tuts when you don't have the correct change at the checkout. The colleague who sends an all-company email when you accidentally use the last drop of milk.

I hate Christmas. Years and years of disappointment have taught me that Christmas is the worst. I don't like the music, the food, the decorations…anything. And Lincoln Daniels, my tattooed hockey god of a husband, thinks he's going to change that… I tell him it's not going to happen.

At just 20 years old, Tara Tremain has everything: she's a trainee doctor, engaged to the man of her dreams—a passionate American biology student called Alex Carter. But just when life seems perfect, Alex betrays her in the worst way possible. Ten years later, she’s moved on. But when she’s pulled back into her wealthy family’s orbit for an unmissable party in the heart of Costa Rica, she finds herself flung into crisis: a child is desperately ill and the only remedy is several days’ trek into the heart of the jungle.

Maeve Binchy at her very best - the superb novel of one summer, and four people whose lives are irrevocably changed. Four strangers, with nothing in common but a need to escape, meet in a Greek taverna high above the small village of Aghia Anna. From Ireland, America, Germany and England they have each left behind their homes and their old lives, when a shocking tragedy throws them unexpectedly together. Nights of Rain and Stars is the story of one summer and four people, each with a life in turmoil.

Now successfully running the Cockleberry Café and wishing to start a family herself, Rosa feels the time is right to let her inherited Corner Shop go. However, her benefactor left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it. Rosa is torn. How can she make such a huge decision? And will it be the right one? Once the news gets out and goes public, untrustworthy newcomers appear in the Bay...their motives uncertain.

When Tess Angel receives a solicitor's letter inviting her to claim her inheritance - the Villa Sirena, perched on a clifftop in Sicily - she is stunned. Her only link to the island is through her mother, Flavia, who left Sicily during World War II and cut all contact with her family. Initially resistant to Tess going back to her roots, Flavia realises the secrets from her past are about to be revealed and decides to try to explain her actions.

After a broken engagement, Cher decides to leave heartbreak behind by signing up for a holiday house swap. For the next few weeks, she’ll ditch sunny California to spend her first Hanukkah in New York City, a time of snow-covered sidewalks, festive store windows, hot cocoa, and...cute neighbors? As Cher is moving into her temporary new apartment, Eliot is moving his ex’s belongings out, and he soon finds himself offering to play tour guide. He’s nursing a broken heart too, and spending time showing the beautiful traveler around is exactly what he needs.

Clover Harrington might be sixty-one, but she’s still bossing it in the corporate world and can still run rings around her younger colleagues. And then she is made redundant…. Devastated and now suddenly the wrong side of sixty Clover doesn’t know what to do with her life or her corporate wardrobe! What does she wear if not red lippy and a power suit?! Rather than offer her any support, her partner, Jack announces he's off on a golfing weekend, leaving Clover completely adrift. Desperate to get away from it all, Clover decides to visit her cousin Zoe in the gorgeous Italian Lakes.

September 1941. Mary arrives in war-torn London nursing a broken heart and a painful secret. When she is offered her dream post as an assistant in the fabric department at Liberty store, she knows this is the fresh start she needs. Amid the store’s vibrant prints and sumptuous interiors, Mary finds a new family who can help her to heal. But not everyone will give Mary such a warm welcome, and the trauma of her past will soon catch up with her. As Mary and the Liberty Girls endure the heartache and uncertainty of war, it will take a steady heart to keep the magic of Christmas alive.

When florist Jennie lands a job in Primrose Hill, it's the perfect chance for her to start afresh in the city. But when a wealthy client gets her fired, Jennie must take a leap of faith, follow her dream and set up a flower business of her own. Moving into Primrose Tower with new friend Kat, Jennie meets a group of strong, inspiring women who she calls on for help when she lands the biggest wedding of her career and must restore her reputation. But it's hard to stay focussed when James, a charming doctor, keeps distracting her.

For many years Colette has avoided returning to her homeland - the magical island of Belle-Île-en-Mer in Southern Brittany - afraid to confront the painful memories she left behind. She is living on the Cornish coast when she hears about her mother Thea's failing health and realises that the time has come for her to go home. But can Colette ever forgive Thea for what she has done?

Everyone deserves a new beginning. But sometimes fate isn't on your side.... Over one short weekend, when Canadian musician Scott Emerson and British children's author Frankie Shaw meet by chance, a profound connection is made. Their homes are thousands of miles apart: Frankie and her children live by the coast of North Norfolk while Scott's roots lie deep in the mountains of British Columbia. Against all advice, they decide to see where this might go.

When young Dylan Harris's former babysitter (and soon to be step-sister), Harriet, needs a last-minute venue for her acting troupe's outdoor production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, the staff at Mill Grange throw open its doors, keen to fill their halls with guests over the holiday season but they may get more drama than they'd bargained for! With pageants and plays to arrange, a much-anticipated book launch, an unexpected arrival, a heart-warming offer, and a little bit of the manor's magic, this Christmas is one that Thea, Tina, Sam, Shaun, Helen and Tom won't soon forget.

It's 1984 - and it's an important time for the children of Ragley-on-the Forest school.... Their school choir is to sing a carol in a church in York, and it's actually going to be on television! Helping to keep his excited children - not to mention their parents - under control during these momentous events taxes Jack and his staff to the limit. And at the same time, Jack has his own problems to deal with....

You would think December would be Ivy's ideal time of year. After all, festivities abound and witches everywhere are encouraged to put their feet up and relax. That's not quite the case when she has various Order members attempting to finagle her into Christmas activities and a special artifact from the top of the Christmas tree goes missing. Either someone is attempting to sabotage Winter or something very strange is afoot indeed.

Three novellas and an unforgettable short story, now available together in one festive package!

Eleanor Sharpley has been living a lie. Needing to escape her London life quickly, Eleanor throws her things into the back of her car, and heads to her erstwhile best friend Charlie’s family farm. But Charlie isn’t there. Instead she finds Charlie’s grieving brother, Daniel, her eight-month-old daughter, Hope (a daughter Eleanor had known nothing about) and a crumbling and unloved Damson Farm.

A moving story of two women struggling with their past: one cannot remember hers, the other cannot forget.... When Hebe receives a life-changing diagnosis at only 40, she struggles to make sense of what it will mean for her, her job and the man she loves. With memories slipping away by the day, she flees to the one place she has always felt safe and peaceful - Cornwall, and the house her family spent so many summers in.

After uprooting her life, Irene Steele has just settled in at the villa on St. John where her husband, Russ, had been living a double life. But a visit from the FBI shakes her foundations, and Irene once again learns just how little she knew about the man she loved. Irene and her sons try to get on with setting up their new lives while evidence mounts that the helicopter crash that killed Russ may not have been an accident.