'Tis the season for reading!
Get in the Christmas spirit with these 12 festive book picks. Whether you're in the mood for a New York romance, a charming mystery, or simply something to make you smile, these uplifting reads are packed with all the ingredients for a cosy Christmas. So hang up your stocking, curl up by the fire, and indulge in some true escapism this holiday season. Click on a title to reserve one.
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1. Home For Christmas – Heidi Swain
Bella is living her best life in Wynbridge, with her beloved Spaniel, Tink. She’s found a way to keep the house she inherited from her grandparents while expanding her dream business – Away With the Fairies – and she’s ecstatic that Christmas is on the horizon!
In fact, everything is perfect until family friend, Catherine Connelly asks Bella if she’d be willing to rent part of the house to freelance author, Jude who is researching the history of the Connelly Clan and Wynthorpe Hall ahead of turning his findings into a book. The plan had been for Jude to stay at the hall, but he can’t cope with the chaos and Bella reluctantly agrees to open her door to him.
Initially, the pair clash but then friendlier feelings begin to grow and Bella finds herself wondering if Jude could become more than just another guest before it’s time for him to leave. That is, until he announces he has no time for Christmas!
With her favourite time of the year suddenly in jeopardy, will Bella ever feel like she’s home for Christmas?
2. A Winter in New York – Josie Silver
Where better to start again than New York?
Iris arrives in the city of dreams, intent on restarting her culinary career, and leaving her recent heartache behind.
Wandering the streets at a famous food festival, Iris feels like she's living in a movie. Then she stumbles upon a gelateria that looks strangely familiar. Inside, she meets Gio: a perfect leading man with an irresistible smile - and a crisis of his own.
As fate would have it, Iris is the one person with the answer to his problem. She just can't tell him that . . .
So, can Iris finally let go of the past - and let herself fall in love?
3. Christmas Presents – Lisa Unger
When true crime podcaster Harley Granger drifts into Madeline Martin's bookshop days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up a past that Madeline would much rather forget.
Granger's work has earned him fame and wealth — and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Granger also has a lot of questions about the night Madeline was left for dead, the only surviving victim of killer Evan Handy.
Handy, who also murdered Madeline's best friend and is suspected in the disappearance of two local sisters, has been in jail for a decade. Since then, though, three other young women have gone missing in similar circumstances. Is the true predator still out there somewhere?
As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline must confront the past to answer questions that have haunted her since that day. Is the truth more terrible than she ever imagined?
4. A Jingle Bell Mingle – Julie Murphy
Sunny Palmer has returned to Christmas Notch in search of some festive inspiration for her screenplay.
Isaac Kelly, former boy band heartthrob and the saddest boy in the music biz, is the latest owner of the town’s historic mansion. What better place to attempt his first holiday album than a snow-covered mansion where he can become a hermit in peace?
But after they wake up together in Sunny’s dilapidated motel room after a wild night, Isaac takes a chance and asks her to stay at his place and they make a deal: they will both try to get the other’s creative juices flowing again.
With these two opposites under one roof, there’s no way this jingle bell mingle could go off script…right?
5. Christmas is All Around – Martha Waters
A little holiday magic can change everything . . .
Charlotte hates the holidays. As a former child actress, she starred in a Christmas movie, whose fans won't let her move on. When a piece revealing that her reluctance nixed plans for a reboot, she flees to London to spend the festive season with her sister.
But the ghosts of Christmas past follow her when she visits Eden Priory, one of the filming locations. When she's accidentally left behind, she's forced to accept a ride back to London from Graham, the son of the owners. Their family business - and the funds to keep their historic house running - relies on holiday cheer, and Graham knows seasons greetings from a certain star would bring in more visitors.
Now an illustrator, Charlotte accepts a commission illustrating iconic holiday movie scenes in London and its environs for Eden Priory, with Graham offering to escort her. But as Charlotte's chaotic family holiday goes awry, she begins spending more time with Graham. Charlotte may not love a Christmas romance . . . but what if she has one of her own?
6. The Christmas Fix – Lucy Score
There's only one thing standing in the way of Cat King saving a small town's Christmas festival: Grumpy town manager Noah Yates.
Single dad Noah takes his responsibilities seriously. When a late season hurricane turns Merry, Connecticut, into a disaster, he's left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the town he loves.
At least, until home renovation expert and smoking hot reality TV star Catalina King arrives with a camera crew and a budget big enough to put the town back together again. But Noah doesn't want a celebrity diva capitalizing on their tragedy or filling his daughter's head with visions of glitz and glam.
Blonde bombshell Cat is used to being underestimated, but Noah has an uncanny knack for getting under her skin. They can't be in a room together without rubbing each other the wrong way...except that time in the dark alley where the rubbing was just right. Can these enemies work together to pull off a Christmas miracle or will their fighting leave them both on the naughty list?
7. Christmas with the Queen - Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb
December 1952. As the young Queen Elizabeth II prepares to deliver the first of her traditional Christmas messages, dedicated staff work behind the scenes to prepare for festive celebrations at the Sandringham Estate. Among the hard workers are Jack Devereaux and Olive Carter - old friends who are about to be reunited.
Over the course of five years, while Olive works as a royal correspondent and Jack is a chef in the Queen's household, their paths will cross time and time again. But as the two grow closer, their relationship is threatened by a secret that Olivia is afraid to reveal. When the secret comes out on Christmas Day in December 1957, it threatens to tear Olive and Jack apart forever. But maybe Christmas has one last gift to deliver.
8. Christmas at the Board Game Café – Jennifer Page
Kate seems to have it all – wonderful friends, a successful career, and an idyllic life in the quirky Yorkshire town of Essendale. But under the surface, Kate is lonely and yearns for family – especially at Christmas.
With the holidays approaching and the town desperate to attract more visitors, Kate plans an enchanting living Advent calendar to feature the local businesses. But Kate’s picture-perfect plans take an unexpected turn when her ex-boyfriend returns, determined to create the pivotal Christmas Eve display.
Caught between a new spark and an old flame, Kate must pull off her festive campaign and protect her heart. Will she let go of the past and embrace the future she dreams of?
9. The Christmas Stocking Murders – Denzil Meyrick
It’s just before Christmas, 1953. Grasby and Juggers are investigating a puzzling murder in the remote village of Uthley’s Bay. A fisherman has been found dead on the beach, with a stocking wound tight round his throat.
Hundreds of pairs of stockings, in neat cellophane bags, soon wash up on the shore. A blizzard cuts off Grasby and Juggers from help, and the local innkeeper is murdered. Any remaining Christmas cheer goes up in smoke as the villagers refuse to talk, leaving the two detectives chasing false leads in the snow.
To make matters worse, Grasby can’t stop thinking about stockings. Why does everyone seem to be enjoying strangely high standards of hosiery, even beneath their oilskins? Who is the sinister bespectacled man snooping around their hotel? And how can they solve the murder when everyone in the village is a suspect?
10. The Mistletoe Mystery – Nita Prose
Ever since Gran died, Christmas hasn’t been the same for Molly Gray. But with her beloved Juan Manuel by her side, she begins to feel the joy of the season. The happy couple unwrap the gifts behind the doors of Gran’s special advent calendar and polish Molly’s apartment until it shines with Christmas cheer.
But as Molly counts down the days to the Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel, she notices some curious changes in Juan Manuel. Why does he keep telling tales about his whereabouts? Why does it feel like there’s a mystery unfolding around her, without any clues?
Little does Molly know it’ll be a 5* Christmas at the Regency Grand Hotel…
11. Summer Hates Christmas – Rachel Dove
Summer Hastings HATES Christmas. She loves sunshine, the beach and sending people off to their dream destinations – even if she doesn’t get to see the world for herself. For Summer, Christmas sucks!
So, when handsome and charming Noel Pritchett moves his pop-up Christmas shop into the store next to hers, Summer wishes she worked anywhere but next door to Mr Christmas.
But Noel loves Christmas and his enthusiasm for the festive season is infectious. If only he could break through the anti-Christmas armour Summer has surrounded herself with, he’s sure he could convince her that it really is the most wonderful time of the year!
12. The Christmas Guest – Peter Swanson
When Ashley Smith - a bright-eyed but lonely American studying in London - is invited to spend Christmas with her classmate's family at their Cotswolds manor house, it seems like a perfect country idyll.
And for Ashley - who records it all in her diary - there's the added romantic potential of her friend's twin brother, Adam, who she thinks could be her wildest dream come true.
But is there something strange about the old house, both stately and rundown? What could the motives of the mysterious Chapman family be? And what holiday horrors might be lying in wait?
Looking for more festive reads? Search the whole catalogue here.
