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12 December 2014

Weekly Feature: Once Upon a Christmas Story...


 'Once Upon a Story' is a weekly feature in which we go back in time and focus  on a specific novel that was released in the same month we're in right now. Since it's Christmas month on my blog, I thought it would be fun to look back at Christmas novels that were released during the past few years. So, if you're still looking for a lovely festive read, be sure to check out any of the novels mentioned below!  

This week, we're travelling back to 2012 to look back at some of the Christmas novels that were released in that particular year!
 

 
Julia Williams - 'A Merry Little Christmas'

With four children, a Christmas cookbook to write, and her mum suffering from dementia, Cat Tinsall has plenty to juggle. When her eldest daughter, Mel, starts going off the rails, Cat has even more on her plate.

Pippa Holliday adores her family, although often finds her hands full. When Dan is involved in a terrible accident, Pippa’s world is suddenly turned upside down.

Balancing her job as a school teacher with twins and her step-son Steven isn’t easy for Marianne North. With her husband’s ex causing trouble, life is getting even trickier.

As Cat, Pippa and Marianne help each other through a difficult year, they’re all hoping for a much brighter Christmas.
 

 
Katie Flynn - 'A Sixpenny Christmas'

As the worst storm of the century breaks across the North West, sweeping through Snowdonia and across the Mersey to burst upon Liverpool, two women. Molly and Ellen, give birth to girls in a Liverpool maternity hospital. Despite their different backgrounds, they become firm friends. Molly lives on a hill farm in Snowdonia while Ellen is married to Sam O'Mara, a dock worker who is quicker with a punch than a kiss.

After one punch too many, Ellen throws her husband out, and eventually leaves Liverpool to live with Molly in Snowdonia. Ellen and her daughter throw themselves into their new life with enthusiasm, unaware of the threat that is lurking in the Welsh mountains.

And as another horrendous storm breaks across the hills, the two women's lives are about to take a new turn, but this time they will face the danger together.
 

 
Nora Roberts - 'Christmas Magic'

Christmas is truly magical with Nora Roberts.

All I Want for Christmas
Identical six-year-old twins Zeke and Zach wished for only one gift from Santa this year: a new mum! But convincing their love-wary dad that their new music teacher, Miss Davis, was his destiny and sent by Santa wasn’t as easy as they’d hoped… 

This Magic Moment
For Ryan Swan, who’d vowed never to give her trust again, master of illusions Pierce Atkins was the last man to whom she should give her heart. Especially since he was planning a death-defying stunt he might not even survive. Yet despite everything, when she was with Pierce, all Ryan’s defences seemed to vanish…
 

 
Scarlett Bailey - 'Married by Christmas'

All she wants is a perfect Christmas Eve wedding...

It’s been on Anna’s wish-list since she was a little girl, dreaming of a far happier family life than she’d ever experienced.

But now – only two weeks before her big day – her perfect husband-to-be drops a bombshell...

Only nothing’s going to stop Anna’s plans – not even the pesky inconvenience of discovering her groom already has a wife!
 

 
Abby Clements - 'Meet Me Under the Mistletoe'

Childhood friends Laurie and Rachel's lives have taken very different paths since they picked up their A-level results together. Laurie is living in London and dedicated to her career, keeping track of her friends on Facebook. Rachel is seemingly living the family idyll in a cottage in Yorkshire - except she worries her marriage is starting to show cracks. 

When Rachel's mother in law falls ill and needs treatment in London, and Laurie decides she needs to get away for a break, a house swap falls into place. Soon Rachel is braving the mean streets of London while trying to keep her family together, while Laurie tries to figure out how to work an Aga and befriend the locals - and forget the man who seems intent on breaking her heart. 

Will their relationships survive this test? And will they make it home in time for Christmas?
 

 
Karen Swan - 'The Perfect Present'

Haunted by a past she can’t escape, Laura Cunningham desires nothing more than to keep her world small and precise - her quiet relationship and growing jewellery business are all she needs to get by. Until the December day when Rob Blake walks into her studio and commissions a necklace that will tell his enigmatic wife Cat’s life in charms. 

As Laura interviews Cat’s family, friends and former lovers, she steps out of her world and into theirs – a charmed world where weekends are spent in Verbier and the air is lavender-scented, where friends are wild, extravagant and jealous, and a big love has to compete with grand passions. Hearts are opened, secrets revealed and as the necklace begins to fill up with trinkets, Cat’s intoxicating life envelops Laura’s own. 

By the time she has to identify the final charm, Laura’s metamorphosis is almost complete. But the last story left to tell has the power to change all of their lives forever, and Laura is forced to choose between who she really is and who it is she wants to be.
 

 
Carole Matthews - 'With Love at Christmas'

Juliet Joyce adores Christmas. She loves the presents, the tree, the turkey, the tinsel, everything. Already the festive spirit is upon her, which is just as well as this Christmas things are starting to get out of hand.

Her son Tom is out of work and bringing home a slew of unsuitable partners; pregnant daughter Chloe and her little boy have moved back in; Juliet's father, Frank, is getting over a heartbreak of his own and Rita, her eccentric mother, is behaving more erratically each day. And has the chaos got too much for Juliet's husband Rick?

With the big day fast approaching, Juliet hopes that she can stop everything spiralling out of control, because the only thing she wants is her family all around her and her home to be filled with love at Christmas...
 

 
Milly Johnson - 'A Winter Flame'

'Tis the season to be jolly… But can Eve find happiness through the frost…?

Eve has never liked Christmas, not since her beloved fiancé was killed in action in Afghanistan on Christmas Day. So when her adored elderly aunt dies, the last thing she is expecting is to be left a theme park in her will. A theme park with a Christmas theme…

And that's not the only catch. Her aunt's will stipulates that Eve must run the park with a mysterious partner, the exotically named Jacques Glace. Who is this Jacques, and why did Aunt Evelyn name him in her will?


But Eve isn't going to back down from a challenge. She's determined to make a success of Winterworld, no matter what. Can she overcome her dislike of Christmas, and can Jacques melt her frozen heart at last…?
 

 
Emma Hannigan - 'Driving Home for Christmas'

Christmas at Huntersbrook House has always been a family tradition - log fires, long walks through the snowy fields and evenings spent in the local pub. And this year the three grown-up Craig children are looking forward to the holidays more than ever. Pippa to escape her partying lifestyle and mounting debts in Dublin; Joey the demands of his gorgeous girlfriend who seems intent on coming between him and his family; and Lainey to forget about her controlling ex and his recent engagement to another woman. 

But with the family livery yard in financial trouble, this Christmas could be the Craig family's last at Huntersbrook as they face the prospect of selling the ancestral house. 

As the holiday season gets underway, the family need to come up with a way to save their home, and face the problems they've been running away from in Dublin. And what better place to figure things out than around the fire at Huntersbrook House?
 

 
Fiona Harper - 'Kiss Me Under the Mistletoe'

This Christmas, ex-WAG Louise Thornton is starting her new life, away from the paparazzi – and her cheating husband. 

Un-manicured, back on carbs and holding herself together courtesy of some seriously good foundation, Louise will make things perfect for her son, right up until he leaves for his dad’s on the big day. Then she’ll be free to curl up and cancel Christmas. 

But it turns out escaping the fame goldfish bowl comes with some perks: peace and quiet, no baying press, plus regular battles with her Mr Darcy-esque new neighbour to keep her edge. And the best thing about a real, country Christmas is that there’s always lots of mistletoe to be found… 

1 comment:

  1. So many amazing titles!
    Thank you for the great books :)

    ReplyDelete