Christmas Corner Guest Post: What Christmas Means to Me, by Jenny Hale

When I think of Christmastime, I think of friends and family. They’re all around me during this season. Christmas Eve church services, big dinners with grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, making and receiving treats for our neighbors, decorating with my children—I am surrounded by loved ones. For me, it’s the people in my life that make this season special. I have a million different memories of Christmas, but I thought I’d share a few of the good ones—the ones that shaped my view of the holiday!

Book Review: My Own Mr Darcy, by Karey White

After being dragged to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice by her mother, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth’s life changes when Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy appears on the screen. Lizzie falls hard and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy.

This ill-advised pledge threatens to ruin any chance of finding true love. During the six intervening years, she has refused to give any interested suitors a chance. They weren’t Mr. Darcy enough. Coerced by her roommate, Elizabeth agrees to give the next interested guy ten dates before she dumps him. That guy is Chad, a kind and thoughtful science teacher and swim coach.

While she’s dating Chad, her dream comes true in the form of a wealthy bookstore owner named Matt Dawson, who looks and acts like her Mr. Darcy. Of course she has to follow her dream. But as Elizabeth simultaneously dates a regular guy and the dazzling Mr. Dawson, she’s forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place.

Busy bee!

Hey bookworms

I’ve been pretty pants this week with posts, but I do hope you’ll forgive me, as it was my birthday week and I’ve been very busy!

I’ve had an absolutely lovely week with the Mr and our friends and family. Last night we had a big party with a Heroes & Villains fancy dress theme, which was a lot of fun. (We went as Rogue and Gambit from X-Men!) Everyone made such an effort which is always lovely to see.

Unfortunately, all this partying and general frivolity has left very little time for reading and writing, which is always a shame.

It was also my last week in my current job, and I start my new marketing job tomorrow. I can’t wait, but I’m also a big ole bag of nerves right now! I’m sure it’ll be fine once I get there though.

Anyway, I hope you’ve all had a lovely week, and I promise I’m back with my full attention going forward!

Book Review: One Hundred Christmas Proposals, by Holly Martin

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to One Hundred Proposals…

If you thought Harry & Suzie’s life couldn’t get anymore sweepingly romantic than Harry asking her to marry him at the end of One Hundred Proposals – think again!

It’s Christmas in a snow-kissed London, and the.PerfectProposal.com have vowed to carry out one hundred proposals in December. No easy task at the best of times – made even more complicated by Harry & Suzie trying to plan their first Christmas and a visit from the dreaded in-laws. But one hundred deliciously Christmassy proposals later they find themselves asking if everything is still perfect in their own relationship….

Welcome back to the divinely warm world of One Hundred Proposals – with a sprinkling of pure, joyful, festive magic.

Have yourself a very merry Christmas indeed with Holly Martin’s Christmas novella.

And the winner is…

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and congratulations to Laura Martin who has won the giveaway!

She wins:

• Love Me For Me by Jenny Hale
• Love, Lies and Lemon Cake by Sue Watson
• A Notebook
• Penguin gift
• Surprise gifts

 

 

Book Review: Waiting for Doggo, by Mark B. Mills

One Man. One Dog. One Big Love.

No-one ever called Dan a pushover. But then no-one ever called him fast-track either.

He likes driving slowly, playing Sudoku on his iPhone, swapping one scruffy jumper for another. He’s been with Clara for four years and he’s been perfectly happy; but now she’s left him, leaving nothing but a long letter filled with incriminations and a small, white, almost hairless dog, named Doggo. So now Dan is single, a man without any kind of partner whether working or in love. He’s just one reluctant dog owner. Find a new home for him, that’s the plan.

Come on…everyone knows the old adage about the best laid plans and besides, Doggo is one special kind of a four legged friend…and an inspiration.

Book Review: A Place For Us – Part 4, by Harriet Evans

The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day…

The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside.

The hall is cool after the hot summer’s day. The welcome is kind, and always warm.

Yet something makes you suspect life here can’t be as perfect as it seems.

After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret.

But wouldn’t you pay any price to have a glorious place like this?

Welcome to Winterfold.

Martha Winter’s family is finally coming home.

***

Christmas Corner Guest Post: My Best Christmas, by Jennifer Joyce

My best Christmas took place in 2011 when we went to New York. I’d wanted to go to New York – especially at Christmas – since I watched Home Alone 2 as a child, so it was amazing to actually go. I couldn’t believe I was actually there until we stood in Times Square and saw the view I’d seen on TV and films so many times!

We spent a week there and did the usual touristy things, like going up the Empire State Building and sampling American pancakes and cheesecake but we also got to take our daughters (who were 8 and 3 at the time) to see Santa at Macy’s, which was even more magical than I could ever have imagined. We also got to see the gorgeous festive windows displays and the gigantic tree at Rockefeller Center. Christmas Day was spent in Central Park, starting with a horse and carriage ride before we went to the zoo.

On our last night in New York, my oldest daughter and I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, which was brilliant. We had such an amazing time in New York and as we brought some Christmas decorations home with us, we have a reminder of our best Christmas when we put them up each year.

***

Meet Jennifer

Jennifer is a writer of romantic comedies who lives in Manchester with her husband and their two daughters. When she’s not disappearing into her own fictional worlds, she can be found reviewing books on her blog or over on Novelicious as part of the Alternative Thursday team. You can read her Novelicious reviews here.

Her books, A Beginner’s Guide To Salad and festive short story A Beginner’s Guide To Christmas are available now.

Blog: Jennifer Joyce Writes

Twitter: @Writer_Jenn

Facebook: Jennifer Joyce Writes

Goodreads: Jennifer Joyce

Thank you so much for sharing your best Christmas with us, Jennifer. It sounds like a truly magical one.

Book Review: Cold Feet at Christmas, by Debbie Johnson

Running out on your wedding shouldn’t be this much fun!

A remote Scottish castle on a snowy Christmas Eve. A handsome husband-to-be. A dress to die for. It should have been the happiest day of Leah Harvey’s life – but the fairytale wedding turns sour when she finds her fiancé halfway up the bridesmaid’s skirt just hours before the ceremony!

Fleeing the scene in a blizzard, Leah ends up stranded at the nearest cottage, where she collapses into the arms of its inhabitant – a man so handsome she thinks she must have died and gone to heaven!

And when Rob Cavelli suddenly finds himself with an armful of soaking wet, freezing cold, and absolutely gorgeous bride on the run, he’s more than happy to welcome her into his snowbound cottage this Christmas…

Book Review: The Great Christmas Knit Off, by Alexandra Brown

The perfect seasonal tale of how laughter, friends and wacky Christmas jumpers can mend a broken heart… 

Heartbroken after being jilted at the altar, Sybil has been saved from despair by her knitting obsession and now her home is filled to bursting with tea cosies, bobble hats, and jumpers. But, after discovering that she may have perpetrated the cock-up of the century at work, Sybil decides to make a hasty exit and, just weeks before Christmas, runs away to the picturesque village of Tindledale.

There, Sybil discovers Hettie’s House of Haberdashery, an emporium dedicated to the world of knitting and needle craft. But Hettie, the outspoken octogenarian owner, is struggling and now the shop is due for closure. And when Hettie decides that Sybil’s wonderfully wacky Christmas jumpers are just the thing to add a bit of excitement to her window display, something miraculous starts to happen…