Love is in the air as Christmas countdown begins by various authors – book reviews –

A Christmas Celebration

Heidi Swain

Light the fire, cuddle up close and escape into the magic of Christmas with the queen of romance Heidi Swain.

Swain, who lives with her family in picturesque south Norfolk, has won thousands of hearts with her super-sparkling novels set in Wynbridge, the fictional Fenland town where love blossoms whatever the season.

With a stable of enchanting titles like Underneath the Christmas Tree, The Winter Garden and A Taste of Home to her name, Swain has a well-earned reputation for heartwarming stories which showcase her talent for blending escapist romance, domestic drama and a perfectly imagined cast of characters with real-life challenges in the modern world.

Brimming with life and love, laughter and tears, and guaranteed to leave readers with that elusive sense of feelgood, these entertaining books are the perfect accompaniment for winter nights, summer holidays, spring getaways or autumn travels.

Here we meet Paige who has been working abroad and turns up unannounced at Wynthorpe Hall, the home of her godparents, Angus and Catherine Connelly, and discovers that the place she knew when she was growing up has changed beyond all recognition. She was only planning to stay in Wynbridge for a short time but is quickly pulled into local life.

One night while driving home after delivering library books and shopping to residents, Paige stumbles across an isolated cottage and meets Albert, its elderly and rather grumpy owner. She quickly realises there’s more to the octogenarian Albert than meets the eye and the same can be said for the other man she can’t seem to help running into... handsome but brooding Brodie.

All three of them have a secret and a desire to hide away from the world but with Christmas on the horizon, is that really the best way to celebrate the season?

Brimming with emotion, drama, romance and friendship, Swain’s magical tale of love, community, cheer and charm is guaranteed to leave readers with a special snow-sprinkled glow that wraps itself around you like a cosy blanket of love and laughter.

With its tasty festive concoction of real life, heart-fluttering romance, laugh-out-loud comedy and heartwarming happy-ever-after, this is the perfect Christmas book hug for winter nights.

(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £8.99)

Christmas at the Village Sewing Shop

Helen Rolfe

As Christmas draws near, can three sisters stitch their family back together?

Christmas at the Village Sewing Shop is the enchanting new novel from Helen Rolfe, the much-loved author of feelgood women’s fiction and a writer whose stories feature idyllic rural locations where problems are real, broken hearts are mended, family comes first, and love and friendship blossom.

Employing all the warmth and charm of Maeve Binchy, and a special brand of kindness that she has made her own, Rolfe weaves together the warmth of community, the bonds of family love, romance and festive magic in a story guaranteed to bring laughter, tears and miles of smiles.

Loretta has run the little village sewing shop in Butterbury for years while bringing up her three headstrong daughters. Her own grandmother taught her how to quilt and some of Loretta’s most precious memories are sitting with her three girls, Daisy, Ginny and Fern, and stitching together scraps of material... as well as their hopes and dreams.

But this Christmas the family is coming apart at the seams. Fern feels like she is failing at motherhood and marriage, Ginny’s passion for her job as a midwife is fading, and Daisy (who is keeping two very different secrets) is desperate to prove she has changed since her wild younger years. But most of all, Loretta seems to be hiding something from her daughters.

As they come together to create a beautiful new festive quilt, memories are stirred, the bond between the sisters begins to heal and new friendships are woven. But when Loretta reveals the real reason she has brought them all home, can the sisters mend the quilt, and their family, in time for Christmas?

Rolfe knows what makes people tick – their fears, their disappointments and their need for love – and this sparkling concoction, set in the kind of charming rural village where many of us would love to live, serves up lashings of domestic drama, a big helping of romance, plenty of soul-searching, and a cast of lovable characters.

So if it’s good cheer, a warm hug, and a comforting slice of festive spirit that you’re seeking this Christmas season, head off to beautiful Butterbury and you’ll definitely feel the love!

(Orion, paperback, £7.99)

Snowed In For Christmas

Sarah Morgan

The Christmas season wouldn’t be the same without the gift of a beautiful, winter-warming story from much-loved author Sarah Morgan.

Family drama, heart-fluttering romance and oodles of festive spirit – all delivered with Morgan’s trademark warmth and humour – are the special ingredients for this seasonal reading treat.

This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal... to avoid their family’s well-meaning questions at the annual gathering at Miller Lodge, their baronial home in the Scottish Highlands. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they are relying on each other to deflect attention.

Meanwhile, Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone, and the prospect of losing her job... unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller. She will deliver her proposal to his family home in the Highlands and then leave. After all, she wouldn’t want to intrude on the Millers’ perfect family Christmas.

When Lucy appears on the Millers’ snow-covered doorstep, she is mistaken for Ross’s girlfriend. But by the time the confusion is cleared up, a storm has hit and Lucy is stuck there. As everyone settles in for a snowed-in Christmas, tensions bubble to the surface and suddenly Lucy finds herself facing a big family fall-out... with a family that isn’t even hers!

There is so much to enjoy in this new slice of unputdownable Morgan magic… a seductive, snow-sprinkled backdrop, that irresistible sense of feelgood that imbues this author’s wonderful stories, and a simmering romance to set your own heart on fire.

The Christmas season is well and truly underway!

(HQ, paperback, £8.99)

A Mother's Christmas Wish

Glenda Young

Long bike rides along the coast near Sunderland have provided fertile ‘thinking’ territory for Glenda Young’s gripping and gritty sagas set in a tough North East mining community.

A Mother's Christmas Wish, Young’s first Christmas-themed saga, follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a rebellious teenage girl who leaves her home in Ireland under a cloud of shame to live in England only to find herself plunged into a fresh scandal.

Set in 1924, in the aftermath of the First World War, this sizzling story has all the favourite ingredients of a good saga… drama, romance, high emotion, flashes of northern humour and a heroine who faces many struggles on the road to find happiness.

Following a scandalous affair with the village priest, wild, wayward and beautiful Emma Devaney is sent in disgrace from her home in Ireland to Ryhope, the northern mining community where she will live with her widowed aunt, Bessie Brogan, and help run her pub.

For 17-year-old Emma, it’s a new beginning and a chance to revel in the excitement she has always craved in her life but could never find back home in Ireland. Bessie proves to be a kindly aunt but she is also firm and Emma rebels against her lack of freedom.

Struggling to fit in, she turns to the wrong person for comfort, and becomes pregnant. Accepting that she must embrace her new life for the sake of her baby, Emma pours her energy into making the pub thrive and helping heal the fractured relationship between Bessie and her own daughters.

Emma catches the attention of Robert, a gruff but sincere farmer, and he is intent on winning her heart. As December approaches, thankful for the home and acceptance she has found, Emma is determined to bring not just her family, but the whole Ryhope community, together to celebrate... and to make one very special mother’s Christmas dreams come true.

Using her local knowledge and her eye for human frailty, Young creates a believable and richly detailed world in this emotive story full of hardship, kinship and resilience, and with a memorable cast of beautifully drawn characters.

With Emma’s rollercoaster journey from inexperienced girl to loving mother at the heart of the story, alongside Young’s vivid evocation of Ryhope in the 1920s, A Mother’s Christmas Wish will be on every saga fan’s own wish list.

This book is published on November 24.

(Headline, paperback, £7.99)

A Sixpence for Christmas

Gracie Hart

Head off to Leeds in the final years of the 19th century for the second book in Gracie Hart’s heartwarming saga series which harnesses all the warmth and goodness of a tasty home-baked cake.

In 1895, kind and thoughtful Meg Fairfax just wants her family to be together at Christmas. But her mother Agnes’s illness gets worse every day and her sister Sarah is off doing God knows what. But 18-year-old Meg can no longer work at the bakery business she had built up from nothing after Ted Lund, the miserly owner of another local bakery, falsely blackened her name. Now, she has to barter for food at the shops and she doesn’t know how they will cope.

Luckily, she knows Frankie Pearson, the owner of a local patisserie who has loved Meg since the first time he saw her and is now offering her a job. But Meg reckons she isn’t suited for fancy cakes and frills. All she wants is to feed her family and make them proud but, as winter takes hold, it feels like everything is stacked against her. Can she make a success of herself and her life before Christmas?

Leeds-born Hart, who now lives in the Yorkshire Dales, knows the winning formula when it comes to northern sagas and this tale of love and survival – which includes with some of Meg’s delicious Christmas recipes – is a Yorkshire-flavoured treat!

(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £7.99)