Showing titles in Holidays

By 1851, all of London has fallen in love with A Christmas Carol, heralding Charles Dickens as “the man who invented Christmas.” But for his wife, Catherine, Christmas is less of a reason for celebration and more of a burden. Between hosting lavish parties, decorating her home, and caring for her eight children—with one more on the way—she feels more like Scrooge than herself this year. But everything changes after a chance encounter with a kitchen cook, who reminds her that Christmas can be a time of miracles and magic, if she is willing to open her heart.

Life is in two parts: who you were before you met her and who you are after. A documentary crew discover a mysterious young woman living alone in the mountains of West Cork. Strikingly beautiful, she has an extraordinary talent for mimicry, like the famous Australian lyrebird. The crew, fascinated, make her the subject of their story and bestow the nickname upon her. When they leave, they take Lyrebird with them back to the city.

Here in Slough House, the intelligence service's home for inept spies, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Roddy Ho is used to being the one the slow horses turn to when they need miracles performed, and he's always been Jackson Lamb's Number Two. So when Lamb has a photograph that needs doctoring, it's Ho he entrusts with the task. Christmas is a time for memories, but Lamb doesn't do memories—or so he says. But what is it about the photo that makes him want to alter it? How would the slow horses cope if Roddy Ho didn't exist?

When Edward of York takes back the English crown, the Wars of the Roses scatter the Lancastrian nobility, and young Henry Tudor, with a strong claim to the throne, is forced into exile. Recently widowed and vulnerable, his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, forges an uncomfortable alliance with Edward’s Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Swearing an oath of allegiance to York, Margaret agrees to marry the King’s shrewdest courtier, Lord Stanley. But can she tread the precarious line between duty to her husband, loyalty to her son, and her obligation to God and the King?

In many ways, my life has been rather like a record of the lost and found. Perhaps all lives are like that. It's when life started in earnest. Hertfordshire, 1928. The paths of Tom and Alice collide against a haze of youthful, carefree exuberance. And so begins a love story that finds its feet by a lake one silvery moonlit evening... It's when there were no happy endings. Paris, 1939. Alice is living in the City of Light, but the pain of the last decade has already left its mark.

Christmas is just around the corner, but the women of The Chocolate Lovers' Club have more to worry about than present shopping.... Lucy loves running Chocolate Heaven, but she hasn't spent time with her boyfriend, Aiden, in weeks. And then her ex-fiance turns up, and things become even more complicated. Nadia hasn't let herself get close to a man in a long time, yet she can't help feeling drawn to Jacob.

Cassy's a backpacking student travelling around New Zealand - until the day she accepts a lift in a van full of smiling strangers; her life is changed forever. She's soon entangled in Gethsemane, a community led by Justin Calvin, a visionary leader with a violent past. As Cassy falls under Gethsemane's spell, a new identity is built for her. But when her father's illness reunites her with her family, she's forced to confront the hidden darkness of her world.

Ollie Spencer has started a new life in the idyllic Cornish seaside town of Port Karadow. Throwing herself into her job at the town’s bookshop, A New Chapter, is one way to make friends. The shop is glitzing up for first Christmas and Ollie hopes her inspired ideas will give the shop the edge it needs to dazzle the town. But far from being the Sugar Plum fairy the place needs, Ollie is fast becoming its Christmas pudding. With the bookshop’s success at stake, Ollie turns to twinkly-eyed café owner Max for help.

High on the wave-pounded cliffs, far from the bustling souks of Marrakesh, sits The Surf House. A hidden gem on Morocco’s shores, the house is a sanctuary for the surfers, travellers and dreamers who wash in. But the idyll is built on something rotten. And when Bea arrives, relieved to find refuge after a dangerous encounter in a Marrakesh alleyway, she soon gets caught in the swell of a deep, dark mystery. Because another young woman went missing one year ago – and the last place she was sighted was The Surf House.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—well, actually, my true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending a feliz navidad tramping around South America. Meanwhile, Mummy is holed up in a tiny village called Tiddleton-under-Lovey with that droll Noel Coward! And I’m snowed in at Castle Rannoch with my bumbling brother, Binky, and sourpuss sister-in-law, Fig.

1929, December: Snow is falling, and Miss Clara Vale is wrapped up against the cold as she braves the icy streets of Newcastle in her latest investigation. When a young actress from the touring pantomime of Cinderella arrives at her door, Clara isn't sure what to make of her request. Sybil Langford, the legendary fairy godmother in their production, has mysteriously vanished. Could Clara help track her down? But a few days into Clara's search, Sybil's body is pulled from an icy river, and Clara finds herself in the middle of yet another murder mystery.

Hester and Harriet are reluctantly driving to visit relatives on Christmas Day when they come across a young woman hiding with her baby in a bus shelter. Seeing the perfect excuse for returning to their own warm hearth, the sisters insist on bringing Daria and Milo home with them. But with the arrival of a sinister stranger looking for a girl with a baby, Hester and Harriet's carefully crafted peace and quiet quickly begins to fall apart....

Irene Steele's life is idyllic, until it is rocked by a late-night phone call that brings news of her husband's sudden death. Even in the midst of her crippling grief, Irene cannot get one question out of her head: why was his body found on St. John, a tropical Caribbean paradise far removed from their suburban life? Leaving the cold Nantucket winter behind, Irene flies hundreds of miles to get to the island - only to learn that her husband had a secret second family.

It's mid-December, and for the fifth year in a row, there is little sign of the festive season in the Sullivan family's home in South London. That is until a mysterious someone starts sending strange gifts to widower Henry and his two children. First, a small-beaked and feathered face pokes its head out from between the branches of a pear tree. Before they know it, the Sullivan's home is full of boisterous animals and house guests, all demanding their attention.

I Heart series book one. Get ready to meet Angela Clark as she flees the world's worst wedding for a new life.... It's official. Angela Clarke is in love - with the most fabulous city in the world. Fleeing her cheating boyfriend and clutching little more than a crumpled bridesmaid dress, a pair of Louboutins, and her passport, Angela jumps on a plane, destination - NYC. Holed up in a cute hotel room, Angela gets a New York makeover from her NBF, Jenny, and a whirlwind tour of the city that never sleeps.

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.

Thirty-somethings Tash and her brother Jamie didn’t mean to time travel back to October 1984, but bizarrely, they did, on the very day that Bob Geldof watched the BBC news report which moved him to form Band Aid and record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Except their arrival caused him to miss it. So because of them, there’ll be no Band Aid, no "USA for Africa", and no "Live Aid".

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.

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.

Holiday time in the Valley, and in the holiday spirit - despite the dismal shape of the finances at the Little Detective Agency - Bernie refers a potential client to Victor Klovsky, a fellow private eye. It’s also true that the case - promising lots of online research but little action - doesn’t appeal to Bernie, while it seems perfect for Victor, who is not cut out for rough stuff. But Victor disappears in a rough-stuff way, and when he doesn’t show up at his mom’s to light the Hanukkah candles, she hires Chet and Bernie to find him.