Books Read: Carmen Reid - The Jewels of Manhattan

Source - Bought (Second hand on Ebay)

Like all crazy plans, it was plotted on a cocktail napkin.

1. Steal fabulous jewels
2. Sell for millions
3. Live happily ever after

Brilliant and oh so simple ... when you're a few Cosmopolitans down.

Not quite so easy ... if you've never stolen anything before, and you're dating a detective.

The three Jewel sisters, Amber, Sapphire and Em, came to New York in search of the perfect life.

But do they have to steal their dream?  Or can they resist the temptation?

Books Read: Cathy Kelly - Christmas Magic

Source - Bought (Amazon)

Synopsis

Cathy Kelly, the number 1 best-selling Irish author, has created her first collection of heart-warming short stories. Christmas Magic is full of charming tales of life, love and the everyday dilemmas that we all face, all told in Cathy’s warm voice.

From Dolores and Genevieve, two spinster sisters who must finally break free from their mother’s powerful personality, to Alice, who is facing having to open her home and her heart to the one visitor that she doesn’t want this Christmas, from a captivating family story triggered by a letter to Lily’s disastrous arrival at her best friend’s wedding, these are stories to make you laugh, cry and nod in recognition.

Relax and unwind in front of a roaring fire and indulge yourself in these, and many other humorous and uplifting tales. Remember that Christmas comes but once a year, so let the magic reel you in…

Books Read: Amy Silver - One Minute to Midnight

Source - Bought (Tesco)

Nicole Blake's New Year Resolutions, 1990:

1. Start keeping a journal;
2. Lose half a stone;
3. Kiss Julian Symonds;

If there are two things Nicole can guarantee about New Year's Eve, it's that there are always fireworks and Julian symonds is always there.  

Since she was thirteen, no New Year could be complete without Jules.  Through school, university and beyond, as friends come and go, Nic and Jules are at the centre of every party.

Until one year, everything changed.

Now, as another New Year approaches, Nicole has bridges to build - with her husband Dom, with her best friend Alex, and with Aidan, the man who broke her heart.

Life is about to change again, and once the fireworks are over and the dust has settled, this time Nicole is determined it will be for the better. 

Books Read: Ann Pearlman - A Gift for my sister

Source - Received as a present from a friend

How can two sisters so differently suddenly have so much in common?

Sky, obedient and cautious, has worked hard to build her dream life.  In her ideal job as a lawyer and married to hansome Troy, they live with their three-year-old daughter, Rachel, in a beautiful house on the beach. 

Younger sister, Tara, rebellious and impetuous, has fallen in love with the unsuitable but irresistible Arron, become pregnant, and embarked on a rollercoaster life as a musician.

But when tragedy besets Sky her world is turned upside down and Tara, instead of facing a future destined to be foolhardy and risky, unexpectedly finds herself on the brink of fame.  With this astonishing reversal of fortune, everything changes.  

So when Tara offers to help Sky start over and move home, there begins a road trip where tensions between the two sisters erupt, loyalties are tested and long hidden secrets revealed.

Books Read: Lucy Dillon - The secret of happy ever after

Source - Bought (Tesco)

When Anna takes over Longhampton's bookshop, it's her dream come true.  And not just because it gets her away from her rowdy stepchildren and their hyperactive Dalmation.

As she unpacks boxes of childhood classics, Anna can't shake the feeling that maybe her own fairytale ending isn't all that she'd hoped for.  But as the stories of love, adventure, secret gardens and giant peaches breathe new life into the neglected shop.  Anna and her customers get swept up in the magic too.

Even Anna's best friend Michelle - who categorically doesn't believe in true love and handsome princes - isn't immune.

But when secrets from Michelle's own childhood come back to haunt her, and disaster threatens Anna's home, will the wisdom and charm of the stories in the bookshop help the two friends - and those they love - find their own happy ever after?

Books Read: Miranda Dickinson - It Started with a Kiss

Source - Bought (Tesco)

Sometimes love happens when you least expect it ...

As the singer in a wedding band, Romily Parker has seen her fair share of happy endings, even though her own love life isn't quite as simple.

On the last Saturday before Christmas, shortly after disastrously declaring her love for best friend Charlie, Romily has a brief encounter with a handsome stranger whose heart-stopping kiss changes everything.

Determined to find him again, Romily embarks on a year-long quest, helped (and sometimes hindered) by enthusiastic Uncle Dudley, cake-making Auntie Mags and flamboyant Wren.  Will she find the man of her dreams?  Or could true love be closer than she thinks?

Books Read: Kate Harrison - The Secret Shopper Affair

Source - Bought (Sainsburys)

The secret shoppers return, best mates for ever - until men and money come between them...

Sandie is on a roll, with a baby on the way and her partner proposing every five minutes.  But when legendary Garnett's Department store is faced with bankruptcy, she knows she's the only one to save it.

For Emily, Sandie's perfect life is a bitter pill to swallow, especially as things aren't perfect a home.  As rifts grow, will she give in to new temptation?

Glamorous Grazia tries to play peacemaker, but she has problems of her own - including a new, needy lover.

Can the magic of retail bring the shoppers back together, or is it time to shut up show for good?  

Books Read: Emma Hannigan - Talk to the Headscarf

Source - Bought (Amazon)

Imagine you're thirty-two, married with two small children, and you find out you're carrying a deadly cancer gene?  That was me in August 2005 when I discovered I had the BRCA1 Gene.  I chose to have a double masectomy and both ovaries removed, which reduced my risk to 5%.

I was just dressing in my victory dance outfit when my worst fears were realised.  Cancer struck anyway.  I've now battled and slayed cancer six times.  Talk to the Head Scarf is my story about how I lived, laughed and overcame some of the toughest times in my life.

If you know someone affected by cancer, or if you are a fellow 'cancer club member' I know you are scared, I was too. But you are not alone.  I am still here.  I am living proof that, against all odds, life can and does carry one. 

The score so far - Emma 6 - Cancer 0

Books Read: Sophie Hannah - Lasting Damage

Source - Bought (Secondhand on Amazon)

It's 1.15 a.m. Connie Bowskill should be asleep.  Instead, she's logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge.   She knows it's for sale - there's an estate agent's board in the front garden.

Soon Connie is clicking on the 'Virtual Tour' button, keen to see the inside of 11 Bentley Grove and put her mind at rest once and for all.  She finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare: in the living room, in the middle of the carpet, lies a woman face down in a huge pool of blood.  In shock, Connie wakes her husband Kit.  But when Kit sits down at the computer, he sees no dead body, only a pristine beige carpet in a perfectly ordinary room ...

Books Read: Nora Roberts - The Magic of Home

Source - Received as a present from a friend

Home for Christmas
Jason Law is finally ready to return to Quiet Valley.  Ten years is a long time to have left the one place and the one person he loved.  No longer satisfied with just the memories of Faith Kirkpatrick - now he wants to win her back.  But Faith has new responsibilites - ones too precious to trust to someone unable to put down roots.  Jason has till Christmas to prove he's staying...he's come home to the one he loves.

Search for Love
Arriving at her long-lost relatives' grand estate, Serenity Smith finds herself greeted with polite disregard by the Comtesse de Kergallen and her darkly handsome grandson, Christophe.  Scandalous stories circulate about her late parents that Serenity determines to prove false.  Perhaps then the enigmatic Christophe will accept her...and acknowledge the attraction flaring between them!

Books Read: Ali Harris - Miracle on Regent Street

Source - Bought (Amazon)

Dreams can come true... it could happen to you.

For the past two years, Evie Taylor has lived an invisible existence in London, a city she hoped would bring sparkle to her life.  But winter has brought a flurry of snow and unexpected possibilities.

Hidden away in the basement of Hardy's - once London's most elegant department store - Evie manages the stockroom of a shop whose glory days have long since passed.

When Evie overhears that Hardy's is at risk of being sold, she secretly hatches a plan.  If she can reverse the store's fortunes by December 26th - three weeks away - and transform it into a magical destination once again, she might just be able to save it.  But she's going to need every ounce of talent and determination she has.  In fact, she's going to need a miracle.

Books Read: Karen Swan - Christmas at Tiffany's

Source - Received free via Bookmooch

Three cities. Three seasons. One chance to find the life that fits.

Cassie settled down too young, marrying her first serious boyfriend. Now, ten years later, she is betrayed and broken. With her marriage in tatters and no career or home of her own, she needs to work out where she belongs in the world and who she really is.

So begins a year-long trial as Cassie leaves her sheltered life in rural Scotland to stay with each of her best friends in the most glamorous cities in the world: New York, Paris and London. Exchanging grouse moor and mousy hair for low-carb diets and high-end highlights, Cassie tries on each city for size as she attempts to track down the life she was supposed to have been leading, and with it, the man who was supposed to love her all along.

Books Read: Melissa Hill - Something from Tiffany's

Source - Bought (Amazon)

Doesn't every girl dream of getting something from Tiffany's?

It's Christmas Eve. And on 5th Avenue in New York City, two very different men are shopping for gifts for the women they love.

Gary is buying his girlfriend Rachel a charm bracelet. Partly to thank her for paying for their holiday of a lifetime to New York. But mainly because he's left his Christmas shopping far too late.

Whereas Ethan's looking for something a little more special - an engagement ring for the first woman to have made him happy since he lost the love of his life.

But when the two men's shopping bags get confused, and Rachel somehow ends up with Ethan's ring, the couples' lives become intertwined. And as Ethan tries to reunite the ring with the woman it was actually intended for, he finds it trickier than expected.

Does fate have other ideas for the couples? Or is there simply a bit of Tiffany's magic in the air?

Books Read: Scarlett Bailey - The Night Before Christmas

Source - Bought (Amazon)

All Lydia's ever wanted is a perfect Christmas...

So when her oldest friends invite her to spend the holidays with them, it seems like a dream come true. She's been promised log fires, roasted chestnuts, her own weight in mince pies - all in a setting that looks like something out of a Christmas card.

But her winter wonderland is ruined when she finds herself snowed in with her current boyfriend, her old flame and a hunky stranger. Well, three (wise) men is traditional at this time of year...

Books Read: Carole Matthews - Wrapped up in You

Source - Bought (Amazon)

A Christmas fling, or has Janie found the real thing?

Thirtysomething hairdresser Janie Johnson's single status is a constant source of gossip for her friends and clients. So after many nights in with her cat, a blind date disaster and news that her ex is getting married, Janie realises it's time to do something dramatic with her life.

It's time for an adventure!

Leaving winter behind, Janie takes the plunge and books on an exotic trip to Africa. Her friends think she's mad and Janie thinks they may well be right... then she falls head over heals for her tour guide - and fully fledged Maasai warrior - Dominic. But can Janie now face spending a snowy Christmas back home without him?

Books Read: Lucy Dawson - The One That Got Away

Source - Bought (Amazon)

Molly Greene loves being married.

Exciting adventures lie ahead for her and husband Dan that will change their lives for ever, but Molly's not sure they're making the right choices.

While teetering on the brink of the biggest decision she's ever faced, she sends an impulsive message to the very last person she ought to contact, someone who should have stayed forgotten, and is now coming looking for her.

When he finds her, there is no turning back. One night is all it takes to threaten everything she holds dear - for good.

Books Read: Georgie Carter - The Perfect Christmas

Source - Bought (Sainsburys)

All I want for Christmas is you!

If you're a wedding planner it's best not to have affairs with married men.  This is a view that Robyn Hood (yes, her  parents really did call her that) would subscribe to.  But then she meets Jonathan...

After a delicious dalliance in the dance studio, Robyn and Jonathan fall truly, madly, deeply in love.  Jonathan justifies his actions because his wife is a workaholic, while Robyn finds the glamour - free from any mundance concerns - thrilling.

But then the pressure mounts up: the guilt, the lies, the strain of it all.  With the festive season approaching, can Robyn make this the best holiday ever or will it be the nightmare before Christmas?

Books Read: Rebecca Chance - Bad Sisters

Source - Bought (Second hand on Amazon)
 

Sisters - best friends or deadly rivals?

Deeley is the girlfriend of a Hollywood hunk - a secretly gay Hollywood hunk. But when her 'girlfriend' contract is up, his cut-throat publicist wants Deeley out. Dejected and penniless, Deeley heads back to London, where she hopes to re-establish links with her two estranged older sisters - only to find herself struggling with a forbidden attraction.

Devon is married to the nation's favourite rugby hero, and has a successful TV career as the seductive, voluptuos presenter of her own cookery show. But behind the perfect facade, Devon is lonely and frustrated. When a live celebrity cook-off goes disastrously wrong, she flees to Tuscany - and learns a few lessons in the bedroom as well as in the kitchen from an Italian master...

Politician's wife Maxie is fiercly ambitious. She's furious when Deeley sells the sisters childhood story to a gossip magazine, revealing their impoverished roots and their mother's criminal past. Maxie must use all the weapons in her armoury to preserve her image as a future PM's wife and avoid the devastating fallout. But Maxie is only too aware that there are many more secrets Deeley could yet reveal...