A feast of romance for the Christmas season by various authors – book reviews -

All I Want for Christmas  by Karen SwanAll I Want for Christmas  by Karen Swan
All I Want for Christmas by Karen Swan
Christmas is drawing nearer and love is in the air with a dazzling collection of soul-soothing and winter-warming novels that were just made for fireside reading.

All I Want for Christmas

Karen Swan

You know that the festive season is well and truly on its way when a Karen Swan Christmas cracker wends its way enticingly to the top of the charts and the front of the bookshelves.

And this year, the queen of epic romances sweeps us away to the alluring sights of Copenhagen – the city of glittering snow and twinkling lights – where an art history student is out of love and longing for a special someone to put magic into her Christmas gloom.

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Author of big festive hitters like Midnight in the Snow, The Christmas Party, Christmas Under the Stars and Christmas By Candlelight, Swan is an expert at delivering sack-loads of love, mystery, atmospherics and drama… and this enchanting story featuring three first dates and an art world discovery sparkles like a frost-filled morning.

Christmas in Copenhagen is a magical time of year but Darcy Cotterell isn’t feeling festive. Newly single – again – after her boyfriend Lars cheated on her, she’s not even going home for Christmas. Instead the 26-year-old will be spending her holiday finishing her art history PhD thesis.

But her best friend Freja – in the throes of her own torrid love affair – has other ideas and signs up Darcy to a dating app, determined that she won’t be lonely this Christmas. Darcy agrees to three blind dates... but her mind is firmly on work and not play.

An unknown portrait by Denmark’s greatest painter is discovered beneath another masterpiece and Darcy is charged with discovering the identity of the woman in the painting. With no name or any supporting evidence to work with, she must utilise all her research skills to find a ghost.

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Working closely with the most powerful figures in the art scene, she encounters sexy, arrogant corporate lawyer Max Lorensen who just happens to be Copenhagen’s bachelor number one and whose charm lures her into his dizzying orbit and makes her feel ‘beautiful, seductive; powerful, even.’

The mutual attraction would seem to be instant but, knowing they must work together, they abandon the match... or try to. But their feelings are undeniable... until Darcy discovers that Max has an agenda.

From first page to last, this is a captivating and multi-layered wintertime odyssey which moves between a simmering, shimmering romance in the present and a heartbreaking mystery from the past... and along the way, treats readers to a dazzling array of superbly portrayed characters.

Sprinkled throughout with Swan’s trademark twists and turns, human insight, cosy charm, and eye for comedy, this is the ideal warm-up for the Christmas holiday season.

(Pan, paperback, £9.99)

Home for Christmas

Heidi Swain

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In the cosy community of Wynbridge, there are secrets just waiting to be revealed... and when you add a sprinkling of fairy dust and a generous helping of Christmas magic, the stage is set for a delicious festive feast!

Anyone who has had their spirits lifted by Swain’s gorgeous novels, Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square, Poppy’s Recipe for Life, The Winter Garden and That Festive Feeling, will already know the small community living in a hidden corner of the bustling city of Norwich.

Swain, who lives with her family in picturesque south Norfolk, won thousands of hearts with her enchanting stories set in Wynbridge, the fictional Fenland town where love blossoms whatever the season.

And now she has found an idyllic city hideaway for heartwarming and entertaining 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.

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So if you yearn to catch up with some familiar names – and a delightful bunch of new ones – then meet Bella who is living her best life in Wynbridge with her beloved King Charles spaniel Tink. She has found a way to keep the house she inherited from her grandparents while expanding her dream online business – Away With the Fairies – and she’s ecstatic that Christmas is on the horizon.

In fact, everything is perfect until family friend, Catherine Connelly, asks Bella if she’d be willing to rent part of the house to freelance author Jude who is researching the architecture and history of the Connelly Clan and their family seat, Wynthorpe Hall, ahead of turning his findings into a book.

The plan had been for Jude to stay at the hall but, a man who likes to keep himself to himself, he can’t cope with the chaos and Bella reluctantly agrees to open her door to him. Initially, the pair clash but then friendlier feelings begin to grow and Bella finds herself wondering if Jude could become more than just another guest before it’s time for him to leave.

But then Jude announces that he has no time for Christmas and with her favourite time of the year suddenly in jeopardy, will Bella ever feel like she’s truly home for Christmas?

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Enjoy emotion, drama, romance, friendship and a comforting sense of community as Swain rolls out her magical tale of love, hope, renewal and that trademark snow-sprinkled glow which wraps itself around you like a cosy blanket of love, warmth and laughter.

And with its tasty festive concoction of real-life dilemmas, heart-fluttering romance, canine comedy and a heartwarming happy-ever-after, this is the perfect Christmas book hug.

(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £9.99)

The Christmas Cottage

Sarah Morgan

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

Real-life human dramas, painful secrets, 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.

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Imogen loves her job as an events organiser. She’s a natural (if not obsessive) multitasker and her colleagues are in awe of her. But Imogen isn’t the person she pretends to be, and she’s hiding painful truths about her past. But as long as she can keep on top of her work, Imogen can put everything else to one side.

And then she makes a catastrophic mistake at work, and finally realises it’s time to reset. When her favourite client, Dorothy, invites her to spend Christmas with her and her family in her cottage in the Cotswolds, it sounds like the perfect way for Imogen to take stock.

Finding happiness at Christmas, Imogen soon settles into idyllic cottage life, especially with the prospect of a new romance on the horizon... but when long-buried secrets and unwanted faces from the past resurface, Imogen’s new peace is threatened. Will she end up alone this Christmas, or can she find it in her heart to forgive those who have hurt her and move on?

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

Cosy up because the Christmas season is well and truly underway!

(HQ, paperback, £9.99)

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