Showing titles in Holidays

From the Winner of the 2016 Stella Prize for The Natural Way of Things. Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. Can they survive together without her? They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur, Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual, and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for Christmas at Sylvie's old beach house.

It's nearly Christmas, Julia Devine's favourite time of the year. She's just programmed a wonderful lead into the holidays at Sunny Street Cinema, which leaves her plenty of time to worry about going home to Cumbria for Christmas. Her mum and stepdad are fine, but the thought of spending another holiday with her awful stepsister Becca is enough to make a Scrooge out of anyone. When Becca calls to let her know about the dreamy pilot she's bringing to Christmas lunch, Julia finally snaps and does something very silly.

What’s the actual last thing you’d ever want your celebrity crush to see you doing when you finally come face-to-excruciatingly-handsome-face with him? Singing and dancing around by yourself to “Dreams” by The Cranberries while drinking straight from a bottle of champagne? While you’re wearing some wedding gown you just found in a closet? Yeah. Me too. And yet, here we are. At a mountain cabin I was sent to by the awfully pretty actress/pretty awful human I work for to get things ready for her romantic New Year’s Eve getaway with him.

A sharp, witty, and hugely entertaining debut novel, The Devil Wears Prada is The Nanny Diaries set in the world of high fashion. Welcome to the dollhouse, baby! When Andrea first sets foot in the plush Manhattan offices of Runway she knows nothing. She's never heard of the world's most fashionable magazine, or its feared and fawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly.

Sam Griffin's nephew meant well when he brought his uncle to the attention of a relationship-advice radio show in Mistletoe, Idaho. But now, Sam is getting publicly roasted for his love life. Faced with the harsh reality of his dating history, he wants to be known as more than the guy who bounces from bed to bed. And if that means falling in love and settling down, all the better.

In a Greek tavern, high over the small village of Aghia Anna, four people meet for the first time: Fiona, an Irish nurse; Thomas, a Californian academic; Elsa, a German television presenter; and David, a shy English boy. Along with Andreas, the old man who runs the taverna, they become close to each other after witnessing a tragedy when a pleasure steamer catches fire in the harbour.<

For innkeeper Holly White, Christmas time in Mistletoe, Maine, is the ultimate holiday gift. Business at the Reindeer Games Inn is booming, her wedding to Sheriff Evan Gray is nearly here, and the annual parade is about to begin. The town is lucky to have another gift this year with the state’s ballet company staying for several performances of The Nutcracker. But disaster strikes when Tiffany, the lead ballerina, shows up dead on a float during the parade, the Rat King’s mask nearby. Holly will have to spruce up her sleuthing skills if she wants to catch the killer before Christmas.

In An Irish Country Christmas, the third book in Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Books, Barry Laverty, M.B., is looking forward to his first Christmas in the cozy village of Ballybucklebo, at least until he learns that his sweetheart, Patricia, might not be coming home for the holidays. That unhappy prospect dampens his spirits somewhat, but Barry has little time to dwell on his romantic disappointments. Christmas may be drawing nigh, but there is little peace to be found on earth, especially for a young doctor plying his trade in the emerald hills and glens of rural Ireland.

All she wants for Christmas... When talented artist Nee Sutherland returns to Butterfly Cove for her sister's wedding, it's only a matter of time before she has to face her own bridegroom - Luke Spenser - the man she impulsively married then left in the middle of the night. Nee hasn't picked up her paintbrushes in months; a part of her is broken. She knows Luke might never forgive her and that leaving him was the biggest mistake of her life - but could coming home for Christmas be the best decision she's ever made?

Littleport, Maine, has always felt like two separate towns: an ideal vacation enclave for the wealthy, whose summer homes line the coastline; and a simple harbour community for the year-round residents whose livelihoods rely on service to the visitors. Typically, fierce friendships never develop between a local and a summer girl - but that's just what happens with visitor Sadie Loman and Littleport resident Avery Greer. Each summer for almost a decade, the girls are inseparable - until Sadie is found dead.

Alex Hyde is the leaders' leader. An executive coach par excellence, she's the person the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.

In a remote Sicilian mountain town, four women arrive at a cookery school, each at a turning point in their lives. Moll is a foodie and an exhausted working mum on the holiday of a lifetime. Tricia, a top London lawyer, is taking a break from the demands of her job and her family. Valerie, consumed by grief following the death of her partner, is trying to figure out how to live a life without him. And recently divorced Poppy has come to Sicily to learn about the place where her grandfather was born before emigrating to Australia.

Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done the right thing - that is until the day she leaves her husband and takes refuge with her friend Emily, a screenwriter in Los Angeles - a city where even the palm trees are skinny.

I'm starting to think I've been doing this for too long. The screaming fans. The constant media attention. The fat paychecks. None of it brings me the happiness I yearn for. Yet here I am. Another year. Another holiday special. Another Christmas spent alone in a hotel room. But then the lights go up. And I see her.

Nothing's more romantic than matching with the same guy every time you reluctantly download a dating app. Hotter than ever—check. Off-limits—double check. Why does the universe hate me? Cole Kincaid is unfairly irresistible and the one guy I'll never have. My brother's best friend is all grown up, but he's not here to witness my messy girl era. He's Dad's new assistant coach for Heston U's hockey team. Match me once, we'll laugh it off and never talk about it again. Match me twice, well, this is awkward. Match me three-four-five times? My resolve is only so strong.

Marvellously atmospheric tale of strangers summoned to a grand but neglected villa on the Italian coast. Each of them has been named in a will, but nobody knows their benefactress.... Four very different people are named in a will. Delia, an opera singer robbed of her voice by illness; George, an idealistic scientist who cannot face what his skills have created; Marjorie, desperately poor and unable to dislodge her writer’s block; and Lucius, ostensibly in control but whose personal life is in chaos.

The hotly-anticipated sequel to The Devil Wears Prada – the million copy bestseller that took the world by storm. Everything’s in place for the season’s hottest launch: Tall latte (with two raw sugars)? Check. Gucci trench (draped over desk)? Check. Outrageous, unreasonable demands? Check. Andy has just turned thirty and is an incredibly successful magazine editor, working closely with her best friend Emily, another Runway survivor.

Georgia Banks knows she’s living on borrowed time. So, when doctors tell her she’s got one last summer to make all her dreams come true, she’s determined to make every day count. The one thing that’s never in doubt, is that she wants her best friend, Gabe, to be with her every step of the way. And so, Georgia draws up her not-a-bucket list with all the things she’s determined to tick off before she goes – number one of which is to spend one last summer by the sea.

In this extraordinary collection of stories, the world-wide best-selling author of Evening Class once again reveals her incomparable understanding of matters of the heart. In The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy creates powerful compelling stories of love, loss, revelation, and reconciliation.

Publicist Kate Sinclair’s life in London is everything she thought she wanted: success, glamour and a charming boyfriend. Until that boyfriend goes behind her back and snatches a much sought-after promotion from her. Heartbroken and questioning everything, Kate needs to escape. From candles and cosy nights in to romantic late-night walks through the beautiful cobbled streets of Copenhagen, Kate discovers how to live life ‘the Danish way’. Can the secrets of hygge and happiness lead her to her own happily ever after?