Showing titles in Holidays

Willow Carruthers - British Oscar winner, style icon and mother of three - is facing a crisis: she’s broke, discovery of her partner’s infidelity has left her a single mother and, if the banks have their way, she’s about to be homeless.

The venue is booked, the dress is picked and senior midwife Anna Jones only has to say ‘I do!’ to the man she loves! Theirs might have been a whirlwind romance but Brae Penrose is everything Anna dreamed her husband would be, and she can’t wait to start a family with him. But as the big day approaches, Anna still isn’t pregnant and when disaster strikes, their perfect day looks destined not to happen at all! Is it a sign to slow things down?

Rosa Larkin is down on her luck in London, so when she inherits a near-derelict corner shop in a quaint Devon village, her first thought is to sell it for cash and sort out her life. But nothing is straightforward about this legacy. While the identity of her benefactor remains a mystery, he - or she - has left one important legal proviso: that the shop cannot be sold, only passed on to somebody who really deserves it. Rosa makes up her mind to give it a go: to put everything she has into getting the shop up and running again in the small seaside community of Cockleberry Bay. But can she do it all on her own?

After the end of a long-term relationship, local weather girl Bea Armstrong has been avoiding her family, and their inevitable 'I-told-you-sos'. But with Christmas fast approaching, she is finally on her way home to Charis House, the school in Sherwood Forest that her mum and dad run in their old family home. And to top it all off, the insufferable Henry Fairfax—who her parents have always wanted her to marry—has also been invited.

Celebrity photographer Grace Buchanan has always known that one day she'd swap her manic day job for the peace and quiet of her beloved childhood cottage, St Christopher's - she just didn't expect it to be so soon. At the reading of her mother's will, she's shocked to learn that inheriting St Christopher's hangs on one condition: Grace must drop everything for two weeks and travel the country with a mysterious stranger - war-weary Royal Marine Alasdair Finn.

When Marlo is unceremoniously ghosted by her part-time lover, she decides she’ll need to avoid the whole Christmas season. That is actually pretty easy in this country, because it’s so hot and so far away from anything that means Christmas to her. But Marlo’s flatmate Alex is determined to lift her out of her grinch slump and convince her that Christmas Down Under may be unfamiliar, but exactly what she needs to start her life on a new course.

Mia Ward is amazed to learn she has inherited her great-aunt Matilda’s thatched cottage in the tiny seaside village of Little Pondale - especially as Mia didn’t know she had a great-aunt. She’s even more astonished to discover she’ll inherit the place only if she actually lives there for one year. Mia’s a city girl at heart, not to mention she’s afraid of water, so the fact the cottage backs onto a sandy beach is not a bonus. When her best friend, Ella, and Ella’s brother, Garrick, offer to help her move and settle in, Mia decides to see this as a new beginning.

It's a big day for Charlie Bell - the grand reopening of her aunt Pansy's long-closed tea rooms in Tremevissey, a quaint Cornish seaside resort. But not everyone is chuffed for Charlie. The tea rooms are cursed, locals say. For Pansy was cruelly jilted by her lover and walked out into the Atlantic Ocean, never to return. Charlie dismisses the 'curse' as superstitious nonsense, of course. But by the end of the first day, her world is in tatters, and she's not even sure the tea rooms can open for a second day of trading. 

After thirty-five years as the Chief of Police on Nantucket, Ed Kapenash's heart can no longer take the stress. But his plans to retire are thwarted when, with only three days left on the job, he receives a phone call. The Richardsons' 22-million-dollar summer home has been burned to the ground. The couple are far from hurt - they were out on the water at one of their lavish yacht parties. But their dependable personal assistant has vanished. To solve the case, the Chief will have to contend with small town gossip for one final act of service to the community he knows and loves.

When the Mayor of a picturesque Italian town launches a new scheme to rejuvenate the community, his advertisement is read with interest and excitement by many. Zara is in her thirties and desperate to get on the property ladder. Tim and Lynda are retiring and need a project. Some are looking for a peaceful bolthole. Others hope to make a profit, start a business, escape a dull life or an unhappy relationship. And there is someone who just might be hiding their true motivation...

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.

The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams of teacher and pupils alike. Aidan Dunne needs his new evening class project to succeed almost as much as his pupils do. They too are looking for something more: Bill to find a way to keep spendthrift Lizzie at his side and Fran to make sure that young Kathy finds her way out from behind the kitchen sink.

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.

When Emily Lane isn’t busy running her charming Christmas-themed store, “Under the Mistletoe”, located in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove, she finds herself compelled to investigate not so quaint local murders. On the surface, Emily is a perfectly lovely, good-natured puzzle-solver and mystery lover. But she is hiding a secret past from everyone in town. And when Emily begins her personal investigations, Detective-Constable Sam Wilner, a smart and attractive cop—with a crush on Emily that is not completely unrequited—begins to wonder if there’s more to Emily than meets the eye.

>As the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, Cass finds her husband lying naked on a coat-strewn bed, entwined with another woman. She's determined to get over him - and soon. Luckily, there are plenty of distractions: juggling a young family with a burgeoning social life and a return to work...and narrowly avoiding arrest. Then one day, she falls for the last person she could ever have predicted....

Adored by all, Britta is an ambitious waitress working at Sluggers. The popular bar holds a special place in her heart and is a regular hangout for the Bridgeport Bandits, the local hockey club. With a half brother on the team, Britta has a strict no-dating policy for hockey boys. But she does have a soft spot for one particular player.

Running her busy concierge service usually keeps Cassie Travers fully occupied. But when a new client offers her the strangest commission she's ever handled, she suddenly finds herself on the cusp of an Italian adventure, with a man she thought she would never see again.

Autumn Laine has lost her creative sparkle. After losing her grandad and her job as an illustrator in quick succession, she is at a crossroads in life and needs a break. Spending time with her parents in Paris, even in the artistic community of Montmartre, doesn't appear to be the answer. So when her penpal, Rosie, invites her to stay in the Lake District, Autumn jumps at the chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of Paris. After all, where better to re-discover her creativity than the place which inspired her heroine Beatrix Potter?

The Sheedy sisters had lived in Stone House for as long as anyone could remember. Set high on the cliffs on the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the windswept Atlantic ocean, it was falling into disrepair - until one woman, with a past she needed to forget, breathed new life into the place. Now a hotel, with a big, warm kitchen and log fires, it provides a welcome few can resist. Winnie is generally able to make the best of things until she finds herself on the holiday from hell.

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.