Contemporary Fiction Books

Christmas in Cornwall is just around the corner… But after last Christmas revealed a shocking family secret, Scarlett’s hardly feeling merry and bright. All she wants this Christmas is to know who her real father is. So Scarlett heads to the little Cornish town of Porthmellow, where she believes the truth of her birth is hidden. She just didn’t bargain on being drawn into the Christmas festival preparations – or meeting Jude Penberth, whose charm threatens to complicate life further. Everything will come to a head at Porthmellow’s Christmas Festival... But can Scarlett have the perfect Christmas this year, or are there more surprises on the way? Product Information: ISBN: 9780008316150 Author: Phillipa Ashley Publisher: Avon  Format: Paperback Pages: 400 Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 2.5 cm

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders... But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late? 'So smart and funny. Deplorably good' - Ian Rankin. 'A gripping read' - Sunday Times. Product Information: • ISBN: 9780241425442 • Author: Richard Osman • Publisher: Viking • Format: Hardback • Pages: 400 • Dimensions: 24 x 16.2 x 3.5cm

A Christmas special continuing the charming and heart-warming story of The Canal Boat Café ... Summer and Mason take their upbeat and feelgood Canal Boat Café to London for Christmas. Summer thinks this will give them a chance to find out if they're ready to take the next step in their relationship. But their idyllic winter excursion is thrown into turmoil when the canal freezes over and an unexpected visitor appears on the scene.  Are Summer and Mason facing the Big Freeze in more ways than one? Or will this be one Winter Warmer that they’ll never forget? Product Information: ISBN: 9780008444310 Author: Cressida McLaughlin Publisher: HarperCollins Format: Paperback Pages: 400

Can a trip away lead you home? After a bad break-up, eternal optimist Evie Miller has moved to the small village of Willowbrook to finally pursue her dream of opening a craft shop. Unfortunately, with money worries and an ex-boyfriend determined to track her down, her fresh start isn't going entirely to plan. Jake Hartwood is also looking to escape his past. Haunted by the loss of his wife, he's determined not to get close to anyone again - and the last thing he wants is to be celebrating this December. Hoping to avoid the festivities, Evie and Jake arrange to escape Christmas together as friends in Provence. But will the magic of the season change things between them? And what happens if one of them starts to feel something more? Product Information: • ISBN: 9781529392791 • Author: Sophie Claire • Publisher: Hodder  • Format: Paperback • Pages: 384 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.8 x 2.8cm

Kerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past. Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back. When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever. By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its final page. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781473687370 • Author: Mike Gayle • Publisher: Hodder • Format: Paperback • Pages: 368 • Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.8cm

Janie Johnson is ringing the changes this Christmas. As a thirty-something hairdresser, Janie's single status is a constant source of concern for her clients as well as her friends. So after one too many questions about her love life, a blind date disaster and hearing her ex-boyfriend is getting married, Janie decides it's time to do something dramatic. Leaving winter behind, Janie takes the plunge and books an exotic trip to Africa. Her friends think she's mad and Janie thinks they may very well be right. Until that is she meets her gorgeous tour guide, Dominic. But all good things must come to an end. Can Janie now face spending a snowy Christmas back home without him, or will she get her Christmas wish? Product Information: • ISBN: 9780751579468 • Author: Carole Matthews • Publisher: Sphere • Format: Paperback • Pages: 464 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.6 x 4 cm

Charley has a strange feeling when she sees the idyllic mill house with its cluster of outbuildings, the lake and the swirling mill stream; a powerful sense of recognition, as if she has been there before. Except she knows she hasn't. After Charley and her husband Tom move into Elmwood Mill, sinister memories of a previous existence start to haunt her. Despite both their attempts to dismiss everything with rational explanations, the feeling turns to certainty as the memories become increasingly vivid and terrifying. Charley is persuaded to undergo hypnosis - but in searching deep into her past, she will soon fear her future. Product Information: ISBN: 9781409181293 Author: Peter James  Publisher: Orion Format: Paperback Pages: 335 Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 2cm

Clara King is left in sole charge of a fabulous new clifftop hotel for the summer. The owner has barely left the country when Clara realises that someone is hell-bent on putting the Bluebell Cliff Hotel out of business. It becomes a race against time to hunt down the sneaky saboteur before they succeed in bringing the hotel to its knees. With her dream job under threat and her personal life in chaos, Clara discovers that, when what you love the most is in danger, it can bring out the very best in you. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781800481336 • Author: Della Galton • Publisher: Boldwood Books • Format: Paperback • Pages: 326 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.9cm

All they want for Christmas is a new home. Number five Kitchener Avenue heralds the start of a new life for the Hope family. For pregnant Miriam it is a safe environment to bring up her child. For her sister, fourteen-year-old Barbara, it means independence . . . and boys. And for Fred it provides the security he craves for his young family. In the lead up to Christmas the Hopes start to settle in, but World War II is round the corner ... Soon the family are split up. Bar, wanting to do her bit for the war effort, joins the ATS, while Miriam and her children are evacuated to the countryside and away from her husband. As the country is thrown into turmoil, can the Hope family come back together and find the happiness they crave? Product Information: ISBN: 9781785761898 Author: Sheila Newberry Publisher: Zaffre Format: Paperback Pages: 480 Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 2.6 cm

Christmas has arrived in the little village of Welford. The scent of hot roasted chestnuts is in the air, and a layer of frost sparkles on the ground. This year, vet Mandy Hope is looking forward to the holidays. Her animal rescue centre, Hope Meadows, is up and running - and she's finally going on a date with Jimmy Marsh, owner of the local outward bound centre. But when a mysterious local starts causing trouble, Mandy's plans for the centre come under threat.  She must call on Jimmy and her fellow villagers to put a stop to the stranger's antics and ensure that Hope Meadows' first Christmas is one to remember. One thing's for certain: this Christmas, there'll be animal escapades, kisses under the mistletoe...and plenty of festive cheer for all. Product Information: ISBN: 9781473653900 Author: Lucy Daniels Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks Format: Paperback Pages: 384 Dimensions: 19.9 x 14.7 x 2.4 cm

When Retreat owner Amy offers three lucky competition winners a holiday on the Cote d’Azur, she has no idea that this act of kindness will have life changing repercussions on her own life and those who join her… Young entrepreneur Chelsea, is still grieving the tragic loss of her mother and has just been subjected to a very public relationship breakup. She needs to get away and lick her wounds. MP’s wife Victoria is at a crossroads in her life now that the children have left home. Much to her husbands shock, she realises she has ambitions of her own and is desperate to reconnect/find her own identity. She needs some ‘me time’. Recently widowed Matilda, is assessing life without her beloved husband. Their dream had always been to retire to France. Can she find the courage to follow their dream on her own? Over the course of the ten days they spend together, the four women, despite their differences, support and bond, making memories and forming friendships that will last for years. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781800481329 • Author: Jennifer Bohnet • Publisher: Boldwood Books • Format: Paperback • Pages: 338 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 2cm

In the snowy perfection of Aspen, the White family gathers for youngest daughter Rosie's whirlwind Christmas wedding. The bride’s parents, Maggie and Nick are hiding a huge secret of their own: they are on the brink of divorce. After living apart for the last six mont hs, the last thing they need is to be trapped together in an irresistibly romantic winter wonderland. Rosie’s older sister Katie also is worried and determined to save her sister from herself. If only the irritatingly good-looking best man, Jordan, would stop interfering with her plans… Bride-to-be Rosie loves her fiance but is having serious second thoughts. Except everyone has arrived – how can she tell them she's not sure?  As the big day gets closer, and emotions run even higher, this is one White family Christmas none of them will ever forget. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781848457935 • Author: Sarah Morgan • Publisher: HQ • Format: Paperback • Pages: 464 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 2.9 cm

Christmas Eve. While the world sleeps, snow falls gently from the sky, presents lie under the tree ... and murder is afoot. In this collection of ten classic murder mysteries by the best crime writers from the 1920s to today, death and mayhem take many festive forms, from the inventive to the unexpected. From a Santa Claus with a grudge to a cat who knows who killed its owner on Christmas Eve, these are stories to enjoy - and be mystified by - in front of a roaring fire, mince pie in hand. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781781259184 • Author: Cecily Gayford • Publisher: Profile Books • Format: Paperback • Pages: 240 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.4cm

As the nights draw in, throw another log on the fire and settle back into your armchair to enjoy this collection of ten classic Christmas mysteries, in which crime's best known sleuths, from Rebus to Holmes and Cadfael to Father Brown, uncover murder and mayhem galore. Whether it's a Christmas goose with a surprising secret cargo, a murdered pantomime dame, or a killer who departs the scene of the crime without leaving a single footprint, these stories will puzzle and delight in equal measure. And along the way, there'll be enough carols and Christmas pudding, mistletoe and mulled wine, to warm the heart of a stone-cold killer ... perhaps. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781781257913 • Author: Cecily Gayford • Publisher: Profile Books • Format: Paperback • Pages: 288 • Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 1.2cm

After a scandal forces DI Kelly Porter out of the Met, she returns to her home turf in the Lake District.  Crimes in the Cumbrian constabulary tend to be of the minor sort, but Kelly begins work on a cold case that shocked the local community – the abduction and brutal murder of ten-year-old Lottie Davies. Meanwhile, Kelly is also investigating two seemingly straightforward crimes: a case involving an illegal immigrant, and a robbery following the death of local businessman Colin Day. But evidence comes to light that reveals a web of criminal activity beyond anything Kelly imagined.  Behind the veneer of sleepy, touristy towns lies a dark and dangerous underworld. As Kelly threatens to expose those with much to lose, she risks paying the ultimate price to get to the truth... Product Information: ISBN: 9781788633994 Author: Rachel Lynch  Publisher: Canelo Format: Paperback Pages: 370 Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 2.5cm

The snow is falling and Fliss's friends have arrived to celebrate her wedding for a week at Holly Cottage. It's the perfect way to kick off her brand-new life, isn't it? Except Ruth wishes she was anywhere other than a remote Scottish island, Caitlin is keeping a secret from her friends, Lara is suddenly facing her ex a decade after turning down his proposal and even the bride has something to hide... But as the friends prepare for a week to remember, will Fliss's dream wedding go off without a hitch, or will the secrets they've been hiding change everything? The perfect cosy Christmas romance to curl up with this holiday season about family, friendship and love. For fans of Jill Mansell, Sue Moorcroft and Heidi Swain. Product Information: • ISBN: 9781409189794 • Author: Sophie Pembroke • Publisher: Orion • Format: Paperback • Pages: 384 • Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 2.8cm

Mel’s dreams of opening a cosy little coffee shop are finally coming true! She’s determined to serve the best flat whites and crumbly pastries in Devon – and nothing, not even local pub owner Tony or his fancy new coffee machine, will stand in her way. The trouble is, her mother is coming to town, and Mel’s in desperate need of an instant boyfriend. And whilst Tony might be her business rival, he’s also totally gorgeous and would make the perfect fake fiancé... A deal’s a deal, surely there’s no chance that Mel could actually fall in love with Tony? Product Information: ISBN: 9780008352288 Author: Kellie Hailes Publisher: Harper Collins Format: Paperback Pages: 278 Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 2cm

Jess still thinks about the man who disappeared from her life seventeen years ago, and the tragedy that tore them apart. So when she discovers a hidden box of letters in her mother's attic, Jess realises that the truth about why he walked away has been kept from her all this time. Jess sets out to follow the faded postmarks across the country, determined that her journey will bring her closer to him. As each clue falls into place, Jess discovers new things about herself - and the man who once broke her heart. Maybe she can find him. Maybe their love story isn't over. Maybe one day, they will be together again... Product Information: ISBN: 9781409187981 Author: Debbie Johnson Publisher: Orion Books Format: Paperback Pages: 384 Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.6 x 2.6cm

Dartmouth Circle is quiet, exclusive and that's just the way its residents want it to stay. Especially queen bee and arch busybody Sheila Colby. When she hears that the house next door to her has been bought for a student and four friends to rent, she is incandescent. Think of the noise, the parties, the comings and goings and worse. Somehow it must be stopped. But of course it can't be. And anyway, nothing in this outwardly serene and beautiful little cul-de-sac is quite as it seems. There are seething tensions and quite dark secrets only just below the façade. Will the arrival of Madeleine 'Mad' Richmond and her friends bring them bubbling to the surface? Product Information: • ISBN: 9781784972677 • Author: Diney Costeloe • Publisher: Head of Zeus • Format: Paperback • Pages: 496 • Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.7 x 3.3cm

Yuletide overindulgence on the poison front . . . During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by two things - the looming festivities, and her ex, James Lacey.  In order to drive the latter from her thoughts, Agatha concentrates on planning the perfect Christmas for her friends. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with hemlock, does little to distract her and yet it should, as Mrs Tamworthy had written to Agatha, telling her that one of her family wanted to see her dead before the year was out.  So slightly guiltily (and belatedly), Agatha sets out to solve the case before the 25th rolls around . . . Product Information: ISBN: 9781472121424 Author: M. C. Beaton Publisher: Constable Format: Paperback Pages: 272 Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2.2 cm