It was supposed to be a holiday of a lifetime... But when Jen’s boyfriend David suddenly cancels their romantic Paris trip, needing to urgently travel to Athens for work, it’s best friend Bonnie who suggests they surprise him. Having already booked the time off from her events company – Christmas Every Day – Jen decides an impromptu and romantic gesture might be just what their relationship needs. Arriving in Greece and finding David is not there, Jen has a lot of questions. And when she gets her answers she has a choice – should she go home or should she stay awhile? With the help of Astro, the handsome yet Christmas-hating waiter from the local bar, she sets about a little Greek Christmas research. But what starts as a ‘business trip’ soon turns into something more... Praise for Mandy Baggot: 'Mandy Baggot at her best - equal measures heart, humour and romance. A must read.' Sandy Barker, author of A Sunrise Over Bali 'Mandy Baggot is the queen of sexy, fun, Greek-set stories.’ Isabelle Broom 'A delightful escapist romance packed with sunshine, second chances and an utterly charming cast of characters.' Nina Kaye 'A sizzling summer read full of romance, drama and Greek sun! ... Mandy Baggot just gets better and better!' Katie Ginger 'This book is so cute. I love Eve and Gianni so much. I recommend this book to people who want a good summer holiday romance read' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review 'This gorgeous summer read has everything you need to cast your cares aside and simply bask in the warmth of the Greek sun, warm characters and totally absorbing storyline. Love it!' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review 'What a bountiful banquet this book is!' NetGalley Reviewer 'Beautifully written, this lovely story made me smile, laugh, and left me with a lovely, warm glow.' NetGalley Reviewer 'A delightful read from start to end; one that left me smiling long after I finished the last chapter.' NetGalley Reviewer 'This book is heart-warming and hilarious. I would give it six stars if I could! NetGalley Reviewer 'Tempting, tantalising and tasty. This book was a one-sitting read for me.' NetGalley Reviewer

Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years. But the snow covers ancient secrets: secrets that could topple a kingdom. Mauritaine was a war hero, a captain in the Seelie Army. Then he was accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace, a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald. But now the Seelie Queen – Regina Titania herself – has offered him one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor. Unfortunately, it's a suicide mission, which is why only Mauritaine and the few prisoners he trusts enough to accompany him, would even dare attempt it: Raieve, beautiful and harsh, an emissary from a foreign land caught in the wrong place at the wrong time; Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun, a nobleman imprisoned as a result of political intrigues so Byzantine that not even he understands them; and Brian Satterly, a human physicist, apprehended searching for the human victims of the faery changeling trade. Meanwhile, dark forces are at work at home and abroad. In the Seelie kingdom, the reluctant soldier Purane-Es burns with hatred for Mauritaine, and plots to steal the one thing that remains to him: his wife. Across the border, the black artist Hy Pezho courts the whim of Mab, offering a deadly weapon that could allow the Unseelie in their flying cities to crush Titania and her army once and for all. With time running out, Mauritaine and his companions must cross the deadly Contested Lands filled with dire magical fallout from wars past. They will confront mounted patrols, brigands, and a traitor in their midst. And before they reach their destination, as the Unseelie Armies led by Queen Mab approach the border, Mauritaine must decide between his own freedom and the fate of the very land that has forsaken him.

The Rannoch Fraser Mysteries #18 London, December, 1819. After their recent adventures, former spies Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch are looking forward to spending a quiet holiday season with friends and family. The greatest danger seems to be Mélanie's scandalous debut in a Christmas pantomime, which has shocked Mayfair’s elite. But when an old friend smuggles a fugitive from the Continent into the theatre on opening night, the Rannochs find themselves facing both government agents and a mysterious assassin. As they infiltrate secret meetings, intercept coded documents, and reunite estranged lovers, they quickly realize nothing is quite what it seems. At least, as Mélanie tells her husband, they are spending the holidays with those closest to them—even if they aren’t sure they can trust their nearest and dearest... "Shimmers like the finest salons in Vienna." —Deborah Crombie "Glittering balls, deadly intrigue, sexual scandals. . .the next best thing to actually being there!"— Lauren Willig "A superb storyteller."— Deanna Raybourn

A pet-care tycoon is felled by a pair of grooming shears in this cozy mystery set in a small Pennsylvania town. Professional pet sitter Daphne Templeton loves the holidays in Sylvan Creek, Pennsylvania. And nothing gets her into the spirit more than the town's annual Bark the Halls Ball. The whole community will be there to wag their tails, especially this year's special guest—Celeste “CeeCee” French, founder of a national chain of pet care franchises, who's returning home to announce plans for a bright new flagship store. But not everyone's celebrating CeeCee's homecoming. Daphne's friend Moxie Bloom, owner of Spa and Paw, a unique salon for people and their pets, has plenty to growl about. So when CeeCee is found face down under Sylvan Creek's town Christmas tree, stabbed with a distinctive pair of professional-grade pet shears, suspicion lands squarely on Moxie. Despite Daphne's promises to Detective Jonathan Black, she quickly reprises her role as amateur sleuth. Ably assisted by her basset hound sidekick, Socrates, she must hurry to prove her friend's innocence before a killer barks again . . . Includes recipes for homemade pet treats! “Doggone charming from start to finish!” —Cleo Coyle, New York Times bestselling author on Death by Chocolate Lab

No fuss meal plans for low-stress, budget-friendly family menus to be enjoyed from February to April. Welcome to the 7-Day Menu Planner. Mid-Winter menus start with Valentine’s Day when a bit of romance dominates the menu and ends with Easter, a special time to gather the family together. In between, there are five more weeks of easy menus, including a photo almost every week along with a shopping list for every day. Planning menus will change your life (for the better) forever. You won’t have that miserable feeling as you stand in front of your open refrigerator and wonder “what’s for dinner?” To solve the dinner-dilemma, follow the menus, use the shopping list, and cook! Menu planning is not brain surgery or rocket science. All you need is a desire to eat healthier, save money, reduce stress and enjoy delicious meals with your family. You will also be the powerful master menu-planner for your household. Most of us don’t really hate to cook, we hate to plan what to cook. Just follow along with the easy menus and you’re on your way.

This is a comprehensive history of the world's midwinter gift-givers, showcasing the extreme diversity in their depictions as well as the many traits and functions these characters share. It tracks the evolution of these figures from the tribal priests who presided over winter solstice celebrations thousands of years before the birth of Christ, to Christian notables like St. Martin and St. Nicholas, to a variety of secular figures who emerged throughout Europe following the Protestant Reformation. Finally, it explains how the popularity of a poem about a "miniature sleigh" and "eight tiny reindeer" helped consolidate the diverse European gift-givers into an enduring tradition in which American children awake early on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. Although the names, appearance, attire and gift-giving practices of the world's winter solstice gift-givers differ greatly, they are all recognizable as Santa, the personification of the Christmas and Midwinter festivals. Despite efforts to eliminate him by groups as diverse as the Puritans of seventeenth century New England, the Communist Party of the twentieth century Soviet Union and the government of Nazi Germany, Santa has survived and prospered, becoming one of the best known and most beloved figures in the world.

Kathleen Paulson is snowed under running her library and caring for her extraordinary felines, Owen and Hercules. But when a holiday fund-raiser turns deadly, she’ll have to add sleuthing to her already full schedule... Winter in Mayville Heights is busy and not just because of the holidays. Kathleen is hard at work organizing a benefit to raise money for the library’s popular Reading Buddies program. She has her hands full hosting the event. And when a guest at the gala drops dead, her magical cats, Owen and Hercules, will have their paws full helping her solve a murder. The victim is the ex of town rascal Burtis Chapman, but she hasn’t lived in the area in years. And though everybody is denying knowledge of why she was back in town, as Kathleen and her detective boyfriend, Marcus, begin nosing around, they discover more people are connected to the deceased than claimed to be. Now Marcus, Kathleen, and her uncanny cats have to unravel this midwinter tale before the case gets cold.

Perhaps Bernadette Mayer's greatest work, Midwinter Day was written on December 22, 1978, at 100 Main Street, in Lenox, Massachusetts. "Midwinter Day", as Alice Notley notes, "is an epic poem about a daily routine". In six parts, Midwinter Day takes us from awakening and emerging from dreams through the whole day -- morning, afternoon, evening, night -- to dreams again: "a plain introduction to modes of love and reason, / Then to end I guess with love, a method to this winter season / Now I've said this love it's all I can remember / Of Midwinter Day the twenty-second of December".